I remember how eagerly I wanted to go to Mcleodganj and Triund Trek long back, when I saw one of its pictures for the first time on some travel portal. That day I made a promise to myself to visit this place.
When my friends told me about their travel experience at McLeod, I became more curious to visit this place. This summer I got a chance to visit it. In my office everyone was planning for long weekend (i.e. 14th to 16th April 2017) a month ago. But somewhere in mind it was fixed, if I got a chance to travel during this weekend , i will go to McLeod for trekking. I asked to my friend is it possible to do trekking, camping and paragliding within those 3 days? They said it may be hectic but can be done.
So I planned this trip. I consulted with some travel agents about bus, accommodation, travel cost etc. Then finally I booked with Pink House Hotel in Mcleodganj. In that package they provided me bus tickets from Delhi to McLeod and McLeod to Delhi, 1 night stay at hotel, paragliding at Bir, taxi for local sightseeing, breakfast, trekking guide for Triund, camping arrangements (tent, sleeping bag etc.), dinner and breakfast at Triund.
13th April:
I took bus from Majnu ka Tila at 6:30 PM. There were a dozen of buses for Dharamsala. I felt like every delhiite is going to McLeod. We all took dinner at some royal restaurant at Ambala named "Haveli". I liked the ambiance of the restaurant.
We reached at McLeodganj at 7 in the morning. When I woke up and saw the snow capped mountains, it filled me with joy and I wanted to capture the moment in my eyes forever and I did the same. My hotel was just 500 Meters from bus stop. The first thing what we did in that morning, sipped tea at some local tea shop. I asked to that shop owner to give us some water for hand wash and when he pour water, it was like so chilled, like someone has mixed ice cube in the water. He just said it is normal water. Oh my God! Then I remembered our hot tap water in Delhi and felt that may be this will be the reason why we delhiites head to hills.
We reached at our hotel after 10 minutes walk, took the keys and head to our room. The most important thing i forget to tell you that the hotel location was just different as compared to other hotels I stayed ever at hills. we had to use downstairs to reach at the reception.
The room was standard room but the view from the balcony can never be compared. The first thing I did after entering into my room was, capture this amazing view in my camera.
Then after taking some rest, I had bath. The hotel receptionist invited us for breakfast at thier Roof Top Restaurent.
I went to the roof with my camera, as I know from there i can click some more amazing views. We ordered aloo parntha and tea for breakfast. It was so tasty.
After breakfast, we went to the reception and the reception guy told us that our taxi is ready for Bir. Finally I was going to Bir to get tick one more thing from my bucket list.
Our driver told us that it will take about 2 hours to reach from McLeod to Bir. during this period we passed by some tea gardens, local markets, narrow roads, jungles etc.
We reached at Bir at 12:30 at noon. From there I got to know that we had to go to Biling by car about 14 KM. I thought 14 KM will take 15-20 minutes, but our driver said it will take 45 minutes because we are going to about 2400 Meters above.
We had to wait about an hour for our car which will take us to billing because Bir was very crowded on that weekend. When we reached at Biling, my heart beats had become fast, I was excited, nervous, little scared also. My paragliding guide tied belt around me and himself and instructed me to run first. It was the only point when I felt little sacred. After few seconds I were in the air like a bird, I was flying, and beneath me there were green fields, city, houses. I captured this beautiful experience with their camera. We were around 20 minutes in the air.
Then we took our lunch at bir and went for our local sightseeing. We saw green vast tea gardens, Chamunda temple, Norbulingka Monestary, local markets etc.
Then we were back to our room at 7 P.M. took some rest. and then moved again in search of some amazing dinner. One of my friend suggest me to try McLlo Restaurant. So we went there. But what i saw there, oh my GOD, there was queue outside the restaurant to enter into it. We wanted to try their food, but as I told you, McLeod was so much crowded, we couldn't try. We searched another place Tibet Kitchen, they said they had no place to sit. Finally we got seat at some Punjabi restaurant.
After dinner we went back to our room at 11PM where we planned for our next day.
15th April:
After breakfast at Roof Top Cafe of Pink House, we checked out from the hotel. Our guide was ready to take us for trekking. We left our luggage at hotel and started our trek from the hotel itself. Our guide told us there are two options for trek. If you want to take 9 KM trek, you have to start from the center of McLeod (i.e. McLlo restaurent) and if you want to take only 5 KMs trek then you can hire a taxi for RS. 500 from McLeod to Gallu Devi Temple and from there you can start your trekking. We chose to 9 KMs trek and at 10 AM I started my long awaited trek to Triund.
At very beginning it was very tough for me to trek and I was afraid with the thought that how will i complete 9 KM. But when you decide that you will do it, it become more easier to do.
There I saw a lot of people doing trekking with us, some as groups, some individuals and lot of foreigner groups with their guides smiling, clicking pictures and enjoying.
This made me more motivate to keep moving. As I was doing trekking for the first time, it was a bit tiring but the weather and beautiful view inspired me to move. One side is the valley and other side are mountains.
On reaching the famous Sharma Cafe, we geared up for what was supposed to be a bit difficult trail. I already knew it was going to be fun climbing up the 22-curves high up the hill. Further on this trail, I met an enthusiastic person who work in the rescue team. He seemed to have mastered the art of short cuts. It was a pure fun climbing up with the crazy fellows.
The last few minutes of the trek were literally a race to reach first. The sun was at its zenith when I reached and got a tent at the edge of the hill with a scrumptious view of the mighty Dhauladhar which seemed like huge chocolate mountains sprinkled with vanilla sauce sliding downwards.
Surprisingly, all our tiredness had vanished and peace and happiness had taken over everybody’s mind. The whole afternoon passed in enjoying this marvelous sight. I didn’t miss out climbing up every possible rock for the best shots. It was indeed the most memorable of the evenings.
Then it was time for sunset, before that we had grabbed some tea and maggi.
We witnessed the most beautiful sunset, i have ever seen. After sun set the weather had become more cold.
We asked to our guide for dinner time, it was supposed to be at 8 PM. Till that we took a short nap at our camp.
The dinner was served at 8:15 PM. It was too simple but when you are on hills and know that there can't be more options, then you realize the value of simple food.
16th April
We woke up around 6 in the morning and saw that sun had already risen. We were served tea by our guide. After breakfast we started our trek to come down.
It hardly took us 2 and half hours to come back down to McLeod from where we started. And I had ticked an another item from my bucket list.
We got fresh at pink house, grabbed our luggage and said good bye to PINK HOUSE Team. Now we were all free to explore McLeodGanj as we had the Volvo in evening.
Hope you enjoyed my trip story. I am excited to know your thoughts on my story.
