Savoring Mcleod Ganj

Okay so the other trip was to Amritsar and Mcleod Ganj. I said savor because this time, it was my kind of trip. I got the chance to absorb the place to my contentment, rather than just seeing things and checking boxes.

My first independent road trip, not only I gained the confidence to drive in the mountains, I found my love for driving. Especially on the way back, Google Maps put us on an internal road that stretched through the rural areas. It was narrow, but empty. On one side, there were homes, and on the other, vegetation. In front, the curves of the road and the view of the mountains. Such a lovely drive it was! Exhilarating yet calm.

It was a duo trip — just me and my friend. So we had the freedom to set the pace to our liking. In Amritsar, we moved fast and covered everything we could in the 14 hours we had. But in the mountains, we slowed things down to their natural pace.

I won’t go into the details of all the places we saw or the things we did. But I will share some anecdotes about those magical moments from the trip:

• In Amritsar, the maps and the locals, everyone guided our car into the tight alleys of the old town. It’s a Thar we’re talking, into the streets where the shops expand to take half the space and the rest is occupied by scooters. Where everything from cycles to rickshaws to tractors were coming our way. And yet, the locals were super chill to see the car getting stuck and helped us keep moving forward. It’s a miracle the car doesn’t have a single scratch. Fun experience though :P

• We were at a homely Tibetan cafe, waiting for our dinner. A pretty little girl, supposedly the owner’s daughter, enters the cafe. And before we knew it, she comes to our table and hugs me. I did not see that coming! She played with us for a while before the waitress took her away. Not satisfied, but wow it was magical.

• Between our hostel and the market, there was a construction site. The boundary wall of the road was broken, leaving space for a clear view of the city of Dharamshala. Every time we passed through it, we stopped to soak it in. Especially at night, the lights of the city did not look much different from the stars in the sky.

• We were looking for Nechung Monastery but lost our way. Maps couldn’t help us, neither could the locals. Everyone had a different answer. So we struggled for hours, trusted our intuition to navigate around, climbed down hundreds of stairs as a “shortcut”, and finally, we saw it — a magnificent monastery in the middle of nowhere! Though we later discovered that it was the prime location with Tibetan Parliament and Ministry offices right next to the monastery. If only we knew earlier 🫠.

I’m definitely missing a lot of other moments but I can’t go any further. Maybe some other day!

I’ll catch up next week,
Aachman