Fed up with the traditional hill stations that reside in Himachal and Uttaranchal, we thought of exploring a different hill station from usual like Nainital and Shimla. This was an unplanned trip, with no research done on the places to visit in Dharamshala & McLeod Gang.
From this, we can say that three days are more than enough to explore both Dharamshala as well as McLeod Gang. We started late in the night from Maharana Pratap ISBT; we already booked Himachal Pradesh Transport Volvo bus(Himsuta) two days in advance.
Dharamshala & McLeod Gang are 10 Kms apart, with McLeod Gang is at a higher altitude than Dharamshala. You can book a bus for either of the places, if your destination is McLeod Gang, as ours was I would suggest you to book McLeod Gang bus or you need to spend 200 bucks more from Dharmashala bus stand to McLeod Ganj.
Day 1
The day started with a bam, with continues hail and rain for two hours, we thought our whole day was ruined. We were staying in a hotel that was near Tibet Café. We accidentally went there as we were hungry, but after an hour we were in love with the place. Food was delicious there particularly Omellettes and Pancakes; I can personally vouch for them.
We rented a bike from the nearby place, as it was already 11 am, we were able to negotiate for two bikes in Rs 1200. One was Bajaj Avenger other was Royal Enfield Bullet. The shop owner also gave us a map which includes all the tourist spots in McLeod Gang as well as Dharamshala.
The place we visited the first day:
1. Bhagsu Waterfall
2. Dharamshala International Cricket Stadium
3. Tea Garden
4. H.H. the Dalai Lama's Main Temple
5. Chamunda Devi Mandir Dharamshala
6. Dal Lake
7. Sunset point
Day 2
We started early morning for the Triund track. We planned to descend the same day. One can also stay there, tent and guest house facilities are available at the top if one has enough time one should stay there for a night. This was my first track so had a lot of expectations with it. The initial phase of the track is a stroll in the park with linear inclination, but as we reach the middle of the track, the real track started with a steep inclination in the end. In between, you will find one or two small tapris the track, most famous being the magic café, track after this is the hardest. It took us four hours to reach the top; we started around 7 in the morning reached there by 11 am. View from the top is mesmerizing, fortunate enough we saw weather changing from cloudy, rainy, snowy to clear skies. You will find many tapris at the top, and same tapris provides you the tent services. We stayed there for five hours and started our descent around 4 pm we reached the point where the track starts.
Day 3
Tired from the last day track we started pretty late for the day. Today plan was to just explore the McLeod Ganj market; there is some pretty decent restaurant in the market, the one I most liked is Khanna Nirvana & Tibet Café. There is “H.H. the Dalai Lama's Main Temple” in the heart of McLeod Ganj where we spend close to three hours before leaving McLeod Ganj 6 pm, with Himachal transportation Volvo.
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