Continued from Call of the mountains
Walk to Naddi point
The next morning, we woke up quite early and walked up towards Naddi
point to witness the sunrise over snow cladded peaks. Quite unlike the
typical picture of sun peeping out from the mountains that I drew in my childhood
the sunrays were shining different parts of the valley very early. When the sun
actually came above the peaks, it was quite bright and not orange. The peaks
were glistening silvery bright. On the way to our hotel, I visited Durgeśwar
temple and Cintāpurṇi mātā temple which did not have any visitors as it
was rather early. These were fairly modern temples.
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| Sun coming up the cliff |
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| Glimpses of Dhauladhar mountain range |
The Dal Lake had very little water but it was surrounded
by lush green deodars. After walking on the winding streets for about an hour,
we returned to Redeem homestay. It was still too early to have breakfast so we
decided to pack our day bags and to explore McLeod Ganj. We hired a cab to
McLeod Ganj square. Even there, things were just opening but a beautiful temple
seemed to have some movement of devotees. It was the Kalachakra (Wheel of time)
temple on the market road. The paintings were very colourful and the large
prayer wheel very beautiful. The monks were reciting prayers in a very peaceful
tone. There was a winding staircase that led to two storeys above and the
central large image of Buddha was decorated beautifully in exquisite colours.
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Kalachakra temple
We wanted to explore some monasteries however, the google maps
were not showing the correct path. We decided to follow a route that was likely
to reach Tushita Meditation Center. It was about a kilometre long walk but the
slope made it a bit difficult given my injured small toe and walking around
since morning. I had stumbled upon the foot of a table at home just a few days
before our trip. It gave me excruciating pain at times when the sock rubbed
against it. We had planned a trek the next day so this kind of acclimatization
was essential. Determined to reach the Tuśita Heaven I was
just trying to enjoy the beautiful road. Somewhere, I saw the name of the road
on a sign as “Swarg Ashram Road”. I felt convinced that I was on the
right path. According to Mahāyāna tradition, Tuśita heaven is the place where
all the divine Bodhisattvas reside and it is reachable by meditation. The road
was leading towards Hyatt Regency but I could not see any signs of Tuśita.
Finally, a driver pointed towards a gate without a gatekeeper. We entered the
gate and closed it back. There were steps leading upwards through woods. The
place was very quiet. There was a young couple at a small shrine on the way who
appeared to be just like us. We kept going up until we came to a large
meditation hall. It was full of people meditating. We sat on a bench and closed
our eyes for a few minutes. I felt very calm in spite of my aching toe and was
experiencing the ethereal beauty of the location with closed eyes. We didn’t
feel like getting up but as we had not registered for the course, we swiftly
left the place.
Later we went searching for the office of Manu Adventures via Dharamkot road but it was a bit too far and the day was getting too hot. We walked down to McLeod Ganj square by another route and had a meal. The square had a big traffic jam and we decided to walk up 4 km to Redeem homestay. It was a bold decision but I took it as a challenge to prepare for the next day. The road had shade due to coniferous trees and there was a spot for filling up ice cold water in our water bottles so it was not a tough walk! By the time we reached back, we had walked around 17 km that day. I felt somewhat confident that I could manage the trek next day. In the evening, we just relaxed in the hotel and sat on patio
looking at the valley, thinking about the trek challenge!
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