Winter in Himachal:7days only Girls trip#mountains#Himachal#workfrommountains

While browsing through my Insta, I came across a post which was "Work away from home". With a lot of things becoming the NEW NORMAL, "Work Away from Home " is one of them...That post caught my attention and I shared it with a couple of my friends and guess what ...BOOOM!!!...I was in mountains after 3 weeks.

Well, its another whole story how I convinced my parents to let me on a vacation amid pandemic. But somehow I managed to escape this so long grounding punishment by nature.

From flight booking to selecting the location, transport is very smooth...The real test started when I went outside of the house after 7-8months. In spite of I have done sanitized everything but still,I have a second thought of virus at every moment. But I guess we can overcome this though when we got used to travelling.
We had planned our trip by ourselves with our comfort..We have to work for a few days so  we decided to visit with our convenience.

We took flight from Mumbai to Amritsar which cost around 5.5k and it took just 2 and a half hour..We had booked cab from Amritsar to Dalhousie which take around 3500 rs for one way trip...It's take nearly 5 hr 30 min to travel from Amritsar to Dalhousie by private cab..Road is quite wavy so it took more time than usual..So we just rested in a hostel after reaching dalhousie.
We can have plenty of options to stay in Dalhousie with all price ranges...We stayed in Zostel which have quite a scenic view but with lots of discomforts. The main issue is its stairs. To reach rooms we have to climb eighty steps each time which is quite difficult..So if you plan to visit then you can view hotels which are near the market area like Gandhi chowk...As Dalhousie is like a village, our private vehicle is very helpful or locals will charge more money.

Places to Visit near Dalhousie:
Khajjiyar:
The way from Dalhousie to khajjiar is scenic...Khajjiyar is nearly 2 hours from Dalhousie. Khajjiyar is known as "Mini Switzerland of India".It's as Garden surrounded by circular deodar trees...If you want to experience at it best you can visit early morning...In the afternoon or evening also, Dalhousie has a very cold vibe...You can take lots of photos with Rabbits or with traditional Himachal cloths. Its overall chilling place...
Kalatop:
Kalatop is wildlife century...For visiting this you have to pay a minimum of 250 rs..You can take a guide as well to give information but we can go without a guide as well....Road to kalatop is covered with trees but it's a very soothing experience to drive on a small road with two-sided trees.
On the peak, Kalatop Home which is well maintained...You can click best photos with ice-filled mountains as background...Kalatop has a variety of flowers which will give the feel of the wild sentury.I would summerize kalatop as
"Surrounded by whirling cludy mountains,Lost in deep woods and hearing birds chirping"

Dainkund Peak:
The way to dainkund is covered by ice mostly..we   feel surreal when we first see the ice and then it's  with us till the peak.As we go up,the ice is dense..You can trek nearly 3-4km to reach the top of dainkund which peak. We can visit the Temple of goddess at the utmost peak which we missed due to time constraint..
We can experience really saying by Lewis that“There are far better things ahead than the ones we leave behind.” in entire day.
As we have to cover all these points before 6 as after sunset most of the roads are closed and it's quite risky to travel after sunset.
Apart from this, there are points like Panchkula,Chamera lake which also travellers attractions which we missed.

Next day,We worked and in evening we visited local market. Gandhi Chouk: It's the primary market of Dalhousie which have lots of shops.Mainly two markets as Indo Tibetian market and local Dalhousie Market which have lots of variety of sweaters and all thermal wears. Gandhi chowk has a cafe Dalhousie which famous for food but along with that, there are plenty of options for roadside food like momos,gulab jamun etc..We had dinner at Punjabi da Dhaba which is quite okok..Not so special...

I remember discussing next destination Dharamshala around a bonfire with fellow travellers of Zostel ..We had some mixed reviews about the place...Two of our friends doesn't like the overall vibe of the place and two are just ok with places they visited ..So we are also in dilemma should we visit or choose some other options to Visit ..But our driver was quite sure that we will love that place...So he insisted us to visit MacLeodganj..And he is absolutely correct as  its peak of our trip.
MacLeodganj is mainly focussed on Indo Tibetian culture...We can visit Monesty along with Tibetian food like momos, sort of noodles with Tibetian cafes...The road from Amritsar to MacLeodganj has lots of scenic points where we just clicked lots of photos..We loved each and every corner of the mountains as we have at very high altitude that we feel like we are just about to reach the sky...The hill point is the points where we are surrounded by hills and such a calming place..We froze by the wind while clicking photos...
After that, we visited Bhagsu waterfall and bhagsu  temple which on a way we see lots of Tibetian things like a dreamcatcher, wall hangings etc...We got the feel of Tibet for ample of second...
Till the time we actually got hungry and Google helps us with Tibetian Cafe. We had ordered some 3-4plares of momos with variety along with soup..and they served us best food...We recommend to visit this cafe whenever you are in MacLeodganj...location of the cafe is also near market..so you can chill for some time in the market...After chilling in the market we saw buddha temple but which we can see from outside only.
While travelling back to Amritsar, we visited Dharamshala which is also a wonderful place for nature lovers...Due to CoVid we unable to visit Dharamshala stadium but we can see the top view of the stadium while travelling...Dharamshala have lots of by peach colour flowers trees which we don't see quite often...

We kept our stay at amritsar for two days.We visited golden temple in the evening.It's surreal to see lights around golden temple.
Next day we visited local market for shopping and buy some kashmiri dresses,shawls,juttis and lots of stuff.
food is best part of visiting Amritsar.We had a lunch at Kesar da dhaba and chef was very generous.We ordered aloo paratha,shahi paneer and browny points for dessert "phirani".I wish if I can it eat it at least once a year..

We had a flight from Amritsar to Mumbai.We safely reched back to home.

Summarising our overall journey is like it's full of adventures, surprises, sudden change in plan but I can still feel the magical charm of these places and I hope it stays till I visit again..