It was a normal lazy weekend morning(?) when me, Ankur and Indrajeet planned to go out of the dusty Gurgaon to escape the heat... As it turned out, this weekend morning came again and again till one fine day we gathered all our courage and broke free out of the working weekends... those came periodically for either of us...
After much consultation to our travel guide Chandu, who brain washed us against going to Vaishnav Devi, we decided to go to McleodGanj... which was also suggested by Chandu, and also there were interesting articles about the place in TOI.
As soon as you reach this place, there is a huge "Chowk" the lifeline of McLeodGanj, which welcomes you with open hands and hearts... The view of the hills around was beautiful... as you
can see from the image.. the temperature was somewhere around 20 degrees and the cloud cover was giving it a heavenly touch...
Once we were done snapping pics, it was time to search for a room where we can stay.. Basically the Chowk is the central place, there were 5 roads that headed to different places... we randomly chose one of the way and started searching for lodges... The roads were really cramped for place and cars and other vehicles kept cramping us more... One thing which you can't miss is the buildings which probably were made during the British Raj, lot of wood work, proper ventilation and the old touch made us feel really wonderful... There were traits of Tibetan culture everywhere at this place... people didn't speak too much of Hindi, neither English.. The hotel receptions were usually very calm and the receptionist wearing typical Buddhist attire were in no hurry to allocate room for us... The place was full of patient people, we impatiently searched for room... finally got the room, which was really clean and contained everything that one would need to enjoy the comforts of this place..
The view from the room was awesome yaar !!! We all felt that we need not go back to Gurgaon... We had shower and we were feeling really starved by then... Utpal who has stayed in Darjeeling... for 10 years was our guide to the place..
where I had eaten everything using a chop stick, from rice to fish, to chicken to noodles... It was time to test my chopstick skills... it felt a bit weird as I last ate using a chopstick was years back.. but then after a small amount of struggle I was able to try out the food using these chopsticks.... I must say the food was realllllly delicious, the hot soup along with the smooth noodles... melted into my mouth like butter... It also had shredded boiled chicken which added to the taste... The spices used were very mild, so we added some of the additives that were on the table, like the Vinegar, a spicy hot black coloured "chatni" and what not... Apart from Thukpa, we ordered Thenthuk, which is pretty much the same.... the difference being the type of noodles that are used... In thukpa the noodles are the normal Chinese noodles, and in case of Thenthuk the flat chips type of noodles are used... We also ordered the Momos ... I had tried the NorthIndian version of Momos in Gurgaon and they were kind of okay... but the Tibetian version of these delicacies was just mind blowing... The red hot "Chutney" with these Momos, brought a burning sensation on our tounges and then the mild Thukpa/Thenthuk calmed it... All in all I have become a great fan of Tibetan cuisine... and would want to try it again and again....
can see from the image.. the temperature was somewhere around 20 degrees and the cloud cover was giving it a heavenly touch... It was a feeling of getting away from all the tensions of life... the people over there much to my amusement looked so content in what they were doing... from the chowk there was a boulevard that was going upwards ... there were iron benches that people used to sit and gaze the beauty of nature... It was difficult to imagine the same situation in Gurgaon.. where scorching sun prohibits you from going outside AC rooms even at 7 o clock in eve... anyways... so there people were ideally sitting and observing travellers like us who were feeling elated to have come to McLeodGanj...
Once we were done snapping pics, it was time to search for a room where we can stay.. Basically the Chowk is the central place, there were 5 roads that headed to different places... we randomly chose one of the way and started searching for lodges... The roads were really cramped for place and cars and other vehicles kept cramping us more... One thing which you can't miss is the buildings which probably were made during the British Raj, lot of wood work, proper ventilation and the old touch made us feel really wonderful... There were traits of Tibetan culture everywhere at this place... people didn't speak too much of Hindi, neither English.. The hotel receptions were usually very calm and the receptionist wearing typical Buddhist attire were in no hurry to allocate room for us... The place was full of patient people, we impatiently searched for room... finally got the room, which was really clean and contained everything that one would need to enjoy the comforts of this place..
The view from the room was awesome yaar !!! We all felt that we need not go back to Gurgaon... We had shower and we were feeling really starved by then... Utpal who has stayed in Darjeeling... for 10 years was our guide to the place..
We went to a place called Tibet Kitchen... We all were really hungry by then and Utpal suggested that we try out Thukpa and Thenthuk.. We wanted to try out something new and it seemed like the right opportunity which was served to us on a lunch plate... After a wait of around half an hour.. we finally were served those voluptuous dishes... These dishes are really an extension of noodles... As the weather is usually cold... the noodles are served along with hot soup.. And they are eaten using Chop Sticks... That reminded me of my two month trip to Japan
where I had eaten everything using a chop stick, from rice to fish, to chicken to noodles... It was time to test my chopstick skills... it felt a bit weird as I last ate using a chopstick was years back.. but then after a small amount of struggle I was able to try out the food using these chopsticks.... I must say the food was realllllly delicious, the hot soup along with the smooth noodles... melted into my mouth like butter... It also had shredded boiled chicken which added to the taste... The spices used were very mild, so we added some of the additives that were on the table, like the Vinegar, a spicy hot black coloured "chatni" and what not... Apart from Thukpa, we ordered Thenthuk, which is pretty much the same.... the difference being the type of noodles that are used... In thukpa the noodles are the normal Chinese noodles, and in case of Thenthuk the flat chips type of noodles are used... We also ordered the Momos ... I had tried the NorthIndian version of Momos in Gurgaon and they were kind of okay... but the Tibetian version of these delicacies was just mind blowing... The red hot "Chutney" with these Momos, brought a burning sensation on our tounges and then the mild Thukpa/Thenthuk calmed it... All in all I have become a great fan of Tibetan cuisine... and would want to try it again and again....Once we were full we headed to our next spot... "Bhakshu Naath"... It's a waterfall covered with valleys and is around 2 kms from McLeodGanj... More to follow.....
Hi Bhushan ...
ReplyDeleteThe article made me salivate. Metaphorically and literally. Wishing we make another trip sometime soon.