Day 17 - Dharamshala

16.10.2022

Day 17

Next destination, Dharamshala a city in Himachal Pradesh, approx 250 kms and estimated travel time of 5.30 hours.

This hillside city is home to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile and sits on the edge of the Himalayas and is surrounded by cedar forests.

We started rather late (by our standards) at 9.00 am and decided to first visit Rock Garden in Chandigarh. The garden is built using industrial and home waste and thrown-away items and sculptures made from recycled ceramic. We did a quick tour of the garden and proceeded to our next destination.

At Dharamshala, we had booked at Misty Mountains an AirBnB homestay, but decided to do some sightseeing before check in. 

 

Our first stop at Norbulingka institute, is dedicated to the preservation of the Tibetan culture in its literary and artistic forms. The peace and serenity is out of this world. You can sit in front of the Buddha, in a huge room and just pray, or just be quiet and try and find the inner peace. A great place to visit.

Our next stop, McLeodganj a suburb of Dharamshala, also known as "Little Lhasa" is famous for being home to the world-renowned Tibetan spiritual leader the 14th Dalai Lama. The Tibetan government-in-exile is headquartered in McLeodganj. We could not do the Dharamshala Skyway (ropeway ride) to McLeodganj as we missed the cut off time by couple of minutes. We had to take the rather stressful drive up the narrow uphill road to McLeodganj. 

We reached our AirBnB homestay at 7.30 pm. Few words about Misty Mountain - the stay was comfortable and the food extra ordinary! We enjoyed our first outing at an AirBNB homestay during our tour and it was great.

At end of day seventeen - 6061 kms on our tracker.

#fulltankers