Puneet and Vaibhav in Dalhousie - Khajjiar, a cool weekend with bikes and beers

With riding already in blood, Vaibhav suggested we do Baderwah - Chamba (BC road) on our bikes.

One fine Friday evening in March 2009 and we 4 guys left for the ride.

Day 1: Chandigarh - Pathankot - Banikhet

Vaibhav and I decided to go to Chamba, take a halt there, Yadav and his companion wanted to go to Kashmir so we rode together till Pathankot, from where they parted us for Kashmir.

At 1500 hrs sharp Vaibhav we left office, tied our packed bags and were outside Rail Vihar in Panchkula, it was sunny and Yadav kept us waiting for around 40 minutes. We even came back to Infy to say goodbye to a friend who wanted to see us before we leave.

Finally we left and reached Dasua in Punjab for our first stop.

"Yadav kahan hai", I called him after getting down from my bike and Vaibhav was sipping water at  the roadside. "Peeche reh gaya hoga wo", Vaibhav said.

"Bhai maine Dasua paar kar ke aage tumhari wait kar ra hoon". Wow, that was quick and unexpected from Yadav with a pillion, but Pulsar 200 scored over Bullet and CBZ Xtreme in the first leg :)

At 2000 Hrs, I again met Vaibhav at a ptrol pump before Pathankot and we decide to meet again at the diversion from Pathankot - Jammu highway for Chamba. This time Yadav took lot of time because highway was under construction and he had to ensure the comfort of his pillion rider.

And there he came, at 21:30 giving us enough time to feast upon fried boiled eggs and fish.

We exchanged a few wishes and told Yadav to stay somewhere in Pathankot as it was already late, but he said he will continue upto Jammu and will stay there. A final goodbye and Vaibhav and I left for Chamba.

It was already late and I was sleepy as I was in office from 6a.m. that day. We decided to take a halt at Banikhet and after searching for sometime, got a hotel room @ 300Rs for that night. After some usual chit chat we dozed off for the night.

Next morning at the hotel, we discussed about the BC road from the hotel owner but he told us that the road is closed due to construction of some bridge at some point 50 kms from Chamba.

It was not the kind of news any rider would like to hear. Ok, so we will stay in Dalhousie, go to Khajjiar, will have lot of beers and come back via Kangra.


Day 2 : Banikhet - Dalhousie - Khajjiar - Dalhousie


We woke up early and discussed our revised itinerary. In no time, we left for Dalhousie and got an awesome hotel room just for 200 Rs. The fare of that hotel in season was 1400 as told by the owner.


We rested for some time and then left for Khajjiar. The road to Khajjiar was beautiful, with pine trees around.  In Khajjiar people, families, couples everyone was there.

Khajjiar is surrounded by green meadows and dense forests. It is about 6500 ft. above sea level in the foothills of the Dhauladhar ranges of the Western Himalayas and snowy peaks can be seen in the distance.

Khajjiar at around 25 kms from Dalhousie can be reached by bus or private taxi. Activities at Khajjiar 

includes Horse riding, Zorbing, nature walks in between the trees. 

People were busy doing these things and while we were sitting at a bench, a man selling beers came to us. Well not a bad idea, we had one each there and then started back for Dalhousie.

Back in Dalhousie and we went to see Panchpulla, dedicated to some martyrs. From there we came back to our room and ordered beers. The chottu had a good time we gave him enough time to make him happy for a next few days at least :)

After having a good 5-6 beers each we slept, and next morning we went out to see a few of the local churches.

Day 3: Dalhousie - Kangra - Chandigarh


Last day, Sunday was a busy day. We just continued all the way upto Chandigarh with eating breaks in between.
Both of us were riding at our own pace and were enjoying riding the inner roads of Himachal.

Well, back to Chandigarh in the night, we had a good time and celebrated the end of another successful right with a few more beers at Vaibhav's place.