Trails of Iiryacakrikaa Muni: Return of/to Chamba

October 7th,2011

Early morning and I am staring from the balcony at the same landslide view. Hadsar is one such place in the trip, where I wished I had an extended stay. It was time to bid goodbye to Hadsar now. Shared jeeps to Bharmour were in action as early 7 AM the previous day, but there were no signs of the Boleros till 7:30. I shamelessly asked the Sundarnagar family for a lift till Bharmourin their Chevy Spark, but they refused citing their aching legs needed space. Fair Enough. That day no Bolero guy was in a mood to start before 9. The first vehicle refused to take me. I was WTF! It was meant for the school kids, which every Bolero guy does on a rotational basis as a service to the village.

The next Bolero arrived in 10mins and I had to share the front seat with a drunken old man. It was 30 mins of pain till Bharmour. There are two main places of interest in Bharmour, The Bharni Mata temple and Chowrasi. Former required a trek of two hours one-way, on hearing this I immediately looked up in the sky and nearby mountains and a not-so-loud Jai Mata Di !from my heart. Next up was Chowrasi, a complex of 84 temples, 5 mins walk from bus stop. The only temple dedicated to DharmRaaj Ji is in this complex. There are two schools in the complex; students of the school were busy doing their Mass and prayers. The echo of the prayers created a strange but calm effect.

Of the 84 temples only 15-20 are big temples. Rest are small, some as small as 1*1 foot. I was just roaming there for an hour. It felt nice, the ambience was great, and the mountains were a perfect background in the scene. Lakhna Devi temple was the only one where I entered, because it was the only protected monument in the complex. Had a quick brunch and boarded a bus to Chamba. Window seat again. YAY!!!

Reached Chamba and got a dorm bed at Hotel Champak for Rs.165. Chamba had put me off few days back, but now a laid back hill town of my liking. The reason for the crowd was the famous Ram Lila on Dusherra. Around 2 lakh people had gathered for the occasion from all over HP. I finally had a much deserved bath, one after 3 days. Now it was time to take a stroll around Chamba. There is nothing much Chamba has to offer other than few temples, a park and over priced markets. I went back to the dorm after paying a visit SwamiNarayan Temple. Omar Abdullah was on TV defending himself in the Yusuf Murder Case. Then Barkha showed no signs of stopping and I had enough of it.

I went out in search of dinner. After enquiring with around 4 guys, Gupta Vaishno Dhaba was the unanimous choice for good vegetarian food. I ordered aalo mutter and 3 rotis and was eturned with a bill of Rs.29. Food was simple, not-extraordinary, delicious and filling. On the way back I had brought some Jalebis and Samosa, which should have been avoided as most of were awful and went straight to the bin. I had to spend a night alone in this 500sq. ft. dorm. It was noisy initially as the reception was just outside; then followed a peaceful night.

Route to Kugti Pass