The Himalayan Foothills - Dalhousie and Khajjiar

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Amritsar has been the highlight of our trip so far but sadly it was time to leave this fascinating city. Our next stop was Dalhousie, another hill station in the foothills of the Lower Himalayan Mountains. There was a train part of the way and then a local bus up the mountain (in total it takes 6 hours to reach Dalhousie from Amritsar) or local bus all the way. Being a pilgrim city it became nearly impossible to get a ticket out - the whole situation wasn't helped of course by it being school holidays in Punjab! In the end after a couple of hours of hassling we decided to hire a taxi to leave the city. Two minutes later it was organized - about $AUD60 for the six hour trip and it proved to be worth the expense. The drive was really interesting and pretty as half the distance was along a road edged with tall shady eucalyptus trees and rice paddies. We passed a constant stream of traffic - from gaily decorated trucks, auto rickshaws of various sizes, the local buses we thankfully didn't catch overloaded with people, motorbikes with families of four on board and even a lot of horse drawn carts. Half way through we stopped at a roadside repair shop for chai and to allow the driver to repair both his spare tyres before heading up into the hills for what felt like a never ending drive around the many bends.
The countryside was covered in heavy pine forrests once we hit the hills and we were pleased to arrive in Dalhousie late afternoon. Our first stop was the tourist office where we received the great news that most hotels were fully booked! Dalhousie stretched for ever around the mountains and most of the hotels were perched on the edge which meant lots of steps to go up and down. Great fun! Eventually we found a room which did have a great view to the snow capped mountains in the distance , however we didn't like the hotel staff as they were quite rude and as our room led off the lobby of the hotel with the bathroom right next to the desk we didn't feel like we had much privacy. Not that privacy is high on the list of most Indians - like the Chinese they have no sense of it - the country is just too over populated.
By this stage we weren't enjoying Dalhousie much and the hot weather wasn't helping - they were
having a pre monsoon heat wave. Once it cooled down we headed up the hill (I did at least have the downhill bit to look forward to on the return) to the town proper which we hadn't seen at that stage. And we were quite shocked by the crowds - it was very busy. Everybody was out shopping in all the little stalls, eating at the restaurants, children were having rides on brightly decorated ponies and there was the usual general traffic mayhem in the midst of the crowds. The guide book advertised three malls for walking - we weren't too sure what that meant - but we discovered that they were wide footpaths on three levels around the hills linking each end of the town. Very pleasant to walk around and observe Indian families on holiday. We are the centre of a lot of Indian holiday snaps! We spent a couple of enjoyable days in Dalhousie with only a couple of bad moments, both involving monkeys. I bought another sim card in Dalhousie as both previous sim cards had been disconnected due to central offices not finalising paperwork - it appears this is very common in India - and hopefully this card will stay connected. On the way back to the hotel after buying the sim card I stopped at a cake shop and bought some cakes which were put into a bright pink box - boxes which were obviously familiar to the monkeys as I was attacked by one as he tried to grab it off me. Gave me one hell of a fright! Next morning I opened the fly screen and was sitting next to the window looking at the view when a monkey tried to jump through. Another near heart attack!
We left Dalhousie to go further into the mountains to the small village of Khajjiar only 22 klms away via a one hour bus trip. Not chancing that we would get somewhere to sleep this time we had booked a hotel over the phone. They needed an advance to hold the room and didn't take credit cards so we had to pay the hotel in Dalhousie the advance before they would save the room. And what a great room it turned out to be! We have a balcony which looks out to the snow capped mountains in the distance - really beautiful especially when the sun went down yesterday and the snow caps glowed pink. Today we can't see them at all so consider ourselves very lucky to have seen them yesterday. There is very little accommodation here as it is mainly a village which caters to day trippers. The village is surrounded by mountains covered in a thick forrest of pine trees and has a small lake in its center Round the lake is a large grassed area and yesterday we counted 23 zorbas - big blow up plastic balls which you sit inside and then they roll you down the slopes towards the lake. Plus there were a few people up on para sails and a couple of dozen ponies for horse rides. Every afternoon the local farmers bring their cows down to graze on the grass around the lake as well. . Add to that the men selling corn on the cob, photographers taking photos of locals dressed up in traditional hire costumes, various stray dogs and dozens of kids running madly around means that it was a hive of activity.
In the grounds of our hotel, which is a short distance from the lake area, is a large orange statue which really dominates the horizon when you see it from afar - it is a religious statue and very orange! This morning we walked through the trees and visited a small village and watched the local women go about their daily chores. I have caught up on my blogs - it is very pleasant writing them in the mountain peacefulness. Jerry has a wobbly tummy today so we'll spend the rest of the day just enjoying the surrroundings. Tomorrow we catch the local bus to Chambra, a little town full of stone houses that we can see in a distant valley where we'll spend the next few days.

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Photos

Linny writing blogs on the balcony in Khajjiar
Note bright orange statue in hotel grounds

Snow tipped mountains from our balcony in Khajjiar
They disappeared the next day!