Day 6: Dharamshala: Waterfall, Tsuklakhang Complex, and Illiterati

This is a photo blog with hopefully funny and interesting captions because there are lots of photos to share.

Also possibly because I am slightly tired of writing.



The first three photos showcase the view from the hotel before we left.

Did Purav take this, or Saumya? I forgot.

Parthvi took this photo. It is amazing.

Our first stop was the waterfall. On our way, we stopped at a shop. A few guys bought kurtas. But we made everyone hurry because there was a lot we had planned for the day. The intenery we created included:

Waterfall
Tibet Kitchen for lunch
Dalai Lama Temple at Tsuklakhang Complex
Tibet Museum (we did this the next day)
Illiterati Cafe
Shopping whenever we get the chance

The waterfall was tiny. That's mostly because we were off season.

The rest of the group walking towards the waterfall's water because Prapti, Shanay, Niti, and I decided that if we go ahead, everyone will be forced to follow.

Happy faces because of the prospect of great photos.

The tiny trek till here is enough for this delicate bunch. The waterfall was barely visible and we are at the center of it but we don't care. There are mountains all around us. Large stones that look stunning, and crystal clear water. 

This was the largest patch I found without plastic although there is a speck of green on the top right corner. But the water was really clear. If there was no waste, and if we weren't almost stepping in it, I would have been tempted to drink it.

So pretty.

 
This picture is perfect in my opinion. I clicked solo photos of everyone here. Every single person you saw in the photograph much above. It was a little annoying that people kept coming in the middle to click their own photos, but that's okay. I hope everyone liked them. The waterfall basically became a photo session though.

We proceeded to go to the temple we had passed before reaching the waterfall. There is no picture of it. It was nice. We were there for just five minutes though. Our next stop was lunch.



These hungry faces overordered and we ended up wasting a lot of food.

TIBET KITCHEN MADE AUTHENTIC HAND-MADE JAIN NOODLES FOR ME I was the happiest. 100% recommended.

Excellent quantity. Tasty food. Hot food.

We split up after lunch. The group with me visited the bathroom one after another, had some baksu cake at a local bakery which was great too, and proceeded to the Tsuklakhang complex. The other group of three girls and three guys went to a spa to get their hair washed. (The guys did not get their hair washed, they just went for company.)

A monastery? on our way to the complex

Sunsets are always pretty.

They were very satisfied.

Romit really wanted to shop. We met a Sambhav lookalike and creeped him out. We walked inside the monastery. The monk was not helpful, and I do not remember anything beyond there being many avatars of Budhha painted.

"Accept them but not because you respect me"

Why do we look like politicians.

I turned all of these and used so much strength, only to realise that there was something that gave you a grip underneath towards the last few. Sigh. Sometimes I feel really stupid.

Found this in a small room. Isn't it so pretty?

We moved on to Illiterati after that. It had become dark by now and we had a long walk downhill. Illiterati was important to go to because it was a book cafe and book cafes are cool. The coffee, we realised, was also very good.

We all end up where we belong....

The book cafe was Instagram worthy. Haven't put this up on Instagram yet.

We got back after a long walk uphill. Some of them got a taxi. But the climb warmed us up. Romit got lost. We found him too thankfully. It was important to find him because sometime in the middle of all this he had broken his phone. We went back to the hotel to a tasty dinner. 

 I think I slept off because I was really tired. Niti and Saumya proceeded to play.

I should also probably mention that two buses full of people went for this amazing trek which even I wanted to go for but my difficulty climbing and going down stairs did not allow me to. Nonetheless, I had a great day, and so did they. They were literally next to snow mountains which is really cool.

We were happy with our waterfall.
And hot tibetian food.
And coffee.

And some of us, very happy, with a hairwash.
Kanksha

Day 7: Dharamshala to Dalhousie: Museum, Stadium, and walk-up-um in snow.

We got ready pretty fast and left for the monastery. Niti, Saumya, and I spent the last ten minutes turning the mattress upside down to hide the burn and arranging the bedsheet in a fake rugged fashion to hide the burn as well. Most people may learn of this news while reading the blog post. (Yes, we burnt something here too.) Moving on... We did a small touch and go to the church.

Turns out the monastery was the Tsuklakhang complex's Dalai Lama temple that we had visited yesterday so the same bunch of us turned to the museum next door. The winds were fast at the entrance as usual as we entered the museum. I was surprised because I knew nothing about the history of Tibet and China. Here’s a small recap:

History lesson begins. The museum is a gem full of history displayed beautifully, but I don't recommend you to go visit the Tibet Museum if you want to keep your spirits high.

In 1949 China invaded Tibet. The occupation was accompanied by policies and actions intended to wipe out the Tibetian identity and traditional way of life. More than a million Tibetians died as a result of the occupation, victims of fighting, hunger, execution and labour camps. Spiritual and material treasures was robbed, buried, destroyed, and were lost forever. Tibets forest were killed and its sacred lakes polluted - it became a vast military base and a nuclear waste site. These terrors forced many people to flee their Homeland, and the mere survival of Tibetan culture and identity is now threatened.

Like every story, there was a resistance, there was destruction, and there were people who attempted to escape. The Museum has stories of all these people - people who were sentenced to imprisonment, people who were hung from the ceiling, those that had cigarettes stubbed on their bodies and were beaten severely with metal wires. Some female prisoners also had electric weapons inserted in their private parts. There was never enough food, and all of the prisoners were made to work without their basic needs being met. It was a pure human rights violation and I cannot believe that this happened in the past few years.

To add to this, a bunch of people mostly aged between twenty to twenty-four self-immolated. They set themselves on fire because they thought that was better than the life they would live in China occupied Tibet. There were their last words displayed along with passport sized photographs.

History lesson over.

After the eye-opening visit, we ran to do some last minute shopping in the spare time. Niti was getting anxious about reaching the bus on time, but Saumya and I were pretty sure we still wouldn't be the last people (and we weren't!). We got a small dabbi for Saumya's mom as she has a collection of them. It was really pretty. Adesh got a peace sound-maker as far as I remember. I don't know what the actual name is, but its this bowl which has a thing to be moved round and round to generate a peaceful sound. Upload a picture in the comments maybe?

The next stop was to the stadium. We wanted to make a pit-stop at Illiterati again for some cake (too bad for me because it had egg) and our driver agreed to pause for a minute. Jay got off but was greeted by dogs guarding the door and I guess he's afraid of dogs, so no one ended up getting cake (too bad for egg eating people they got their hopes up for no reason hehe) and the driver became impatient and called him back.

We reached the stadium before we realised - it felt like a really short distance - and it was beautiful. So much green. And blue. And snow-capped mountains. Those cricketers sure are lucky. I have no sentiment attached to it, but I think the guys do. We took lots of photos. LOTS.

Make sure you go to the end immediately and take photos because no one really goes till there and then you'll get photos without people in the background.

My lovely class

We tried taking a class picture (the only one) but it didn't end up that great. Whoever is reading this, make sure one happens on traditional day please!!!

Post the stadium, the only aim was to reach Dalhousie as fast as we could. We cracked a lot of inappropriate jokes that I cannot mention because my family reads this. One of them was on Shrey's beanie. Why Saumya, why?

It began snowing by the time we reached Dalhousie. We got so excited.

"Look at the snow!", everyone shouted. "Oh no no no", said the driver. "Why why why", said we. "Because one kilometre walking uphill with luggage it is going to be." said he.

And that was that. With the bus slipping, it wasn't really possible for him to come up. Doesn't matter that a 40 seater bus compared to our 14 seater made it.

So we walked. And grumbled. And got irritated. And walked. And cried. And walked.

And by the time we reached, everyone had lost it. Because we were angry. A lot of us shouted at the tour operator. "Get us new rooms." "Get us a new hotel." "This hotel doesn't even have a gate or reception." "Our servant has better accommodation than this."

BAM. Shots fired. Not good. But did we do damage control? No. We still kept shouting. I think everyone really needed to let out their anger. Not sure that is the best thing that we did, because accommodation finally didn't get changed, and we still haven't got the promised refund, but I am sure Nikesh is working on it.

We had a little fight amongst ourselves too. To go to Amritsar tomorrow or not to go? To change hotels tomorrow or not to change?

To be or not to be?
Kanksha

I added the 'to be or not to be' just like that.
(But did I miss anything? Let me know if I did. We meet in college every day. Or you could just comment. *shameless publicity* okay bye.)

 

Day 8: Let it snow, Let it snow!

I must say that the first half of the day until about 11 am was spent preparing ourselves to go into the snow. We got special treatment because the spiral staircase to go to our breakfast area had become very slippery and Mit called breakfast to a room for the girls. Very convenient. And even more excuse to take our own time and not get out of the room into the icy paradise.

It had been fifteen years since I saw snow like how I saw it that day. It was snow-ing (yes the continuous tense), and it had been snowing (the perfect continuous tense? I have forgotten my grammar), and the entire area around us had snow. White, white, white.

I instantly felt bad for not getting out earlier when I saw a snowman a few people of our group had made. It took them 2 hours I think. We had a mini-snowball fight. Took lots of photos. Niti and Saumya helped me into a headstand since I really wanted to do one and take a picture with it. I think I need to work on being able to do it myself. Lots of boomerangs, lots of mid-air snow shots. Then Niti fell down so only Saumya and I proceeded to take a walk in the market.


Turns out Nits thought we’d be back quickly, and it became a little messy because she was waiting for us for the longest time :(

Nonetheless Saumya and I had a great time. The market was mostly shut – I am not even sure we reached the market. But we discovered a flap staircase led rooftop which actually four other boys had discovered, and were joined by Hriti and Shyen to ruin the untouched snow with our footsteps and overall destructive nature. Sambhav shared some melon he bought with us, and Saumya and I got oranges from the same place (which we later realised were as good). After another photo session, Saumya went back to the hotel. I proceeded to explore a bit more with Anish. Everyone else had retired to their rooms.

Fast forward an amazing lunch where I am sure all of us over ate inspite of having to fight for paratha as the guy came at the entrance of the lunch room, Mit gave me a lesson on taking pictures in the manual mode of a camera. Saumya slept through it because she was tired and not too well.

Here are my key takeaways, sorry if I got anything wrong:

Shutter Speed: How fast you will click. Quicker you click, lesser light will get in. But you might want to click quickly to capture fast moving things.

Aperture: Squint your eye, and the background will be more blurred. So lesser apurture implies a smaller opening, which means you will get lesser light, but probably a good portrait mode photograph as well.

ISO: This is what you adjust in the end. It is what adds random noise and light to your image.

The white balance: For instance, in cloudy light, colours tend to appear different from real ones.In such a case, by setting white balance to that setting, you’ll get the original setting. Custom for any lighting not present – take a picture of a white page and the camera will do the rest with science.

Post his lesson, I fell sick and Saumya got better. Uncontrollable shivering. Cold hands. Cold feet. Didn’t know what to do. And pain in my chest too.

Apply brandy? Check.

Apply balm? Check.

Stay close to a heater? Check.

Multiple layers on my body and bedsheets to add? Check.

Dinner in bed? Check.

Complimentary custard? Also check.

I have great friends.

I think by night I was feeling much better.

I know everyone else played a lot that day. Some people watched Singham. Why would you watch Singham?

Guess there are still things I don’t understand :P

Kanksha

Day 9: To Amritsar and getting mugged (almost)

It was cold like every other day had been, but we were ready to shift to warmth: Amritsar. Or so I thought... Because after rushing to get ready, and being the first to reach the breakfast spot (we reached even before the breakfast did!), Nikesh came and told us that since the skies had cleared, a bunch of people wanted to visit Chamba. Honestly? I wanted to visit Chamba too. But it was 10 am and by the time we would leave it would be 11 am. Night driving and driving for 10-12 hours was not something I thought was practical at all, so I was against the idea. Like me, so were a bus full of others. Admittedly, I was mildly irritated by how people did not get my point of view, but as long as one bus was ready to leave directly, I did not mind.

A bus would leave if there was a bus in the first place though! We got the news that we had to drag our luggage down with us the same distance we did while reaching the hotel. It didn’t feel like that big of a deal anymore though, since it was mostly downhill. And our journey began.

A lot of ice. Slippery steps.
At getting a grip we were becoming adept.
People filling up roads, cars super slow,
There was nothing more beautiful than the snow.

And then Chetan Ji broke his arm.
(Now I don’t think that was beautiful but a few people thought it was. I still want the promised refund!!!!)

One kilometre down and there was no sign of our bus.
Two more and a few of my friends had slipped.
Some people found a shortcut and joined from the middle. Adesh had paid a coolie to carry his luggage as I found out later, I guess the coolie got them through it.
Put some music in the middle to make the walk more fun.
I kept taking videos because I wanted to document the journey. Unfortunately, it didn’t occur to me that my hand should have been steady while taking them.

When we finally reached after a 5-6 km walk it was pretty funny because my friends were cracking multiple jokes on Chamba and following the itenery to the letter. They did overdo it though, so I hope no one who wanted to go got offended.

This journey was the first one that I almost entirely slept. So I don’t remember much apart from music in the middle and finally reaching Amritsar. Oh, what a hotel! It had a shoe polishing and cleaning machine to greet us. There was a gate. There were people to take our bags up to the floor. There was a lift. We had a geyser in the room OH MY GOD that was the best thing ever. You know, the basic amenities that we generally always take for granted? They felt like luxury. And the temperature had also risen which meant we were back to sweater weather from layer-weather.

x

Fun fact: We had booked the hotel for 5 less people than the total number and got away with it.

After checking in, we rushed to eat dinner to Bade Bhai ka Dhaba 5 mins walking from our hotel. The food was delicious. Yummy kulcha, yummy lassi, and yummy paneer capsicum. My friends liked the mixed freshlime soda a lot too. By the time we were done with dinner I think it was about 10 pm. We still decided to visit the Golden temple another 10 mins away to see the lights.

Cleaning our feet with warm water at the entrance, we were entranced by the view. It was literally shining in the night. We weren’t allowed to go inside though, so planned to come back the next day. We did take a walk along the water bank and read whatever information there was to read. There were posters everywhere that said that photograhy is prohibited, yet volunteers had to consistently request people to not take pictures. I am also guilty of having clicked one. But it was SO PRETTY!

If you do not have anything to cover your head with when you go to the golden temple, do not worry. They have a large bunch of bandana-ish things that you can borrow!

We began our way back sometime between 11-11:30 pm. Us going out at night was a bad idea in the first place, but we had not realised that before. We took another bad decision and unintentionally split the 10 of us into two groups. Suddenly Jay gets a call from Shanay that Saumya’s phone almost got snatched, and that they are all safe but we must be alert, take care, and come back asap. Suddenly we were worried. Jay took off his belt. Adesh belted out “Jhund me chalo, jhund me chalo.” Niti and I were walking in the centre.

We saw a man in front of us. Walk away, walk away, I mentally chanted. And we reached the hotel. It was just 3 minutes away.

Saumya was not okay. Turns out a man almost snatched her phone, she pushed him back as a reflex. And then so did Vinchhi since he was closest to her. They both ran, but she ran into the parking lot by mistake. And she was just lucky that the man didn’t come run behind her, as Vinchhi got her back to the hotel. To top this, she was talking to her parents while all of this happened. They heard the whole thing.

I am not going to go into more detail but really, what were we thinking?

North India.
Drug and alcohol problems.
11 pm in an unknown area.
Equal girls and boys.
Boys that do not look scary but warm and friendly.
NORTH INDIA.
UNKNOWN AREA.

I am just glad everyone is safe.

But this was probably the most irresponsible thing we did on this trip. In hindsight, I cannot believe it occured to none of us.

All’s well that ends well. But this is something I think none of us will forget.

After a few games of connect to lighten up the mood, and deciding to go see the golden temple only after sunrise, we called it a day and slept.

Two days to go,
Kanksha

Day 10: Amritsar: The day we visited Pakistan

Listen along to this song while reading, it'll set the mood.

After the mugging yesterday, we were very cautious and decided to leave after sunrise at about 7:30-8 am. Walking in a group, we reached the golden temple.

Hume koi sharam nahi hai bolne mein ki humein dar lagta hai
Jhund mein chalo, jhund mein chalo

The golden temple is fabulous. It shines from the outside with the sun over it, itself acting like a sun in the middle of clear blue water. Everything in its complex works like clockwork. If something is dirty, volunteers are there with cloth to clean it up. There are people assigned to everything including live music with old instruments. TV screens display lyrics to prayers, and their translations. (The translations could honestly be much better though since they were literal ones like Google Translate.) The line was thankfully not much and in fifteen minutes we were inside.

The temple from the inside is stunning too. Gold plated with intricate red, blue, and green designs - it is art. We saw Gurus reading prayers, and visited other buildings on all four sides as well, but the temple had my heart. The area so peaceful, I told Parthvi it would be great if we could sit here for 10-15 minutes near the water. Good decision because people tend to listen to her. :P

I don't know about everyone else, but I wouldn't have minded sitting there for a longer time. It was just very peaceful. I think I feel this way about most temples that have more space than people. I also feel this way about the sea, and the golden temple is a sort of mix of both.

We drank a handful of water, nibbled on yummy prashaad, and moved on to Jallianwalla bagh. Oh, before this we had kulcha at Bhai Kulwant Singh Kulchia Wale. I only ate paneer again, but what kulcha! The Gobi Kulcha (cabbage) wasn't that great, and my friends really liked the Aloo one (potato).

Some people didn't like Bhai Kulwant Singh Kulchia Wale because of the jeera seeds though (which are needed for digestion) so keep that in mind before you go. 

Jallianwalla bagh was my least favourite place because of the sad history there. 120 people who jumped into the well and died to avoid Dyer's shooting apart from the thousands that died otherwise. We saw bullet marks on the walls. We read old news clippings at the memorial. For a moment we got teleported to old India, and it felt crappy.

What felt even crappier was getting teleported back into the Partition time at the Partition museum. There was so much history there that I had forgotten, and so much that I did not know about. What was interesting and not sad was how well people could write in English. I have not read more formal letters ever before. They were so politically correct and well written.

Go visit The Partition Museum even if it isn't on your list.

Here's a small poem which to me seems like a party invite from there:

 Anyway, we went back to the hotel, rushed through lunch and left for the Wagh border. I think I fell asleep on my way which surprised me.

The Wagh border filled me with patriotic spirit. I think the entire day was like that. We saw foreigners cross no man's land to come to India. That was really cool and I wish we could do it too. Funnily enough, Apple showed us that we were in Pakistan right until we got out of the complex.

Apple, I am not in Pakistan. Fix the glitch ASAP!

For the first time, I understood the importance of flags. With Pakistan having a super large one at their gate, I wished India did too. Because the flag standing strong seemed like a sign of strength. Nothing can beat the strength of all the voices of India come together though. Compare the number of people on either side, and India easily had five times the number Pakistan did. Each side put on a great show. Women were invited to run with the flag, and had a mini dance party to pass time before the ceremony began.

With people shouting slogans, patriotic music, and a border-security-force (BSF) drummer on the top of the 'stadium' perfectly in sync with the force marching below, it was pretty incredible. I also don't know how they can shout so loudly and for so long.

The rest of the day was spent shopping. I got a bunch of dupattas for family and juthis for myself. I think we gave those shops lots of business. 20+ juthis and 16 dupattas is quite crazy - this doesn't even include all of us.

We walked on our way back around 10-10:30 pm. That was the time recommended to us by the reception and locals. We were about twenty of us walking back so that was good.

Hume koi sharam nahi hai bolne mein ki humein dar lagta hai
Jhund mein chalo, jhund mein chalo

As it was the last night, we got together in a room to play games. With some of spyfall that Shanay asked brilliant questions in, rounds of connect, and bidding dumb charades where the girls were clear winners, we called it a night. I think we all learnt that Saumya is great at guessing, and Purav and Shanay really can do any movie by dancing. :)

I hope I am not missing anything!!! If I am, you know the drill. Commenttt.
Kanksha 😀 

Day 11: Bittersweet: Home Sweet Home

As we go on
We remember
All the times we
Had together

^^^^Song for this post. Suggest listening along.

After having slept around 3 am, waking up at 7 wasn't easy. But this had become the story of our lives. Taking complete advantage of the geyser and our own sweet time, Niti and I got ready well in time to go have lassi. I messaged Jay and Vinchhi but neither of them was awake yet.

We went down to have breakfast. I think I ate a lot. Soon it was 8:30 am and we managed to reach them to leave for lassi. Ahuja's lassi was the initial plan. The people at the reception told us to go to Gyani-di-lassi though. 

Apparently Ahuja has marketed a lot, but Gyani-di-lassi is even better. 

Adesh, Vinchhi, Parthvi, Prapti, Niti, and I finally left for the lassi around 9:45 am. The bus drivers were not cooperative as usual. So our walk till the shop was spent calling up our friends to wake up and get ready by 10:15. For what it is worth, the lassi was pretty amazing. I had to leave a tiny bit though, because I was the last one to finish and we got an auto quickly :(

On reaching the hotel, I realised that I had missed buying sweets for the family. Asked Niti and Saumya if they would join me, but Niti declined because it was last minute and Saumya didn't feel like it. When I saw Purav though, he immediately agreed and we ran/took an auto to Goenka sweets to buy Pinni. I wish I had a video because the streets the auto took us through were so narrow, that if we were in Mumbai, even a scooter would think before passing through them. On our way back, a horse cart ahead of us lost control and banged into us slightly. We paid the auto driver before a fight began and ran the last 80 meters till the hotel. Were we late? No. ^_^

Goenka sweets is recommended by locals (3 of them did to me). Pinni is their speciality but it tastes like mag ki daal ka sheera. There was another sweet from P. A few of my friends also got khazoor. And no, those are not dried dates. It is something else.

The drive to the airport was mellow. I don't think anyone was talking much, and you could hear music in the background. To avoid a 300 rupee parking, we tried to empty the bus and make the driver leave in 5 minutes, but I guess we weren't quick enough. The five-minute rule is quite stupid in my opinion. Of course we aren't going to park - we want to be dropped off. But it was okay.

After checking in, figuring out how to make the luggage 15+7kg, and clubbing in heavier luggage with lighter ones, we reached the waiting area. The waiting area was SO TINY. It was only as big as a wedding hall, with two overpriced restaurants. There was no Cafe Coffee Day and that is EVERYWHERE. Can you believe it? After trying to get the shops to make maggi, which they disagreed to because there were cameras, we settled to finish the snacks everyone still had. A few games of spyfall and transfer of images between Parro's Pixel and my DSLR, we saw people lining up to take the bus for the flight. 

In the flight, Purav exchanged seats with a guy in the window seat where Niti and I were sitting. It was all of our people only around us, which makes sense since we were 20-25 of us. We played two player reactor and hand cricket. Deep conversations, a cuppa of chai, and Purav losing to Niti later, we landed safely. 

Airplane tip: Carry tea packets like Hriti did in your handbag so you can call for hot water and sip tea for free. ;)

The differences between Mumbai's Domestic airport and Amritsar's domestic airport are unbelievable. Big shops - not just for food, but shopping too. Beautiful resting areas. Chargers. Glass partitions. Plants. So much light. So much warmth. So much, again, food. The smell of yummy food and warmth greeting us got us all excited.

We were finally home.

After grabbing our luggage, everyone dispersed one by one. The bittersweetness didn't hit us until we reached home - at least it didn't hit me.

I came on the trip very anxious about certain things. Things like alcohol, things like if my best friend isn't coming will I still have as much fun, things like what will I do for ten days especially because I am not that connected to my college friends compared to other people in my life. But it was all worth it. I got more connected, figured out how to have fun my own way, and the alcohol worried me only one night. I had an amazing time and would have missed being a part of the trip otherwise. So thank you every single person. And special thanks to Adesh, Mit, and Nikesh who handled our frustrating trip organiser every single day.

With our trip coming to an end, everything feels more real. Leaving feels more real. It being the last semester feels more real. The #OneLastTime is finally real.

To an incredible semester ahead. :D

(If I have missed anything COMMENT COMMENT COMMENT!)

Lots of love ❤
Kanksha