Local Sightseeing| Food Trail| Day1| Mcleodganj

It's very rare that I plan to go somewhere out of Delhi for a vacation coz of that typical Indian parent’s thinking that a girl can’t go out alone kyuki kuch ho gya vaha to...daaa

But after days and nights of making that cute puppy face for convincing my parents to allow me to go for a vacation, they permitted me to go for a 4 days trip to Mcleodganj.

Mcleodganj is a hill station near Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh. It is very well famous as the home of Spiritual Tibetan Leader Dalai Lama.
Mcleodganj has the most hypnotic landscape in the entire state of Himachal Pradesh with snow clad beauties hill and lush greenery.

Coming to my trip itinerary, it was planned from 6 April to 11 April 2018.

We booked a 12 seater traveler (Maharaja) which cost us Rs31000, which included 1250 km of total distance and parking.
The seats were comfortable enough and had a 1-1 seating pattern.
You can also book a 2-1, 12 seaters normal traveler that would cost you around Rs28000 approx.

We left from Delhi around, 8pm and in the way our first stop was Zhilmil Dhabba, Sonipat.
Here we ordered Channa Masala, Dal Tadka, Dal Fry, Jeera Alloo and Tandoori Roti, all the things were delicious and very reasonable, that price for all this for 10 people cost us Rs800.

For the next day, we had a pre-booking at Hotel Divyansh, Upper Naddi Valley.
We reached the hotel around 10am and the worst part was, we were so tired after the long journey and our rooms were not even ready, we also had to wait for our breakfast for quite a long.
In breakfast, they served us Vegetable Sandwich, Butter Toast, Paratha with some pickle and curd and Tea/Coffee, which was just fine as we were super hungry and tired.

After the breakfast, we checked in, in our rooms, the rooms were for three people sharing with an inclusive breakfast for Rs2000 per day.

The biggest drawback of booking the hotel in Naddi Valley is that Mcleodganj is approx 4km away from there and Dharamkot is also like 8km away and for commuting to these places you either have to book a cab which will charge you Rs400 or an auto rickshaw which will charge you Rs200.
So, I would suggest you book the hotel in Mcleodganj or Dharamkot.

Although the best part of the hotel was the view of snow-covered mountains on one side and lush green hills on the other side.

I was very excited to see what all Mcleod has in store for me to explore for which I got ready and left the hotel around 12 o’clock.

DAY1: local sightseeing and food trail

We planned our day 1 of Mcleod for just exploring the main market, Dalai Lama Temple and Shiva Cafe which has its way from Bhagsu Nag waterfall.

Our exploration journey of Day 1 started with heavy rain which took us to Mcllo Cafe in the main market.
Mcllo Cafe is famous for the North Indian food it serves, but as I had a lot more to try on, I just had a Cheese Dosa(Rs180) which was dosa stuffed with cottage cheese, onion, and tomato masala, served with sambar and coconut chutney. After having the first bite, I realized how stupid I was to try South Indian food here at Mcllo. Definitely a bad choice made.

After such a disappointing meal, I wanted to have something authentic and that’s when I saw an old lady selling momos outside Tibet Kitchen.

I grabbed my plate of veg steamed momos(Rs50 per plate) served with spicy sauce and a hearty smile. The momos were very delicious and the spicy sauce served with them made them taste the best.

After talking to her we got to know that she was selling those momos at the same spot from past 7 years...isn’t it awesome...

After having those delicious yet spicy momos, we walked the by lanes of Mcleod in search of Woeser Bakery.

Woeser Bakery is a small cafe cum bakery run by a Tibetan lady which is located on Jogiwara Road, in the basement of Black Magic Restaurant.

As you walk down the basement of the restaurant, on the immediate left is Woeser Bakery.

It is very famous for the Chocolate Brownie(Rs80) and Hand Beaten Coffee(Rs90), which the lady prepares.

The brownie was very tempting, soft and spongy poured upon with some chocolate sauce which was truly a bliss. 

Also, if you are a cappuccino fan, then this is your place to be, the lady at the bakery serves some strong and eye-opening hand beaten cappuccino, which makes it hands down the best bakery in the market.

After, having the best coffee in town, I proceeded towards The Dalai Lama Temple, also known as Tsuglakhang Temple. 

Dalai Lama visits the temple twice or thrice every year for preachings and blessings. And for that reason, the temple got its name as Dalai Lama Temple.

As I entered the temple, I witnessed few lamas in my way, there were few shops as well that sell ritual books and items, the voice of people praying, chanting and the sound of instruments was so soothing and relaxing that we sat there for quite a long time, and moreover the sound of heavy rain made us wait there for even longer.

After waiting for so much time and waiting for the rain to stop, we decided to go out of the temple to the main market as there were no signs of rain to stop.

As soon as we came out, it started hailing, which again made us wait outside the temple and then we realized that carrying a raincoat is a must.

So, don’t forget to carry a raincoat whenever you are planning to go there as the weather changes within fractions of seconds.

Also, there are 2 lanes that lead to Dalai Lama Temple and on both the roads there are Tibetans selling stuff like clothes, shawls, junk jewelry, antiques and many more. So if you love shopping take out some extra time to shop as you would love to explore the market.

Finally, when after everything was in place, people were again out on streets, around 5pm in the evening we started our journey to Bhagsu Nag Waterfall.

From the main market to the Bhagsu Nag temple, it is about 2km which you can cover by an auto rickshaw or some other vehicle but I decided to walk till there.

The road till Bhagsu Temple is a bit steep yet smooth but as you cross the temple the main way to the waterfall and lastly Shiva Cafe is very uneven and a bit dangerous, so you have to be very careful while going up.
So, one big mistake which we made was to go up to Shiva Cafe in the evening. The way is very dangerous and as there are no lights in between which made it even more difficult for us to go up and one thing which worried us was that everyone was coming down and only me and a friend of mine was going up.

I almost gave up before 2 km from Shiva Cafe, but anyhow with so much pain in legs, zero energy, and an empty stomach, we reached Shiva Cafe around 7pm.

I was literally in no courage to walk more, after resting for a while at Shiva Cafe. My friend ordered the very famous maggie of Shiva cafe which I didn’t like at all because of which I ordered myself noodles, which were very spicy and well cooked.

As soon as we finished our meal, we prepared ourselves to go down, so we two along with three other people who were from Ludhiana came down with the help of torches.

Coming down was more fun as it took us about 10-15mins as we just had to flash light where we had to keep our feet. It was both easy and scary at the same time because we couldn’t see anything except the place our light was flashing.

From Bhagsu Nag temple we took a cab which charged us Rs 100 and dropped us at Mcleolgand market parking where our traveler was waiting for us.

The driver dropped us the hotel and after the dinner, we all dozed off.

So this was our first day at Mcleodganj, full of fun and adventure.

Stay tuned for the next blog post to know about the most adventurous and scary night spend at Triund.

Happy Reading :)