So my tour of Mcleodganj started after coming back from Triund to my base camp. So after taking bath and changing clothes, I left for visiting Mcleodganj.
I didn't take any transport. Mcleodganj is a very small town and all the tourist attractions are in proximity to each other.
So the nearest spot to my bas camp was Bhagsu Nag Temple and Bhagsu Waterfall. It was around 2kms away. So I went there, it's a temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. It was named after the king in Rajasthan Bhagsu who came here in search of water to get his kingdom a relief from draught. Temple is quite small. Near to temple there was a smaller hot water spring where people were bathing. After that I went ahead to see Bhagsu Nag Waterfall, the path to water fall is a samll trek of around 1.5km. The trek has stairs, so it's easy to walk on it. So I reached to the fall. The sound of water falling down was really a stress relieving. I was running short of time so I just spent 10mins there, took few pictures and left for another site. While coming from there one can visit Shiva cafe, however the locals told me that it's quite overrated. So I skipped it and move towards my next destination 'Kalachakra Temple'. It was around 2.5kms from Bhagsu.
The thing about this temple is that you won't find it on Google easily. I got to know about it from the person who helped me in booking my Triund trek. So I was walking on the street towards the temple with empty stomach. Suddenly, I saw the momo shop and I took a halt there to subdue my hunger while watching the beautiful mountains. Then I continued walking and finally reached the temple.
As I imagined the temple would have some big building and people would be waiting in a queue to enter the temple. Nothing as such happened, the temple was very small. It had one wheel inside and people were revolving around the wheel while rotating it. It was quite beautiful though. So this place did not take much time, I hardly spent 10mins there. I continued walking towards my next stop 'Namgyal Monastery'. It was located 1.5kms away.
I walked through the market to reach there. So, the Namgyal is the personal monastery of the 14th Dalai Lama. It's also knows as Namgyal Tantric College. It was founded in 1564 by 2nd Dalai Lama. It was renamed in 1571 in honour of female deity Namgyälma. It is quite a big monastery. It has museum and library. It has lots of young and old monks. Inside the monastery there is a temple of Lord Buddha. I revolved around the temple while rotating various wheels chanting 'Om Mani Padma Hum'. It's a Sanskrit mantra but is widely use by Tibetan and Chinese Buddhists. So, I spent some time inside the temple in a peaceful environment. And yes when I got the chance I got myself clicked with one of the monks. I saw them doing prayer in a group. That was quite a wonderful experience seeing Tibetan culture. So here I finished exploring the monastery and went ahead towards my next destination 'Church of St. John in the Wilderness'. It's a 2kms journey from the monastery. While going to the church I visited the local market and did shopping like ear rings form my mother and i got a Tibetan wall hanging for myself. I thought of taking an auto to the church but they were asking to much for such a short distance. So I decided to walk there. I walked through quite road and reached the church which is also very quiet because it's situated at the outskirt of the town.
The Church of St. Johns in the Wilderness is 167yrs old. It was built in 1852 dedicated to John the Baptist. It is set amidst deodar forest. I spent sometime inside the church. I was allowed to take only 3pictured inside the church. Behind the building of the church lies a huge cross. Overall I had good time there. So after visiting the church I went back toward the Mcleodganj square. I booked a bus of 8pm back to Delhi but then I got a call from the operator that my bus leaving time as been rescheduled and it'll leave at 7pm now. So I had two hrs left to do something. First I took the lift from the local back to the square. There I took the decision that I'll spend the remaining hrs visiting Dharamshala which is 8kms from Mcleodganj bus station. I booked cab for 800INR after the negotiation. Then left for Dharamshala.
First he took me the Dharamshala Cricket Stadium. Though I'm not a fan of cricket but the location of the stadium is very beautifull. Audience can watch the cricket match while having a view of Dhauladhar. I spent around 15mjns there and left for War Memorial Dharamshala. It's a memorial made in honour of soldiers who got martyred for the motherland. It's quite beautiful and situated amidst tall tress and it has a garden too. So again I spent around 15mins there and left for the Tea Garden Dharamshala.
There is nothing special about it. I've never seen a teal garden before so I went there. It was beautiful through. It's quite small compared to tea gardens of Assam. But if you really wanna see tea garden then you should visit Palampur tea gardens. Thoud i couldn't go there but I heard they are quite big and more beautiful.
After tea garden driver took me to the Temple of Goddess Durga. Photography wasn't allowed there. I just did prayer and came back. Other places in Dharamshala would required more time to visit but I had left with one hour only. So I decided to go back to Mcleodganj to try some Tibetan and street food.
So I reached back there and went to the famous 'The Tibet Kitchen' restaurant. There I had Chicken Thentuk. It's a Tibetan soup preparation which consists of vegetables, chicken and hand made noodles. The portion size was I quite large. So I couldn't try some other food of the restaurant. The in last half n hour I walked on the market street and saw a cheese shop. He was selling variety of cheeses including Yak cheese. I never had yak cheese before, so, I bought some to take it along with me. Then on the street I saw people selling offal dishes like mutton intestines and lungs. I decided to have some. I went on buying the stir fried mutton lungs. It had spicy flavour and was good in taste. But because of awkwardness I couldn't able to finish it. So it was the last meal of mine in the Mcleodganj.
I rushed back to the bus station and took my bus back to Delhi. I reached Delhi at 6:30am.
So that was my 2nd solo trip. It was full of wonders and beautiful moments. I took back the memories as a souvenir to cherish in future. The whole town was great. Walking on the streets, trying street food, meeting monks, seeing local market, utilising the time as much as I could. It was a whole different kind of experience. Whenever one gets a chance to be on a solo trip, one should not miss it.
The experience I gor from this trip will always remain in my heart and mind. I came back with loads of memories and tanned skin.
