Relaxed but adventure was also on another level!

Day 1 at Gurugram

Me and my friend boarded the train from Jodhpur railway station for Gurugram 18th June. The next day on 19th, we reached Gurugram in the morning and headed towards our friend’s place for some rest and putting the luggage as we have to board our bus for Himachal Pradesh in the evening.

We roamed around Gurugram, watched a movie and stepped on the bus to Palampur, Himachal Pradesh.

Note - Ram Dalal Holidays gave us the best experience of an AC SemiSleeper volvo. Recommended bus service!

Day 2 at Palampur, Himachal Pradesh

I clicked some photographs capturing the essence of NCR region and now it was the time for some mountains. We reached Palampur, the next morning. It is serene beautiful place with no rush, no crowd, no honking horns. Palampur has a tourism cont which I felt the best thing about that place. Me and my friend went there for some relaxation from the busy crowded life of Rajasthan. Nature is beautiful and the people are very, very friendly. It is a small residential town with a railway connectivity from different states of India. So it is easy to reach by two different transport mediums.

We stayed at Him Drish Homestay where we were treated so well by the family. A father and his son operates the homestay. Homestays are the better option to have an accomodation in these kinds of places. You engage with the local family, get to know more about the place through them. Palampur is the home for Tea Plantation in Himachal area. Large tea fields can be seen everywhere with 24 hours flowing water through the fields.

Day 3 at Bir, Himachal Pradesh

The next morning, on 21st June, we boarded a local bus to reach Bir. The most awaited adventure of my life till now, Paragliding, was there. Bus dropped us at Chaugan bus stop in Bir. We stayed at Hipostel which was at a 5 minutes walking distance from the stop. It is a real hippie stay for solo travellers and creative artists.

After a half hour rest, we headed towards the Paragliding site which was 18 km up from where we were. The location is known as Billing. Paragliding is a really great adventure. We took off with a parachute from a height of 7500 ft. It was an amazing experience. One should definitely experience it once in his life. During the flight, the whole Bir can be seen in a single sight. The view of the mountains were to die for. The pilot makes you opearte a GoPro Hero camera for the whole flight video. It was some real adventure, yeah but I was a little scared during the take-off, but after that it was all beautiful.

We were lucky to have the last slot of paragliding as there was a rescue operation going on to find a person behind the mountains who got lost a week ago. So the Indian Air Force helicopter was was on the rescue.

We had our breakfast and dinner at the Musafir - A Traveller’s Cafe. I must say, delicious food. Everything we ordered was great from Lemon Ice tea to the Main course. Recommended!!!

As it was a Friday night, we enjoyed the bonfire with the Hipostel persons and the other travellers. Those moments were mesmerising doing a bonfire with little cold wind under the night sky with stars. After saying Goodbye to the Hipostel fellows, we boarded the local bus to Dharamshala on 22nd June. It was 2 and half hours journey from Bir to Dharamshala. From Dharamshala bus station, we took a bus to McLeod Ganj which is 13 km from there.

Day 4 at McLeod Ganj, Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh

After reaching McLeod Ganj, we felt that we were there at the wrong time because it was very much crowded, and we were stuck in traffic jam for an hour before reaching there. If you are interactive, you can make friends. We met a boy from Germany and a girl from Spain, and after a short conversation we all settled in the same homestay.

Mr. Siladitya is the host of Anandam Homestay in McLeod Ganj. This place is a little far from the hustle of the main market and this was the best thing about it. You can book this homestay on Airbnb app and website.

After some rest, we headed to the main market. Firstly, we had an amazing lunch at a came named Illiterati. I had one of the best pizzas ever at that cafe and the Kashmiri Kahwa tea was exotic.

McLeod Ganj is full of tourism. There was so much crowd, that we didn’t have that much fun roaming around as we expected and the sun was set as we were late that day, so we rented a scooter and headed back to the homestay. I took a star trail shot from my room. It was marvellous, just brilliant.

Day 5 at McLeod Ganj, Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh

Next day, on 23rd June, we checked out of the stay, and made it to the bucket locations of McLeod Ganj like Dal Lake, Naddi View Point, Tibetan Museum, etc.

Then we headed to Dharamshala again to board our bus towards Delhi from the bus station. We had a burger and fries for the lunch and roamed around the city.

Note - CityLand Travels bus service is very bad. Never book a ticket for that travel service.

Day 6 at Gurugram

I played my one of fav sports, Bowling at Pitstop on Gurugram. We had fun on beer and some food.

We boarded our final train from Gurugram station back to Jodhpur.

One odd thing I experienced this time, is that, the restaurants enroute delhi to Himachal Pradesh have started a buffet system for food. Personally I think it is not good for the travellers, specially for the bus travellers, neither for the journey nor cost efficient.

Hope to be back here with another amazing journey.

P.S. - Check out my travel video at the top of the this visual blog.

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Hi @DrunkenChimp ,

Thank you for sharing this great post! I really enjoyed reading about your awesome adventurous trip. Thanks for all the recommendations!

Did you try paragliding for the first time? It must be very exciting, but I still didn’t have the courage to try it. Now I can see this view is definitely worth it!

What type of camera did you use for these marvellous photos? I just can’t stop looking at the purple sky!

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@RadieN It’s a great feeling for me that you liked this adventurous journey. It tried through my writing but couldn’t really portray that how exciting the adventure was.
And yes, I did paragliding for the first time at the best location of India which Bir in Himachal Pradesh. I was flying with a Canon EOS 6D Mark 2 and a GoPro Hero 4. It was a great experience. As a Travel Photographer, I got some great cityscape shots.

Tip: Take off is a little scary in Paragliding, after that, you will feel great in the air, top of the world.

For more snaps, you can checkout my Instagram handle: DrunkenChimp

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Hey, @DrunkenChimp ,

I can imagine how incredible is the feeling when you are in the sky and the absolute freedom that you feel. Since you are a Travel photographer, I’m looking forward to see more posts with amazing photos from you here on Connect.

Keep exploring and having fun! :slight_smile:

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Sure @RadieN !

More and more travel visuals will be synced on the Local Guides Platform.

But, I have question related to the uploading of the photographs in a post.
Is there any specific limit for the photos to be uploaded in a single connect post??

I have been experiencing that I couldn’t upload more than 6 or 7 photos in a single post. Is there any such limitation?

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Hi @DrunkenChimp ,

Currently there is no limit of the photos that can be added to a single post. This problem might have occured if your internet connection was not stable.

However, I’d like to let you know that there is a limit for uploading 1000 photos in total. If you reach this amount, you’ll have to delete older images before uploading new ones. For more information you check the following posts: Tips for Uploading Images to Connect to Stay Within Limit and Tips and tricks to manage the photos in Connect. If you want to upload multiple pictures in a post in the future, you can also share them via link to a Google Photos album.

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@RadieN
Thank You very much for helping me regarding the issue.

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You’re welcome @DrunkenChimp :slight_smile:

By the way, I have removed the solution from my comment, because the question you asked is a part of our discussion and it’s not the main topic of your post. The solution sign is only used for posts that have questions and need answers. You can find more information about accepting solutions in the article at the article How do I mark comments as solutions?

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@RadieN
Thanks, I’ll keep it in mind!

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Amazing post @DrunkenChimp thanks a lot for sharing your experience with us, you write a great post about Himachal which is my state:)

It was your first trip in Himachal?

You can read more great posts on my profile.

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Hey @IshantHP_ig

It was my 2nd trip to Himachal, as I have been to Manali in 2016.
But I must say, it always feels great to be in the foothills of Himalayas.

Thank You for appreciation!

Happy Guiding!

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Hi @DrunkenChimp !

I love the title “Relaxed but adventure was also on another level”

Your photos are wonderful, I am impressed by the one in the air while ParaGliding, the star trail shot and the cheese on the Veggie pizza are fantastics!

Congratulations for your post :clap::clap::clap:.

Greetings from Spain,

Alejandra.

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Hey @AlejandraMaría
It is awesome that you liked it. And actually the cheese on the pizza was delicious. haha!!!

I did the Paragliding for the first, and oh my god, brilliant experience. Recommended adventure!!!

Getting on to explore more and upload more stories…!!!

Happy Guiding!

My Instagram - [redacted]

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Hi @DrunkenChimp ,

I would like to kindly remind you to refrain from sharing private information on Connect as this is against the program rules. Please rather send your personal details in a private message. Your reply was redacted.