Eurotrip 3.0: Zagreb - what might have been

A dark, cold mist descends on the beautiful Zagreb skyline as I write this. Just yesterday it was twenty-five degrees C and brilliant sunshine. Today it’s ten, and pouring biting cold rain! That’s also been the story of the city of Zagreb in the last few decades…

Just like any leading European city!

I was lucky to catch this beautiful city in all its ‘sunshone splendour’ yesterday. Landscaped green gardens and lakes dot the city, with mountains overlooking in the horizon! Humongous buildings and monuments greet you seemingly at every other corner. Modern trams whiz past you taking commuters and tourists alike from one place to the next. Wide open roads make traffic seem light even at peak hours. Its an urban paradise!

But all of these are the product of Marshal Tito’s time in Croatia (one of the socialist republic blocks of the Yugoslav Republic). The 60s & 70s were the sunshine years in the state. Most of the road, rail & tram systems that we see today functioning in central Zagreb and indeed in all of Croatia are thanks to that time. But after Tito’s death, and the break-up of Yugoslavia into Croatia & other states, it’s been dark days.

When I landed, on the face of it, Zagreb looked like any other Western European city. Good infrastructure, efficient public transport and some beautifully preserved architectural wonders. Scratch the surface, though, and it’s not a very happy story. My host, Vladimir, talks of a sense of despondency amongst the public, of a sense of what was (the great 70s), and what should have been – but for the war. The thought s are echoed by the waiter/owner of the restaurant where I have my lunch… “These are bad times, sir… The margins are nothing and customers are just not there” – this coming from a restaurant right in the center of town next to the Cathedral where I had a scrumptious meal for just 10 euros!

The ‘bad times’ have not, though, caused the city to fall into the hands of crime & such. It is still a safe place, and an absolute delight for tourists.

I took a long 6-7km walk around the centre of town, spending time at the tourist hotspots – King Tomislav Square, Marshal Tito Square, Zagreb Cathedral & Ban Josip Jelacic Square to name a few. There’s also a nice little statue of the great scientist, Tesla sitting, thinking, on a street corner. The whole place gave me a vibe of being laid-back and yet a bit on the edge – almost as if you were lying down but with one eye open looking around warily.

Sight that greets one at Zagreb station

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Getting to Zagreb was a mini-story in itself. I took a round-about route from Marseille to get to Barcelona via Toulouse. A quick look at the map will tell you I traversed two sides of a triangle. But that was the only routing that saved me a night-stay at a hotel. It set me back by some 140 euros but the train ride was comfortable and even included a first-class coach from Narbonne to Barcelona with a video of ‘Wonderful creatures of the sea’ playing on the solitary TV. While the France leg of the journey was cloudy and dark, as soon as the train crossed the border (and Spanish border inspectors), it was sunny Spain all the way!

An evening flight from Barcelona meant I had a few hours to kill. I made it up to Park Guell, one of the few things I had missed on my last trip. The ‘usual’ insane Gaudi creations welcome you at this historic park. It has some great views of the city as well and is worth spending a couple of hours just wandering.

Park Guell

The flight from Barcelona to Zagreb was uneventful but for a few bursts of lightning that bode of possible rough weather in the coming days in Croatia.

It took me a whole day of rest to recover from the wedding party & all the traveling around it. Recharged, I walked entire Zagreb town dry and today it’s onwards to Osijek.

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Perhaps, Croatia joining the EU next year will provide the silver lining that this city & this country so desperately need. If all goes well, Zagreb will be restored to its former glory and will challenge other major European cities.

To hope!!

Eurotrip 3.0 : Paris, Côte d’Azur & the story of the missing baggage

How often have you heard people’s baggage not coming in with their flight? Maybe a couple of times… And how often has it happened to you?  Most likely never! It was the same for me… until…

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A couple of months back, when I was booking tickets for my upcoming Eurotrip, my regular ticket ‘agent’, cleartrip.com gave me Turkish Airlines as the cheapest option. 42,000 rupees for a Mumbai-Paris, Milan-Mumbai circuit seemed like a decent price versus competition. The usual suspects, Emirates, were conspicuous by their absence at the top 3 in the list. Last time I flew Emirates for 32,000 in an almost similar route. Sadly, it wasn’t to be this time, and I had to contend with 42,000 with Turkish Airlines. A quick call to my friend (who’d recently been to Turkey on Turkish) gave me confidence that it was a fairly decent airline. (Later I would find out that Turkish Airlines are the ‘European Airline of the year’ winners two years running! More on that soon).

The good thing about the connection was that it had only a 1 hour stopover in Istanbul – so was almost as good as the direct flight, but half the fare! Leaving Bombay at 6 in the morning, I would be at Paris by 2 in the afternoon (Paris time). I thought that was pretty cool. Suddenly Europe didn’t seem that far.

On the day of the flight, I reached the airport uneasily early at 3am and groggily dragged myself to the Turkish counter. A rather irritable guy was behind it, and I confidently told him that I had no luggage to check-in. I wanted to take my suitacase/trolley with me so that I could just step out of Paris airport & head to the city to catch my train (which was 2 hours later) to Hyères, in the South of France.

Since the guy obviously had no better business, he asked me to weigh my bag. Grudgingly, I agreed. It was 14 kilos, 6 kilos over the ‘limit’. If you fly frequently enough, you will notice that the ‘limit’ applies most often when the dude at the counter has nothing else to do. I had no choice but to hand in the suitcase.

The plane was choc-a-block full and I wondered where on earth were so many Indians going, on a Friday morning that too! The plane was quite normal looking, quite different from the classy Singapore Airlines or the (once) shining Emirates. The staff didn’t seem very friendly, and I couldn’t blame them – the hoards of Indians there were loud, and completely unaware of rules. One dude kept pushing back his seat while the plane hadn’t even taken off. Another old aunty got up to go to the loo as the flight was taxiing. It was chaotic to say the least. Not something anyone needed at 6am!

The food that came once the flight took off was run-of-the-mill. Istanbul arrived rather soon as I dozed off desperate to catch up on the night’s lost sleep.

Istanbul airport looks a lot like Dubai - A bustling transit airport with people running from one gate to the other. All I got, though, was a brief 30-minute glimpse of it as I hurried to catch my connecting flight to Paris.

The plane to Paris was trash and 50% of the screens weren’t working. The ones that were, only had the flight path being displayed. Yes, it’s only a 3 hour flight, but that doesn’t make it a non-international flight. Hell I paid 40,000 bucks, at least show me a movie no! And if this was the European Airline of the year, I shudder to imagine what the others would be like!

I landed at reached the baggage belt at exactly 2.00 pm. The bags started coming in 4 minutes. Pretty soon though, I was checking my watch time and again. My suitcase was nowhere in sight and I was having less & less time to get out of the airport, to the city and to my train! During the long wait, I had intuitively checked where the ‘missing baggage’ counter was, and how people were exiting once they took their baggage. All scenarios had been worked out. And contingency plans prepared. At 2.55 pm, after multiple delays, staff coming and checking the belt as it had stopped working, the ‘baggage delivery completed’ sign flashed. Contingency plan 1 was to be put into action! I headed straight for the missing baggage counter. They told me that the bags will arrive only at 6pm. That meant I had to miss my train. But that also meant I had to go to the city, get my ticket reworked and come back to take my bags.

But, surprisingly, they offered to deliver my bag wherever I would be! I hadn’t planned for this ‘contingency’. So I filled out the form and asked them to deliver it to my hotel in the South of France. But I would be there only 2 days and that would also mean I would attend my friend’s wedding having bought clothes off the shelf in one of the most expensive places on the planet!

Clearly, that wasn’t going to happen. So I went into the city, took the tickets from Alice and reworked ‘em to get a later train from the airport itself. My cousin sister, who lives in Paris, also joined me for the trip back to the airport. I picked up my bag, which arrived on the same belt as soon as I reached there, as if on cue, and we had some nice pasta & sandwiches before I was off on my train to Marseille.

Cavalaire-sur-mer (sur mer literally translating to ‘on the sea’) was the final destination and it’s a 2 hour drive from Marseille. Usually people rent cars and go there, but I had a pickup waiting in the form of one of the wedding party – Mathieu. We had a nice chat (about Marseille, Cavalaire, Syria,traveling in general & Manchester United) along the way and picked up Alice in Hyeres (another town between Marseille and Cavalaire) who was stuck there as there were no buses to Cavalaire!

Cavalaire-sur-mer

Clearly public transport isn’t something that the Côte d’Azur (Blue Coast) is famous for. Usually the rich and famous come in their Mercedes’, BMWs et al, or their private jets, which land in Hyeres-Toulon airport!

Brilliant blue waters all along the way, clear blue skies and awesome roads. It’s driving paradise! I remember the game NFS where one of the tracks was ‘Côte d’Azur’ and I dreamed of going there sometime. That dream is now fulfilled. 

Côte d’Azur - unparalleled driving pleasure

Vietnam

Ever since my friend Amaresh moved to Vietnam, we've had regular conversations about me doing a trip there. 4 years have rushed by since that move, and if I'd have waited any longer, he would have moved out and I'd probably never have gone. I was looking for a week's window to do the trip, and when, at the beginning of May, I knew I'd get a week sometime in mid-May, the plan was hatched. My friend Divyesh agreed to come along as well as it promised to be a nice, quiet little holiday.

Most of the people I told about my trip pretty much went: "Vietnam?? Isn't there like a war going on there?" Its funny how quickly time passes - its been over 30 years since the Vietnamese fought a war! And nearly 40 since the war with the US ended.

That war had left the entire country in ruins - Millions of people killed, entire cities destroyed, huge swathes of agricultural land rendered useless by chemical bombing, which sees babies being born with defects to this day.

As my trip began, I was interested to see how the war had affected the psyche of the people of this country, and what they had built this nation into.

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A brief stopover in Bangkok gave us a 'taste' of what we were to expect in South-east Asia - noodles, chopsticks, incomprehensible menus, zero English, lots of gooey looking stuff at all tables, and generally short people.

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Amaresh had gotten us a letter which we were supposed to furnish on our arrival in Hanoi, and in true military+government style, a disinterested looking man in uniform took it, and it got returned to us by another at the other end of the room, stamped and free for Vietnam.


Hanoi (Hà Nội) 


Vietnam is a 'long' country, shaped almost like stretched 'S' or, for the mathematically inclined, an integral sign, stretching over 3000 kilometers. (longitudinally, it runs about parallel from Calcutta to Kanyakumari). Hanoi is right up north and is the capital of Vietnam. 


We landed there in the evening on a Friday, and had just about enough time to check into our hotel, the Hoabinh Palace, and have a walk around. The receptionist helped us with directions to a street where we could have a live personal barbecue and some beer. Much like India, bargaining is a way of life in Vietnam, I was told, and sure enough, after haggling with a few of the street joints we got a hang of the prices around and settled for a 50 dong barbecue with 15 dong Hanoi beers. 


After a good night's sleep, Saturday morning was typically lazy and we left our hotel only at around midday.. The weather was pleasant and we had hired a motorbike to go around!  We went to some random place for lunch where the waiters didn't know a word of English and we relied on Google translate to get us through! Divyesh was on one of his 'I'm vegetarian today' days, and if it weren't for Google and some helpful customers, he'd have angered the veggie Gods, and would be doomed to never get married :-D The food was surprisingly good and we made more than a few friends!

Riding the bike around town was good fun and being a Saturday all the kids and families were out playing in the parks... All sorts of weird games on display... Particularly weird was one where there's a sort of badminton court, two players on either side, hitting what looks more like a dart than a shuttle WITH THEIR FEET! They wear special wide shoes which lets them kick the dart easily!


The highlight of the day was the National Museum of Vietnamese History, which traced the history of the country right from its Chinese days, through to the French occupation, the war with the US, and then with Cambodia. I'm usually not one for Museums and if it weren't for the hot afternoon sun, we'd not have dinked into this one. Apart from giving us a cooling break, the museum was very well setup leading you through the story of the country. It was just like reading a good book - you want to keep turning the pages to see where its all headed - you just want to go to the next room to see what happened next!

After the museum, we rode around all afternoon and evening seeing all the grand communist buildings, reminded me of East Berlin! The city itself is remarkably clean and our parochial city dwellers in India can certainly learn a thing or two from the viets on public hygiene - stop having and spitting paan, for one!

After all the motorbiking, we went for a massage at our hotel spa to relax our muscles, my back especially which was complaining!

Dinner was at a place right outside our hotel called Le Cafe, and it was international cuisine, pasta and such, so it was easy to order and we knew what we would get for a change!

After dinner came a forgettable next 2 minutes. I was waiting outside for Divyesh, who'd gone up to pick up something, and a couple approached me. The man was on a bike and the woman got off and started asking me about my trip. We had met several such people during the day and had had good little conversations with them.. The woman then started to ask if I wanted a massage. That was a bit weird. She put her hand on my shoulder to signify 'massage', and when she did it another time I had to push her away because I understood they were not quite a 'normal' couple. She then said ok and began to leave on her motorbike with the man .. They would have hardly gone 3 seconds when a man on the street shouted 'check check chain!' sure enough, my gold chain  was gone!! I turned sprinted after them but they were too quick and I couldn't even get a plate number.. Huffing, and angry at myself, I came to the hotel to ask them for the police station. They said it would br closed and monday would be our best bet.. In the midst of all this Divyesh was wondering where I had suddenly disappeared! All hope was not lost though.. Since we were standing right outside our hotel, there was a chance the couple were caught red-handed on camera.. I looked at the footage a couple of days later but to no avail. We could see the bike coming and standing, but no chance of seeing a face or a number plate.


In hindsight, I should have gone after them with the bike, but that could have ended up with me in a hospital. This could have happened in any city in the world, but I think through the day we met such wonderful, smiling, harmless people, I just let my guard down...


Next day was going to be Halong Bay, the stunning 1900-odd limestone islands springing out of the sea.




Halong Bay (Vịnh Hạ Long)

We had booked a day tour at the hotel for about US$40 per person, which included a bus to & fro, a boat ride in the bay, lunch, kayaking through caves and such! After an 8am start, we reached Halong Bay around mid-day where we boarded our boat almost immediately. From the boat were treated to some super stunning views. The double-kayaking into some caves was super-special! It was real fun but required tons of strength and stamina. There was an option to stay back out on a boat at night
and go to Hanoi the next day but we chose to come back the same evening to get some rest and recharge before we left Hanoi.. With all the shepherding of tourists from one spot to the next, Halong Bay had a bit of a boring Disneyland kind of feel to it, but there's no taking away from the stunning views on offer. If I were to do it again, I'd want to rent my own boat and go do my own exploring.


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The next morning, Monday was nice and slow and I got some paperwork out of the way for the police case I was filing for the chain. The hotel staff was very supportive.. We went through that night's videos but couldn't get a conclusive identity, although the bike was somewhat visible.. The policeman at the station was also cordial and wished me luck on the rest of the journey...

We took a 2.30pm flight out to Dalat, where Amaresh was posted.

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Dalat (Đà Lạt)

I had not read up about Dalat at all before landing so was a bit surprised to hear the pilot announce the temperature as 21 degrees, at 430 pm!! I peeked out of the window to find a most stunning view of mountains with clouds for company, and the landing strip was also on one such hill! Amaresh was at the airport to pick me up, his driver driving his SUV! And then he said that we would drive UP to Dalat!!

Lush green mountains till the eye can see, beautiful french styled villas with those red roofs, and that slight nip in the air woven in with a threading of fine sunshine - paradise! And if that was not all, Amaresh's house greeted me with 4 over-the-top-happy dogs and 2 mischievous pups!! 2 massive halls, 2 bedrooms on the first floor, each with its own balcony, one facing the road out front, and the
other over the garden and the jaw-dropping valley below!! I immediately thought to myself that I have to book my ticket OUT of this place as per my loosely planned itinerary, or else I might never
leave!

We went to a local cafe in the evening and caught up on stories from the last few years, before crashing for the night!

The next day, Tuesday, a car was ready to take us around, and Mr Tai our english-speaking driver was the perfect tour guide! We visited waterfalls, did a cable car ride, drove a sledge through the forest, and clicked pictures wearing the emperor's clothes in his palace. Dalat is the only city in south vietnam which the North decided not to attack / bomb as it was too pretty, too beautiful.. they won the war and the city's old buildings are a smiling testament to that!

In the evening, Amaresh took us to a local vietnamese place, where we ate freshly fried bhindis (lady's finger) of all things.. So they give you your own wooden pan like thing and a fire under it and oil - you just 'barbecue' ur stuff and eat it with some awesome chutney!


Nha Trang

Early on Wednesday morning, we said goodbye to Amaresh and to Dalat and headed back up north to the beach town of Nha Trang (pronounced 'na chang')! We met a british guy on the way and decided to hang out together as our itineraries were quite similar.. In Nha Trang, we took a cable car ride out to Vin pearl island, the longest cable car in SE Asia! It runs over the sea from the main land to this island! The views were the best I've had by a long way, even better than the cable car in barcelona which gives a great view of the city and harbour too.

On the island is a theme park with some amazing rides, an underwater aquarium, a stunning beach with white sand and a beach-volleyball setup (played that with some locals and some russian dude) and lots more! We had reached there at 2 and left only at around 5.30 after having an absolute ball! We came back to the city had some 'Indian food' for a change, an early dinner (they're everywhere these Indians I tell you!). and then took the bus to our next stop - the picturesque town of
Hoi An!


Hoi An (Hội An)

The overnight bus from Nha Trang to Hoi An was groovy-looking & comfy. It was operated by Sinh Cafe and the service was decent.

We reached Hoi An on Thursday morning. It's a wonderful, small beach-town.. Its known for its tailoring and I got a linen suit stitched for about US$35 all inclusive..! Also got a pair of suede leather shoes made for about US$20.. Very classy! We stayed at Hotel Hai Au which was well located and we got all our tailoring done in the shops nearby. There are many many more shops in the French Quarter, but we found them to be more expensive. Apart from the tailoring, we of course went to the beach and chilled, drove around on our mobike and generally had a nice peaceful time of it.. In hindsight, I would've spent more time in Hoi An, there's nothing much to do, but the calm, tranquil vibe the city gives, I found right up my alley..

We had an early morning flight on the next day to Saigon which would be our last stop in Vietnam.


Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)

Saigon is like the Bombay of vietnam, big bustling metropolis, a slightly greener and cleaner one though.. We walked around for most part of the day.. The shopping areas are massive and it really is a shoppers paradise.. Which also, by corollary, meant that I didn't do too much there but buy some dvd's for friends who had requested for them! Ben Tan Market is famous for these DVD sets and you can get some really good ones (like a box set of NatGeo documentaries) for US$1 per piece. So if its a 10 DVD set, its US$10. For more than 20 DVDs you can bargain and they usually come down by about 10%. 

We would go on and spend a couple of days shopping in the never-ending markets of Bangkok (Thailand). But Vietnam, had left a lasting impression on me.

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Throughout our trip, we met some wonderful, smiling people. It's a country where I felt that the over-riding emotion of the people is hope. They have seen the worst that war has to offer and now that they've put that behind them, they have a good time and just hope for the best. Be it the Vietnamese girl who was taking her father for a trip to Halong Bay, the German dentist who'd setup his clinic in Saigon, or the countless receptionists and helpers we met; a relaxed way of life, a smile on the face and the hope for a peaceful future was a theme that threaded all the way through. Vietnam is certainly a country to watch in the next few years. A happy country, hard-working and yet, fun-loving people, a service mentality, and a favourable sex-ratio, all bode well for this beautiful place. My only fear is that they don't grow too fast and eat away the pristine natural beauty that ultimately makes this country what it is.

Amritsar & Dharamsala - backpacking adventure!!

It was a lazy Thursday morning thanks to 4 days of planned time-off (Thur-Fri & Mon-Tue) in anticipation of a trip to Dharamsala with my cousin, Hari. We hadn't made ANY bookings whatsoever, and the holiday itself was upon us. Frantically, we started a search for flights to Chandigarh and pretty much all flights were full. The tickets which were available were upwards of Rs. 17,000, one way. But we weren't going to give up so easily. Kingfisher was going through a rough spell (in a future reading of this post, its quite possible that it ceases to exist). And we managed to get return tickets to Delhi from Bombay for 17,000, for the both of us, starting the same evening!

Onwards from Delhi, we needed to figure out a way to Dharamsala in the middle of the night, as the flight was to land at midnight. On landing in Delhi, we asked around and it turned out that there was a bus service called (wait-for-it, this is legendary...) ... "Indo Canadian Transport"!! It started from Delhi Airport (T3) and would take us up all the way to Jalandhar!! On coming across this, we laughed our gut out, only an army of Punjabis coming from Cuhnedda could warrant such a name for a bus service. There were 4-5 buses starting every half an hour from 1am onwards.

1000 rs per head to get to Jalandhar in an AC bus right out of T3. Good deal. We eventually started at 2am, stopped in still-chilly Chandigarh (around 8C that morning), for breakfast and reached Jalandhar at noon. Very conveniently, there was an immediate direct taxi ride available from Jalandhar to Amritsar for Rs 200 per head. Again, provided by the legendary Indo-Canadian Transport! :-)

We checked into Hotel Sita Continental, a very basic hotel with just about enough to get by. Ok for 600 rs a night. After freshening up, we headed straight for Wagah border. The hotel owner was quite helpful in helping us plan our stay there and we might have missed the entire daily ceremony at Wagah he not told us that we needed to hurry up and leave asap. Shared vans/taxis ply from Amritsar market to Wagah, for about 100 rs per head. Although we were asked to not pay anything up-front, we did, and in the process ended up waiting for longer than promised to leave.

At Wagah, before the melee started, we had to grab something to eat, and dinked into a dhaba which is pretty much ON the final gate before you 'enter' the border. Satisfied after a brilliant thali, we proceeded towards the border. The ceremony starts at 5.15 pm and we got there about 5.20. Being a Friday evening, it was jam packed, at least on the Indian side with songs, shouting, flag waving et al. The Pakistani side was more subdued in contrast with a few pathan-styled people looking on and seemingly having a laugh at the frenzied Indian side. The atmospehere was no different from a cricket match - people were jostling for limited space, just to get a glimpse of their 'heroes'.

I was, as usual, trying to get some good shots in the process but no shot would ever be even close to the experience. Nothing like being there, live!

Bruised and battered after the exercise, we headed back to our taxi which would take us to Amritsar. By the time we got back in the city, it was close to 8 pm and there is only one place to eat when you go to Amritsar - the Golden Temple!

By night, the Temple is a view to behold. The sheer grandeur of all that glittering gold is unspeakable. The peace of night, with the background of chanting by the priests in the gurudwara brings a sense of calm to the heart and the world just seems to come to a stand-still.

We wandered around, took some snaps, soaked in the atmosphere (and watched some people get soaked in the cool water around the temple!), and then headed for the famous langar. On the menu was rotis, dal, chana curry & kheer. I think I must have had at least 4 of those humongous rotis. Each one was about three times thicker than what we have at home, fresh, and good to taste.

Barely able to walk after the colossus of a dinner, we made our way inside the temple. Gold and marble, everywhere. People cleaning the floor every 7 seconds. Quietness. Flurry white fans. Steep staircases taking us higher and higher, till we're on top. Witness the magnificent view around. Back out. Without a word. Speechless.

We walked it back to the hotel thereafter, for a well-deserved & much-needed night's sleep.

Waking up rather leisurely in the morning, we decided to bus it to Pathankot from where we would catch the Kangra Valley Express to Dharamsala (almost, it goes upto Kangra). The bus ride was a quite thrilling one with our driver seemingly on steriods and blazing his way through the green-fields-on-either-side roads.

On reaching Pathankot, we learned, much to our disappointment, that the Kangra Valley Express was no longer in operation, thanks to a bridge collapsing. We had an awesome lunch at a dhaba near the station & then went back to bus-stand to leave for Dharamsala. The direct bus took us up into the mountains in about 4 hours (for a 100km ride!) and we made it just about in time for dinner. We had booked a car for the 3 days and our enterprising driver, Akash, was down at the bus stand to pick us up in his trusted Maruti 800!

We decided to stay further up from Dharamsala, at a place called Naddi, which was quieter, cleaner & decidedly more scenic. We picked the last, and highest hotel in the place, with a room on the top floor. Being off-season, we were able to negotiate a good rate as well, of 800 rupees a night. For the view, which according to my brother, was comparable to any in Switzerland, it was a steal. Valley on one side, and the snow-capped Dhauladhar Mountains on the other. Usually, around this time of the year, the summer heat is already melting the snow, but with the winter leaving very very late in the year meant that it was still cool, and the mountains were full of snow.

After witnessing the sunset, we ordered ourselves a sumptuous dinner and took some much needed rest. Next day was going to be spent exploring Dharmsala, McLeodgang & Bhagsu.

I woke up early in the morning to take some snaps of the sun rising behind the moutains and it was well worth the cold, early morning. We headed out around 10, past the Dal Lake (which can be given a miss until its been fully redone) and reached the 'Church of St. John in the Wilderness'. One could have been forgiven for thinking that we were in the middle of a forest in France or Spain. Small in comparison to the ones I've seen in Europe, but set in peaceful, picturesque surroundings, it's surely a must-visit on a trip to Dharamsala. Surrounded by pine trees, cobble-stoned paths around it and no people around in general made it a distinctly European experience!

Bhagsu town was next on the list, and I really loved this place for the innumerable photo-walk opportunities that it provided. There was something weird and funny at every corner and the smiling people made the experience all the more unique. There was a waterfall about a 1km trek away but we decided against it as it seemed not too grand.

After this, we headed to the Dalai Lama's abode, Tsuglagkhang. The Temple was, expectedly, peaceful with monks in red-brown overalls, old women swinging their prayer wheels and little kids with shaven heads practicing amateur martial arts. All with a view of snow-capped peaks, clear blue skies and cool mountain breeze. The Tibet Museum right before the temple was also a nice little detour, albeit giving a very one-sided view of the Chinese occupation of Tibet.

Once in the temple, as it happened, we reached just in time for the free lunch being served there! Rice, dal & aloo sabzi, piping hot yumminess :-)

We had a heap of rice between ourselves, on one plate, and decided it would look a bit rude to ask for more. So we stepped out to have some momos just outside the temple. And they were absolutely heavenly. I think I had about 6 in no time. Spicy, steaming hot and with crunchy vegetables inside, they were the best momos I had ever had, and probably will ever have! And at one plate of 4 momos for 10 rupees they are definitely going to be the most inexpensive ones I will ever have!

One can see the Dharamsala cricket ground from many spots in & around the city and we thought it would be an ideal time to go and take a look around there just after lunch. We reached in time to catch a few overs of the Deodhar trophy game between Punjab & UP. Mohammed Kaif was batting and Harbhajan Singh was bowling. But we were hardly looking at them. The view from the ground was absolutely stunning. No wonder Shane Warne called it the 'most beautiful ground that he has ever played in', and he's played in quite a few, I'd imagine! So as Harbhajan was getting tonked for sixes all over the park, we set out again to my most anticipated leg of the trip - Paragliding!

I have always had dreams at night about flying. Usually they are set in and around very familiar places, like home or school and I'm simply floating around waving hellos to people and generally smiling all the way. When I heard our driver say that we could go paragliding, my heart skipped a beat. I really, badly wanted to do it. I was just hoping Hari wanted it too. He gave a rather questioning nod and we were ON! And at 1500 rs per ride, it sounded like quite a steal!

We drove up a hill and there was a team of skinny yet strong pahaadis waiting for us! I couldn't contain my excitement. Within minutes I got ready and we were all set for take-off! All I had to do was run, and jump right off the hill! My guide/instructor was hooked on right behind me and would do all the maneuvering... Looking at a piece of white cloth on either side of the launch pad for the exact wind direction, he shouted run and off we went...! For the first few seconds I couldn't believe we were actually flying, it felt like a dream! The wind buzzing around, the trees calling out and waving hello below me, the instructor non-chalantly asking me if I was comfortable... it was an experience of a lifetime. Of course I was comfortable, who wouldn't be comfortable in heaven! I must have been a bird in a past life, everything just felt right. Then slowly we descended towards the landing strip, over a bunch of boys playing cricket, over cows grazing and under the watchful eyes of the eagle soaring above.

We waited for Hari to land after we did but he never came. As it turned out the wind had died down and he couldn't take off at all... He came down by car and we rode off back to our room to catch the India Pakistan Asia cup game, where Virat beat 'em black & blue.

The next day was going to start with another paragliding session so Hari could get his fill and I could get another go, this time with my camera! I conveniently videod the entire flight this time and decided for myself that this was certainly NOT going to be the last time I rode a paraglide!

There was a stream running below a nearby temple and we had our wish of touching pure, cold, fresh-from-from-a-melting-glacier, water, granted. We could have spent hours there by the stream/river, but there was much more to do, much more wonder to discover...

Next stop, Norbulingka. This is an institute offering courses in Tibetan Culture. The Hotel there was absolutely top class and I would suggest you stay there in case you're going on a family kinda vacation (ie not backpacking). It was slightly on the expensive side, at 2500 rs per room per night, but the surroundings and high quality room furnishing would have been well worth it. Overall, Norbulingka is a nice little university-library kind of place where you can spend hours reading in the quiet environment, order some snacks & drinks and then read some more!

We were nearing the end of our time in Dharamsala and I was particularly enamoured by the idea of doing a trek up to Triund as I was told that I could see some snow/ice on the way. Triund is about 6km from Dharamkot which is like the highest point you can get to by car in the area. It has a few smartly positioned meditation institutes and the whole place is peaceful, in the lap of nature. Hari decided he was too unprepared for a 10-12km trek and opted out. So I was on my own, armed with a camera and a mini-shawl if it got cold.

I started up really quickly. After the first 200-300 meters itself though, I was running out of breath and getting second ideas. I thought to myself that I run 4km everyday, surely its all in the head that the oxygen here is less etc etc., pulled up my socks and started running up after a short break. That was the last break I took for a while as my sails dramatically found some wind and I was gallopping up the slopes. The road/path was quite clear and only at one point did I need to stop and ask for directions towards Triund. At every corner turn around the side of every hill, was a magnificent view of the valley, but also the promise of an even better view at the next corner. That's what kept me going and before I knew it, after about 1 hour of trekking I was seeing large masses of ice in my path. The air temperature could not have been less than 15 degrees. Although I was wearing just a cotton shirt and no thermals, I wasn't feeling cold at all. The running up was clearly burning energy, and that was enough to make me feel warm. As I went higher & higher, I passed increasingly larger masses of snow. It was around 5 in the evening and I was starting to think of making my way back lest it become too dark. At exactly the half-way point in my 3hour trek, I turned around and started heading back. The views that I had captured were simply breathtaking, and will remain some of the most beautiful natural scenic experiences I will have in a long long time.

I got back to Dharamkot, and onwards to Dharamsala, just in time to grab a quick snack before our bus left to Delhi. It was a rickety old one, albeit with AC, and the tired legs and body ensured that I got a fairly good night's sleep before the flight back next day to Bombay.

We had been away just over 5 days, but the rich, intense & ultimately beautiful experiences made me feel that we were traveling for a couple of weeks at least. Overall, the backpacking adventure turned out to be exactly that - adventurous, unplanned & backpacked all the way!