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Published: July 28th 2023
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Dalhousie - Dharamshala / Mcleodganj - Amritsar
Dalhousie - Khajjiar
Andaman through ‘Make-My-Trip’ (2012), Chardham (Himalayan) with ‘Radhe-Shyam’ (2016), Sikkim with ‘Ajay Modi’ (2021),
and now,
Dalhousie - Dharamshala - Amritsar with ‘Kesari’ (2023).
Fourth organized trip with four different agencies. Allows for good comparison.
Andaman was a personalized tour through MMT. Overall good. You don’t get guide services in personalized tours. Rest all reasonably good.
Chardham (Himalayan) with ‘Radhe-Shyam’ was a group tour. It was good in every way, not only because of Gujarati food but also good tour management, good guide services and good hotel accommodation. Chardham is Radhe-Shyam's specialty.
Sikkim with ‘Ajay Modi’ was a bad decision. Partly our mistake - accepting 6 pax per vehicle (Innova/Zylo). It was also a group tour but without guide services. Food - bad. Hotels - reasonably good. Itinerary - okay, but very tiring, too much traveling every day. One extra day would have been better.
‘Kesari’ is at present one of the best group tour
operators in India. Another is Veena World. Both are supposed to be comparable.
This particular itinerary required a lot of traveling - which can be considerably reduced if you do not fly to Amritsar but reach Pathankot by road or rail and then take your own taxi (personalized tour). In a personalized tour, the drawbacks are - no tour guide, and you are at the mercy of the taxi driver. We had a good experience with the drivers in Andamans (2012) and in Kerala (2013). Moderately good experience in Shimla-Manali (2004), Pondicherry (2015) and Rameshwaram-Madurai-Kodaikanal (2022) tours. And not-so-good-not-bad in Ladakh (2021).
In this tour with ‘Kesari’, our only complaint was - too much food - literally! We are not used to eating paneer-sabji-paratha 14 times a week!! Of course there were many things on the menu and it was up to us to take care of our stomachs! What we missed was - light food. Needed once in a while.
Otherwise, considering that you take flight to this area, the itinerary was good, overall management - very good, very well planned, well thought of (providing clove and
Avomine tablet sachet to prevent motion sickness was the height of it!). Good guide service. Very good baggage management. Hotels - good.
Day-1: Travel to Dalhousie:
Pick up from Amritsar airport.
‘Kesari’ usually offers two options for joining a tour. Ex-Mumbai or ex-first destination. We had opted for joining at Amritsar at 1.00 pm. Except 4 (including two of us) out of total 27 in the group, all others had joined at Mumbai. Good lunch to begin with at Amritsar (although not mentioned in the tour plan).
Reached
Dalhousie after 7 pm. We saw the glimpses of Dalhousie the next morning while traveling to Khajjiar. In Himachal and Uttarakhand, traveling by itself is a sight-seeing experience. Beautiful mountains - different shades of blue and green, or snow-peaked. Lush greenery everywhere. A Feast to the eyes for people from arid regions of Gujarat! All throughout - for next 6 days. Unexpectedly changing weather added spice to the feast. In February, temperature was pleasant in Dalhousie as it is located at about 6500 ft.
Day-2:
Khajjiar:
Wake-up call
at 6. Breakfast at 7. Start at 8.
Everyday, during dinner, the next day’s schedule was announced and luckily, the group members were such that we were rarely delayed. That is very important in a group tour.
Kajjiar is is about three hours drive from Dalhousie. As even the minibus that we were traveling in from Amritsar, cannot negotiate sharp turns, 9-10 cars were arranged for our group of 27 + 2 making the journey very comfortable.
Our first stop was at Sardar Ajit Singh Memorial (uncle of Shahid Bhagat Singh). Nearby is the ‘Panchpula’ - five rivulets - now can be seen only as a weak stream coming out of the water-pipes!
Khajjiar is also known as mini-Switzerland. It is a big opening between the mountains all around. There is a lake at the center which gradually fills up as the snow melts. In February, it was like a small pond. Ice had formed at the ground level which was slowly melting in the midday sun. The whole area is so beautiful and picturesque that I cannot describe it in words. Photos speak for themselves. We
had about an hour and a half to enjoy the scenery before proceeding to a nearby restaurant for lunch.
On the way to Khajjiar, we had seen snow all along the road on the mountains above and below. While returning. about half an hour before Dalhousie, on Dalhousie-Khajjiar road, there is a place called Lakkadmandi. From Lakkadmandi an unpaved road goes towards KalaTop (~2 Km). KalaTop is popular for trekking. Road to KalaTop was blocked due to snowfall about two weeks back. So we stopped at Lakkadmandi to enjoy and play in the snow. Pictures speak for themselves.
A wonderful day.
Day-3: Travel to Dharamshala. And McLeodganj.
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