Glimpses of Palampur - Himachal Pradesh



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The plan to make a visit to Palampur was followed up by a tiring day full of trek from Mcleod ganj to Triund. My day started early in morning at 5:00 AM with beautiful run in serene and soothing Mcleod ganj. I wonder if people of Mcleod Ganj have any complaints in life, people seemed chilled out attitude and fun loving. Morning breeze of this paradise fills mind and soul with freshness and happiness. I never felt like coming back from this place. I made all the efforts to enjoy every moment of this morning. However time keeps running. So soon it was the time to head back to Hotel to execute our next plan, which was Mission Palampur.

Keeping our Taxi cab aside, we hired Royal Enfield Thunderbird for a day. I rode it down nine kilo meters to fill the petrol. The thump of this old bird was unique and fascinating. For that matter, it has been the feature of Royal enfield bikes that every bike has different thump even within the same model. As it is I am Royal Enfield fan so riding this bike was altogether different experience on Dharamshala’s steep roads. I picked up Anand from Hotel and started the ride towards Palampur which was just 40 KM from Mcleod Ganj.

The drive down hill was awesome but It was to my surprise that Palampur is not situated on high altitude so we kept riding down and down till the time we rode more than half the distance.

Suddenly flow of vehicle increased from opposite side. One left curve and there was huge traffic jam due to some religious ocassion there,so we were stuck. The day had grown up so as the heat. It became tough to ride the bike in that traffic with continuous usage of clutch and breaks. In a matter of minutes, I sensed that there is something wrong with the bike. I almost had hit a car ahead of me, managed to control the bike from falling down and finally manage to start its ignition countless time. Finally I realised that this bike is not in ridable condition in heavy traffic because of its old engine and dead clutch. So decided to park at roadside and go back.

I thought of giving last try and turned back towards Mcleod Ganj. It was downhill drive for half a mile. After that the traffic jam was relatively lesser so I thought of starting the ignition. As I kick started the bike, the kick got stuck below silencer and that was the last thing to happen. Someone pushed my bike towards roadside. By this time we had wasted almost 3 hours struggling with old bike. We called the owner of bike and told him to pick up his bike from that place. Simultaneously we called our cab to pick us up from that place.

Our stopover was at a place called Darang. It was flooded with thousands of people moving towards only one direction. These people made our wait quite interesting and busy. We ended up drinking Sugarcane juice countless times. My never ending quest to eat took me to Sweet shop nearby and ate Jalebi, Anand controlled his emotions and did not eat Jalebi, may be callory concious. I did not stop here, I ate few cucumbers and tried searching for Dhaba but it was not available. Disappointed !!

Our cab and bike owner arrived almost same time. After handing over the bike, instead of heading back to Mcleodganj, we started our journey in Innova to Palampur. we crossed all the traffic for next 10 KMs and then the road was clear for driving. After five hours wrestling with old bike and struggle with hot and humid day, the Air conditioned Innova helped me sleep well for a while. I woke up when we had reached Palampur.

Unlike McleodGanj, Palampur was not showered with greenery yet. The town is situated in the foot of mountains in its surroundings. Palampur feels like a God's Home with walls made of mountains around it and Sky the roof. The view looks incomparable when sky is covered by thick clouds covering peaks of mountains and roof of cloud feel like much closure.

We chose to eat our lunch at 4:00 PM in a Restaurant of Himachal Tourism department. The food was not great as expected. We started our drive back to Mcleod Ganj at 5:00 PM and chose different route. Next 25 KMs made me realised why people say that Palampur is very beautiful. The road has some spectacular terrains and views. As we kept climbing the town looked more and more serene. This way had some awesome tea gardens of both sides.

The surprising thing was that in the entire day which was full of events I did not take out my camera at all. Hence I promised myself that I will go back to this place again and spend few days there which this place deserves.