A life Changing Journey

This journey is all about last year’s school trip to Dalhousie & Dharamshala in September 2017. Our trip started off with a 28hr train journey from Indore to Pathankot. From Pathankot we took a van to travel to Dharamshala, it was a 6 hr journey from Pathankot up the hill. On our first night, we stayed at Bhagsu Heights Hotel located near the Bhagsu / Bhagsunag Falls in Mcleodganj. Before reaching the falls we had to climb a hill. After trekking we finally reached our desired destination. The view of the fall was mesmerizing. I’ll strongly suggest people who are depressed to take this trip as its beauty and natural aura will help your state of mind and will give you the desired strength to live up to life’supcoming challenges. After Mcleodganj our next location was Kala MantraTemple located in Dharamshala. This temple is a Buddhist Monk Temple.The best thing about this temple was that when we were entering it we werereluctant to enter knowing it won’t be as fun as other locations but afterentering the temple each one of us had a different perception.In my point of view, when we enter a temple we feel a great amount of positive energy and vibes, the soothing sound of the gong, the religiouschanting of the monks, the beautiful golden and appealing interiors,huge idols of Gautama Buddha and the best part was the location of the temple up the hills, when teenagers go through an awkward age all theylook for is stability of our mind then such places are best for peace and stability. And I was not ready to go on this trip at all but my parents andfriends pushed me into the idea of taking this trip. I had the thought that these places are for boring and aged people to visit but after visiting there was change in my point of view not only for this place but also for my life. We also visited a church in our way which was hit by lightning long ago, the exterior of the church was all destroyed but the interior of it was completely safe and untouched. We also went to one of the world’s highest located stadiums in Dharamshala. After exploring Dharamshala we all went back to our Hotels ready to crash on bed and left for Dalhousie the next day. After three hour journey via Van we reached Dalhousie we went to Khajjiar (a.k.a mini Switzerland of India). We had various activities to do there such as horse riding, paragliding; we even dressed up traditionally to get our photos clicked.

After lunch in Khajjiar we checked in our hotel The Dalhousie Heights. The next day was going to be the last day of our trip. While everyone was tucked under their covers in their warm and cozy bed I went out in the balcony with 15 degree temperature and I saw the camp fire going down the lane and beautiful night sky carrying millions of stars in its lap, it was a beautiful scene. Stars are present everywhere but can be experienced in less polluted cities with clear skies. I really did not regret staying up all night and then experiencing the most beautiful sunrise I’d ever seen. After that, we all got ready for the final day where we went shopping in the Tibetan Market for some fancy woolens and hand crafted teak wood key chains with our names on it, they were customized according to one’s choice then, we were off to our hotel and enjoyed camp fire and DJ night. The next day we were on our way back to Indore. This trip taught me the value of nature’s beauty and positive energy to fight my challenges and taught me patience and the importance of travelling in one’s life. 

~Yashita Shamdasani