We hadn’t expected cold weather in Dalhousie in June when everywhere else in the country a strong heat wave was prevailing. As we reached Dalhousie little bit early by Tempo traveller. The nearly long schedule of checking in at the hotel and getting fresh was summed up in mere 2 hours.

Excitement knew no boundaries. We are in awe with the place. After a hearty breakfast meal, we trekked out to the hills. According to the much friendly people in hotel which we booked through Journeydeal.com,

In this Tempo Traveller trip to dalhousie we visited Subhash chowk on our first day. Subhash Chowk offered a great view of the mountains. On our way to Subhash chowk, we met different nationalities and locals and encountered about Khajjiar which is 23 odd kms from dalhousie; also known as “mini- Switzerland of India”. We walked up the Mall Road to Gandhi Chowk, the main centre of Dalhousie. There were plenty of hotels on the way.
We were told that there was a special event at one of the boarding schools so the place was packed with visiting parents from Pathankot, Jalandhar, Gurdaspur, etc. With cars everywhere, there were plenty of traffic jams. From the Mall Road, we got a lovely view of the snow-capped Pir Panjal mountain range surrounded by thick forests of pine and deodar trees. The walk back to the hotel seemed an impossible one. We managed our way through the weekend crowd from the metros to the hotel and hit our beds. Next morning in Dalhousie was very much awaited.

Visit to Khajjiar from Dalhousie

We had plans to visit the beautiful Khajjiar. We took taxis from the Taxi Operators Union office. The 30-minute journey to Khajjar offered beautiful views of the mountainous landscape and dense pine forests. We had expected heavy traffic on the way but fortunately, the road was clear. The road to Khajjiar runs through Kalatop Wildlife sanctuary, so one has some great scenery on the way there (didn’t see any actual animals, but there was dense forest all around). The road itself is not in great shape, but it’s definitely motorable, and we got to Khajjiar around 10:30 (I know, long time taken to travel 22 kms, but we stopped for photos. The first clue that you’re approaching Khajjiar comes when you are about to exit the forested road, and you see a beautiful green meadow in the distance.
This is basically what Khajjiar is; a lush green meadow (with a lake of sorts in the middle) right smack in the middle of the jungle. To put it another way, imagine the thick deodar forests suddenly giving way to a beautiful green meadow – the same as you see in postcards, complete with cows and sheep grazing – we fell in love with the place at first sight. The first stop of course was the green meadow, which had a cluster of buildings, hordes and hordes of tourists, cows, sheep and horses – that meadow is pretty much the entire village of Khajjiar.

We walked around the meadow a bit. The place is real pretty, but it’s a pity that most pretty places in India end up cluttered with litter – and Khajjiar apparently is no exception to this rule. Anyway, the surroundings are still pristine and clean – it’s just the meadow which is really filthy, that, and some portions of the hills which are apparently drinking spots at night – other than that, once one gets out of Khajjiar, it’s actually fairly clean. So, we did that – walked away from Khajjiar, and down the road to a local Shiv temple. Pretty good walk, and we then hiked through the hills a bit after visiting the temple and then back to Khajjiar where we had lunch at a local restaurant, which unfortunately was pretty mediocre – not to mention the service, which was downright POOR. That’s a minor blimp on what was otherwise a fantastic trip overall. It was about 4PM or so by then, and we then stopped at a local stall which had some Feng-Shui type good luck charms for sale. The stall is manned by a lady who apparently can read a person inside out by just asking his/her name; she asked us both our names, and ended up giving us a pretty detailed biography of ourselves, and shocking enough, it was correct for the most part! I don’t particularly believe in this sort of thing myself, but I have to say, the lady’s comments got me thinking – how can someone know so much about a person they’ve NEVER MET? Anyway, we bought several things from her, including a pretty cool pendant type of chain and another cool looking golden bell type thingy. Then back to the hotel, where we rested a while before heading out for tea.
After a short rest, we went hiking again – this time in the direction of some “apple meadows” which the locals wanted to take us on horseback to. We’d rather walk, so we declined that offer, and went ourselves. The trail was one of those steep, winding trails that go right up the hill to a little village on top of it; but there were really no “meadows” to be seen. There were quite a few apples trees in the village, along with maize being grown there as well, but no real “meadows” to be seen. Still pretty beautiful though, we took a couple of photos, chatted a bit with the local kids that showed us around. Apparently cheetahs and black bears show up at the village when it’s dark, the former apparently to hunt cattle and the latter apparently to eat fruits.

I can believe it as well, a lot of these forests have wire mesh separating the village area from the general jungle, and the reason is self-evident. We had tea and snacks at a local joint – again, the snacks were something I’ve never had before – egg pakoras! Have never had those before, and I must admit they were pretty good. Then back to the hotel, where we decided to call it a night. Had dinner at the hotel itself (room service), but unfortunately the food was nowhere near as good as we expected, and neither was the service. Next day woke up at the usual time, 7’ish, only to find out it was raining, and everything was covered in a thick fog. OK, not the best thing to see for someone that’s looking to get outdoors for the whole day. . .I’m not sure if any of you guys have read “Master of the Game” by Sidney Sheldon or not, but in that book, the protagonist hatches an ingenious plan to steal diamonds from a mine field which goes awry at the last moment. Despite the plan, the guards there almost catch him, but at the last moment, a thick mist (fog) sweeps in from the sea, obscuring ALL visibility – even if we’re talking a few meters in front of one. That was the same type of fog that swept in and that along with the fleeting rain sort of put a dampener on things since we were planning on hiking the entire day.
Anyway, got out for a bit, waited for the rain to calm down and it did around 11AM or so, after which we headed out to one of the trails about 3 km or so away from the main town. It was one of those trails that goes right through the jungle to the top of the hill, where there was a tiny village (Pookhri village, if I recall correctly) – fantastic hike, and most of all the place was CLEAN, as 99.9% of tourists would never think of hiking up that far. So, we did that hike, enjoyed it, walked back to the hotel area and had lunch, this time a great lunch at a local joint. After that, we made another trip to the lady we bought the Feng Shui items from, and bought some other things from her.

Wanted to hike a bit more, but we knew there was a long drive waiting for us the next day (back to Delhi), so we called it a day (or night). Next morning we packed our bags and sat in that very shiny bright blue volvo back home. Final thoughts- Plenty of natural beauty, good food, and lots of opportunities to hike around. I suspect that one could also catch a glimpse of some wildlife if one went on night safaris and the like around the area (though I’m not sure if that’s permitted inside Kalatop Park), but there’s plenty of other places to see wildlife. For me, the sheer joy of hiking through the hills was what made the trip worthwhile – that, and good facilities for the most part.