Trip to Little Lhasa – Part I

Last weekend the trip was planned to Gangothri, but as a last minute change we headed to Dharamsala, which is 500Km from Delhi. This trip was the one that we had not planned where and what are we going to do. On Thursday we started to search for a cab. Since our regular travels guy was not able to provide a cab for us. On Friday morning I got a call from my travel mate that he was not able to arrange a vehicle. I tried my best but was not able to get one for the rates we were searching. Finally I decided that I would speak to our company transport guys if they can provide one. After a long negotiation, they agreed to give a Scorpio at Rs. 6.75/- per km. We had asked the supervisor for the cab at 8Pm so that we can reach by 10 or 11Am in Gangothri.

At around 5Pm my friend told me that the plan to Gangothri is dropped and we are heading to Almora. I was not interested in Almora. I even thought it is better to drop out of the trip. We had a plan for Dharamsala and Dalhousie for the next week. After discussing with people who had been there, we decided to head towards Dharamsala this weekend and we could make Gangothri the next weekend.

Around 6.30Pm I called the transport guy and informed him that we will be heading to Dharamsala. The transport guy was somewhat reluctant to this idea of changing the place, but later agreed to come along with us. At around 7Pm I called the supervisor and asked him has the cab come. At that moment I found that the cab has to come from the north end of Delhi, which is around 50Km from Noida and it, has to cross the heavy traffic. Finally the cab reached us at 11.30Pm and when we told the driver that we have to pickup two of our friends in Gurgoan he was so worried because of the extra 50km we are suppose to do now. The other thing is that he had started from near this place, which would have made more sense to first pick them up and then come to us.

Around 12.30Am we managed to leave Delhi and started driving towards Dharamsala. We should thank our ex-PM for his thought of golden quadrilateral. The road was so good that we were able reach Chandigarh by 4.30Am. From there we headed to the India’s largest Dam Bhakra Nangal, but we could not see that due to time constraint. Then we headed towards Dharamsala and reached by 11.30AM. Here the roads were not so good but was able to drive at the speed of 60/70 Km/hr. Since Dharamsala did not have anything to see we directly headed to Mcleodganj which was 10km from Dharamsala.

More to come on Mcleodgang…