Northern Glimpses

Since last 5-6 years or even b4 tht when i was doing my engineering, i have heard a lot about places like Jammu, Dalhousie, Manali,Chamba...... from my college friends. well thts the benefit of being a part of a hostel. Although you have been nowhere, you have done nothing but with so many people of other different places and culture you learn a lot of it. So i was always eager to go these places and finally 10 of us planned for a trip to North in last season of 2009. As the time came many of the planners fell flat and finally 4 of us boarded the Wagon in Nov 2009. We catched Paschim Exp from Bvali and alighted at Amritsar (proudly called as Ambarsar by locals) and there we went to one of the most beautiful religious place - The Golden Temple. The cold there was chilling as well killing but we were well prepared. From there we boarded another train to Jammu for visit to Vaishno Devi. Well it was not a religious trip but it wouldn't sound good if we went there and not visited these places. I mean it was just like anyone visiting Goa, gives themselves a chance to visit the famous Churches there. The 14 kms walk upside and the next 14 kms downside was really exciting with breathtaking views. It took us 12 hrs (1:00PM to 1:00Am) for this to and fro journey. When we got down we were not even capable of finding a good place to eat. We directly went back to our hotel and openend our eyes the next day morning. Thank god we were feeling good the next day so we went straight to our nxt and most awaited destination Dalhousie. The trip was too long we reached there around 9 in the night. And the temperature there was too less than expected. Walking on roads of Dalhousie is the most njoying part there but walking on the roads at 2 in the morning is grt challenge and we did it. Then we stayed there for next 3 days going to surrounding famous places like Khajjiar (also known as Swiss of India). From there we moved to Chamba but we were only 2 left by tht time as other punters got to be back to their places. But at Chamba we were joined by 1 more friend of ours and around 8-10 more of his. And it was a frightening night ahead as next day early morning we had to move from there and still not sure how but we moved. I continued my journey to Benaras- alone as the last guy left with me has to come back to Mumbai. But although alone i enjoyed the trip to Benaras as it was lesser cold as compared to Dalhousie and so I was enjoying it at the fullest. First time i went to 'Ghats of Ganges' and beleive me although the water was not so clear as the name Ganga suggests the evening at ghat was astonishing. I stayed there for almost a week as there was a marriage to be attended and was back to mumbai for the neccessities - Roti, Kapda, Makaan!