North India: Mandi and Dharamshala



Mandi 'sunken' market

A very windy road across the hills to Mandi - still high and cool but not completely freezing. We stayed in an old Raj palace hotel that was very traditional, if a little run down. We had a walking tour of Mandi, to see temples and the burning ghats on the edge of the Ganges. The atmosphere was of a busy and prosperous town, without much tourism. We also saw donkeys loaded with material for repairing the road, slowly making their way to the worksite all on their own. There was a great sweet shop just outside the hotel where we had some sweets and a lassie.

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Next day we loaded up and headed further into the hills towards Dharamshala. Long, small and very busy roads - a huge cement works contributed to the lorry traffic on winding, crumbling roads. The countryside was beautiful with increasingly clear views of the far mountains (a small range to the south of the Himalayas).

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The weather remained cool but had enough sun to keep the day warm. With a couple of toilet stops on the way (gents seemed to be 'open air') we arrived at the Norbulingka Institute, just outside Dharamshala. This was quiet, clean and had a lovely cafe, including real coffee. It had been set up in the 1990s to promote traditional Tibetan crafts and was training in areas of painting, metal work, weaving and pottery.

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The Tibetan area, and the Dali Lama temple and home are outside Dharamshala in a small town in the hills McLoud Gangi, predictably full of Tibetans and westerners as well as Indian tourists, this has a busy centre with many market stalls. We bought a singing bowl from a nice trader who gave us lessons on how to use it and a warm hat to fend of the cold winds from the impressive mountains. The first night the group eat in a crowded restaurant that had live music, including various incongruous numbers such as 'Wish you were here' and 'country rose' as well as a few more local tunes. It was a great atmosphere. 

The hotel was the closest we've been to Faulty Towers; our room kept on tripping out the power and despite some nice staff who tried hard, a particularly smarmy young manager (always be on alert when the neatest, cleanest thing in the hotel is the managers suit) was trying too hard to get positive reviews without actually doing anything to earn them. The evening dinner was a study in how not to serve food (soup and ice cream arriving together, toasted cheese sandwiches without being toasted and an extremely long wait for H for a simple bowl of soup. The actual food was good - particularly the Indian dishes and it was an entertaining evening. 

Just up the road from our hotel was a short, but steep walk, to a waterfall - very popular with the Sikh tourists, and this gave great views of the valley. 


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    McLoud Ganj

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    View from the Dalai Lama Temple

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    Inside the temple

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    Typical street

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    The waterfall

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    On the waterfall path

In the late morning we had a delightful lassie in a restaurant / guest house overlooking the valley with views of the mountains and the birds of prey in the bright sunshine - delightful.
Later that afternoon we had a wonderful massage in a tiny hut attached to a guest house. We were both able to have a 90 min massage in the same room with a small electric heater to keep us all warm. We had managed to do plenty of walking, which is not easy with crowded towns and long bus journeys. Next day we were to travel out of the mountains and into the main part of the punjab to visit the Golden Temple in Amritsar.


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