A Trip to Himachal - Part 1 - Khajjiar

How we reached there:

Pune -> Pathannkot : Train journey via Jelum Express, takes 38 hours

Pathankot -> Khajjiar (via Dalhousie) : Hired Taxi, takes 4 hours, keep the stomach empty as it will be a roller-coster hill-side ride

Places to stay:

Khajjiar - Hotel Devdar, a part of HPTDC hotels, provides the best possible location for this place. Apart from this, there are other options like Mini-Swiss facing other side of mountain.

Places to eat ( esp vegetarian food ):

• Hotel Iravati in Chamba has wonderful dishes of Gucchi (a kind of Mushroom) and Chamba Kadhi.
• Street-side food options, esp Parathas, are quite good in this part of the region

So after a continuous journey of close to 43 hours, we finally reached our HPTDC Hotel Devdar in Khajjiar during the early part of noon. The lush green meadows in front of us instantly removed all the tiredness. Khajjiar is a very tiny hill station of Himachal, sometimes referred to as a Switzerland of India. It has a centrally located small lake, and surrounding meadows on slope all around. It is surrounded by trees and mountains from all side making it picture-perfect. There is a Khajjiar Nag temple, based on which this place is named ‘Khajjiar’. There are small treks all around, and morning walk towards other side to see sunset is worth the efforts. There is also a vaishnodevi temple at a walking distance, with huge Shiva statue.

Things to do:

During day time, the meadow is full of activities with tourists coming there from near-by places. Horse-riding is quite common. Grass and slope offers sports like Zorbing, which is a must try. One can also do paragliding on the other side of the mountain.

Nearby Places:

• Chamba: At 22 km distance from Khajjiar, Chamba is located along the river Ravi. Laxmi Narayan Temple is a must visit place there. There is also a Bhuri Singh Museum to know a bit of history of the place. If you are lucky, may get to see cricket match in the central Chamba ground!

• Dalhousie: Dalhousie is yet another hilltop tourist place, with Tibetan market and a lot of street shopping. There is a wildlife sanctuary, Kala Top, on the way to Dalhousie. This road also takes you along multiple hillside schools.

(Part 2 will take you to McLeod Ganj and ahead)