Re-visiting Mcllo; Magical Bhagsunag and the Sacred Dal Lake.

Re-visiting Mcllo; Magical Bhagsunag and the Sacred Dal Lake.

(10^th & 11^th Nov. 13)

Diwali break; I took two weeks leave, just to stay home at Chandigarh. This time I had no tour plans and I just wanted to spend some times with my family, who would always taunt me saying, “This is not Dharamshala by the way, where you come to drop your baggage and then go around all days roaming around and come back at night just to sleep.” Hmm. That’s why this time I didn’t inform many of my friends about my vacation, except for a few close ones. But things wouldn’t work always as your mind plans, as I earlier said, “Everything is destined.” So was this trip. J

So, it happened like this: on the evening of 9^th November, I was in the market with my niece, Rinzin when Nini, my friend called up asking me to show some Movie. I agreed, though there was no other movie worth watching except for Krishh 3, which I had already seen in Mumbai. So for them, I didn’t mind watching it over again. So, we went for a night show (9:15 pm) at Big cinema, in Paras down town Mall, which was close to my house.  Nini , Lata and Angmo from Chandigarh,  and Kaki and me from Zirakpur met at the Mall itself. So, the five of us, and you can imagine how noisily we would have rocked the almost empty Mall, after the movie ended. Lol . We packed pizza from Dominos and went to my place.

In the morning we all were awake by 8:00 am and kept lying in bed, chit-chatting, when finally Nini and Lata got emotional about something in their head, for which they had planned to go to Mclodganj a couple of times, but didn’t go due to so many apprehensions running down their nerves. I hardly had a say in their respective decisions, as they asked for my suggestion. I have no fixed plan or goal of my own in my life, so it would feel quite odd if I went around giving advices. But I said what I felt. I said,” You have something in mind, so at least take some initiative; the rest will be seen eventually. Otherwise things will remain in your subconscious to haunt you in near future. Let’s go to Mecllo tonight only.”

We all agreed in unison, and the plan was made for the night trip to Macllo, as in the evening I had some unfinished work to complete.

We boarded 12:15 am bus, and after a smooth, sleepy drive reached Macllo at 7 in the morning. We went to Bhagsu and booked a room for two days. I remembered my earlier trip in august to Mcllo, when I missed Bhagsunag to answer Triund’s call. But Bhagsu wanted me to come this year only, so I was there along with two not so sane, of my own kind, but beautiful girls; Nini and Lata. We got fresh turn by turn, taking morning sun bath at the verandah; where lovely & warm rays of sun fell straight on our faces. It was quite heavenly. We had our breakfast first, and then set out for the job.

As Nini and Lata had their appointments after lunch, we decided to tour around. So, our nearest destination for the day was ‘Bhagsunag’ itself. It took us a long leisurely walk, passing through street shops, entering Shiva Mandir, beside which a swimming pool, to reach finally at the Waterfall itself. And its crystal clear water, was so beautiful that we couldn’t resist staying there for hours and looking enviously at its beauty. We felt like jumping into the water and playing with it, as our heart tickled at the soulful and soothing music it played, but we couldn’t as it was way too chilled, even to touch. So it was our eyes that beheld the beauty with full admiration.

Then we went walking up to Mcllo, had our lunch, met the appointees and then returned to our room. Taking a little rest and getting fresh again, in the evening we decided to trek and go to Mcllo via Dharamkot. The peaceful walk was quite memorable; the already set sun showing beautiful colors of crimson red and orange from behind the mountains and spreading wide arrays of happiness in our hearts, while we walked through the dark roads surrounded by lush green Jungle, with hardly anybody at sight except for us.

'Magical!!!'

We roamed around the Mcllo Market, did some shopping and then went to dine at the most famous restaurant of the city, ‘Mcllo Bar & Restaurant’; good food and chill beers in a chilled night and we went on chilling. ;-)

The next day, i.e. on 10^th November, we went to the Buddhist Monastery, where I have been a couple of times with my parents, paid our obeisance, took Parikarma of the Monastery thrice, sat for a while and then hired auto for our destination for the sacred ‘Dal Lake’, which is situated at an altitude of 1770 mtr above sea level at a distance of 11 kms from Mcllo. It was though a small lake, but it was beautiful. Nearby it is a Shiva Temple, due to which the lake is considered very sacred for Hindus. The lake is surrounded by tall, dense and lush green deodar trees, the reflection of which in the lake, made it look more and more magical.

'the sacred Dal Lake'

'Peacefully blessed souls''

We chilled around in Mcllo for some more time in the evening before we finally left for our return journey. The overall trip was though unplanned, but fantabulous for all three of us. They took an initiative in the venture they had in their mind, taking the pros and cons now they have to decide for further developments, and I found an opportunity to add more to my ‘memorable moments savings’ account. (Wink wink wink)

( I had an A-Awesome Diwali Break. All smilesss J J J (Nawi))