Travel » Dalhousie Tourism

DALHOUSIE
An ideal blend of lush nture and urban comfort, Dalhousie is a delightful destination.
Like a great winged eagle atop this western summits of the Dauladhar range (from Pathankot in the west to Manali in the east). Dalhousie broods over five conical hills at an average altitude of 2039 metre. It is the quintessential raj hill station offering a substantially preserved environment round its periphery, exquisite nature walks and the kind of quaint ambience that nostalgia demands. For those who have had their package, Dalhousieis a wonderful substitute. On the upside, it offer a better supply of water, fewer traffic snarls, gentler residents and greater silence.

It was not always this way, though. Dalhousie used to be a sleepy town up to the ‘90s, not unlike Kasauli. It comprised a conglomerate of widely spaced cottages, large tracts of deodar, a small market and half a dozen old hotels. When Kashmir closed to tourist traffic, enterprising businessmen moved in to service north Indian tourists even as the authorities continued their parody of masterly inactivity. Dalhousie has over the last decade seen much construction activity. The trees are thinner, the traffic is that much more intense and yet, for those who liked what Shimla offered in the 1970s, Dalhousie is a delightful destination: the ideal combination of lush nature and urban comfort.

Its economy, built on the needs of summer residents who have for 150 years found solace here from the heat of the summer plains, still consists overwhelmingly of tourist facilities: hotels, restaurants, souvenir and handicraft shops and pony rides. Its landscape is strewn with charming old bungalows, many of them boarded up after vacation time. Local residents, under 20,000, exist mainly to service the tourist traffic and the increasing number of boarding schools. Dalhousie has changed rapidly in the last five years but it retains its raj essence.

The layout of this township is simplicity itself. Urban Dalhousie is built around five hill tops: Kathlag, Tehra, Portain, Bakrota and Balun, and the road system here describes simple loops around the summit of each of these hills. Two of them, Balun and Bakrota are cantonment areas, not really tourist friendly. Civilian Dalhousie is built around the other three hills. At the junction of every two loops is a small market practically spilling on to the Chowk. Each of these is a hub of activity.

The upper loop of the figure eight has seen much construction work in recent years. It ends at Gandhi Chowk, Dalhousie’s downtown complete with a GPO, ponies, eateries and a market. The market is an absolute delight, selling chocolates to cricket bats, detergents to torchlights in a space perhaps 10 ft square each. It has Indian shoemakers with Chinese names and offers pastries under glass in confectionery outlets. Souvenir shops spilling out on the street are packed with walking sticks, wooden trays, papier mache, ‘fancy items’ and the same old wall woodcuts. Dalhousie is best for those seeking Tibetan handicrafts, hosiery and Kulu weaves. Several roads radiate from Gandhi Chowk: one runs down to Balun, a second heads east to Punchpula and a third straight up to the summit of Kalatope.

No orientation tutorials are really necessary here. Visitors check into their hotels, step out on the road and do one loop after the other. Tired, they go back for a rest then start the loop run again. It is predictable but pleasant, and the views are excellent. It’s a pleasure to meander about town spying a moody cottage here an odd Tibetan rock painting there; or going down to the church cemetery to read the tombstones. The action heats up considerably on weekend evenings when the residents of the girls’ schools are allowed out for a stroll; and the male strutting visibly intensifies and mannerisms are that much more contrived.

Visitors generally drop in on the church of St Francis, then plan a series of day trips out of the hill station. Kalatope is a deep primeval forest of oak and deodar, and host to a variety of high altitude game. Local residents in the aftermathof Partition recount stories ofbears rummaging about the dustbins in winter, of wolves found sleeping outside toilet doors; and gruesome tales of panthers picking up pet dogs when the owners let them out one final time before settling down for the night.

There’s game in Kalatope still: lots of deer, the lesser felines, birds galore and on occasion, the odd Himalayan bear, though mainly in the winter. Kalatope is a wonderful place and a walk up through it is absolutely mandatory (8 km). The forest rest house deep in the woods does not offer meals but the views on its periphery are splendid.

For viewing pleasure alone, nothing quite matches the beauty of the panorama from Dainkund peak (2,745 m), 10 km from Dalhousie. It’s a stiff climb up but the grandeur of the vast landscape, with shimmering rivers in the valleys below snaking past white peaks is a sight to behold. We had a picnic up there on one of our visits some years ago, and recall the deep silence of the mountain penetrated by the humming sound of unseen insects as they went about their summerbusiness of food gathering.