Dalhousie

Finally visited Dalhousie, the hill station that was in my must visit list for a long time.

My first impression – crowded with people and hotels/motels/malls. Fortunately for us our hotel, though next to the Bus Terminus, seemed secluded once we entered and the view of the Pir Panjal 

range of the Himalayas from the hotel premises was magnificent.

Dalhousie, a hill station in Chamba district of the State of Himachal Pradesh, was named after The Earl of Dalhousie, who was the British Governor-General in India while establishing this place in the 1850s as a summer retreat, at a height of 1970 metres above sea level.

Our local sight seeing started with a visit to Panjpula where one can avail of the adventure activities

like walking across the rope bridge and zip lining or chill in a mountain café with a tea, coffee, soft 

drink or maybe a hookah/sheesha of your favourite flavour.  You can start your souvenir shopping 

right here or move on to Gandhi chowk where there is a pedestrian zone for a mall. Do check out the

St.John’s church established in 1863 in Gandhi chowk and then move on to the next chowk, the 

A tiny temple on the path to Subhash chowk.

 Rock art on the path to Subhash chowk

Subhash chowk seen from Gandhi chowk

The mall between Gandhi chowk and Subhash chowk

Coffee if you wish to feel refreshed in the mall.

Subhash chowk, where you can check out St.Francis church built in 1894.

In Shubash chowk there are plenty of restaurants that serve excellent food. We ate at Shere-e-Punjab 

which afforded beautiful views too apart from wonderful service and delicious food.

Next morning we decided to explore Khajjiar, 22kms from Dalhousie, as the roads had opened up a 

couple of days earlier after the snow was cleared. Khajjiar is famous for its bowl shaped, pine ringed 

meadow. It offers a lot of photo ops which we indulged in, had lunch there and started back to 

Dalhousie. 

The return drive was made memorable due to a massive traffic jam in the narrow mountain roads. We were stuck in the traffic for an hour and a half.

A couple of nights in Dalhousie, I think, were good enough, and am glad I knocked it off my list.

Panchgani

For me, Panchgani had always been either a transit point or a place to visit strawberry fields and shoot the breeze on the tableland.

Last month we decided to visit Panchgani and spend a couple of nights and enjoy whatever the place has on offer.

Panchgani has been famous for its residential academic institutions where a lot of parents, from neighbouring urban sprawls like Mumbai and Pune, sent their children to be groomed into adulthood.

Panchgani is very laid back as compared to its happening neighbour Mahabaleshwar hence frequented only by those who wish to unwind by going for long walks, listening to bird song and 

eating delicious omelettes in ‘Lucky Store and Bakery’ and parathas in Akbarallys or maybe drive 

down for a Parsi meal to the homely restaurant ‘Rustam’s Strawberry Inn’ on the road to 

Mahabaleshwar.

One place that should not be missed is the Mapro Garden on the road to Mahabaleshwar. It is very 

beautifully maintained and you can pick up your stock of squashes and juices of fresh berries apart from the visit to the wonderful chocolate factory in the complex.

Anytime of the day you feel bored or feel like inhaling fresh air, just go for a walk on the tableland. 

If you like to ride horses, you can do that too or if you feel like going for a ride in the horse cart, 

even that is possible! The options are available for whichever way you wish to spend your time.

Then there are stalls selling the famous corn patties which are yummy to be followed by 

strawberries with fresh or ice cream! Heaven!

Panchgani has me hooked. Shall visit again soon!! You should too!

We stayed in Millennium Hotel which is behind the tableland and not on the main road but we loved it for its ‘away, but there’ location. There are quite a few accommodation options available to suit all types of budgets.

By road Panchgani is just 95kms from Pune and 250kms from Mumbai. Pune and Mumbai are well connected by air, rail and road, nationally and internationally.

Amarkantak in Madhya Pradesh

Amarkantak also know as Teertharaj or King of pilgrimages is situated in Madhya Pradesh.It is the birthplace of the Narmada and Son rivers.
Situated at a height of 3500 feet it is a natural hill station with wonderful weather.
We went on a guided tour of Amarkantak.
Our 1st stop was at the under construction ‘Shree Yantra Temple’. The Acharya 

Mandaleshwar of the Attal Akhada Sri Swami Shukdevanadji is constructing a Temple in the form of the Maha Meru Shri Yantra in Amarkantak for many years now. In the field of Tantra, the worship of Sri Vidya is considered to be an evolved, sophisticated, elite and mysterious system of worship of the supreme power in the form of the Divine Mother as the beautiful goddess, Tripura Sundari or Empress Beauty of the three Worlds. Sri Yantra is the instrument of this worship. In Sri Vidya worship, the system involves focusing of the entire energies of the universe. The Bindu or point in the Sri Yantra in one aspect signifies this process. This is the zenith of all methods of worship. Through this system of worship one may achieve almost anything that is desired.

Then we visited the source of the Son river. It was on a beautiful isolated spot on top of a hill.

A beautiful place to meditate.

Next was the source of the Narmada river. The history of this area goes back to the 8th 

century when Sankaracharya built a Surya Kund to specify the origin of Narmada river.He also installed the idol of Shiva at Pataleshwar in Amarkantak. All these temples are in the Nagara style of architecture.

A little distance from Gaumukh, the source of the Narmada, is Kapildhara, where the 

Narmada leaves Anuppur District and enters Dindori District by cascading more than 20 metres down a sheer basalt rock.

Amarkantak is a lovely peaceful hill station and a beautiful place to unwind. There are no luxury hotels there but reasonably priced clean decent accomodation apart from a few dharamshalas.

Getting there:

By Air: The nearest airport is 245 km away to Amarkantak at Jabalpur. Pre-paid taxi services are available from airport to Amarkantak.

By Train: The nearest railhead to Amarkantak is Pendra Road at a distance of 17 km from the heart of the city. Anuppur at distance of 48 km from Amarkantak is also convenient for the tourists.