If we talk about the Mall Roads that we have visited, the Darjeeling Mall Road tops the list. About the second spot, we are at the loggerheads. I vote for Shimla, whereas Vibha votes for Dalhousie. So we will first talk about Dalhousie and then about Shimla, in another blog post.
The Dalhousie Mall Road starts at Gandhi Chowk. Gandhi Chowk is also known as General Post Office (GPO) and in fact is much more than a post office. Actually this is also the best, in fact the only, place for shopping in Dalhousie. This is the place where students of Dalhousie Public School go for their weekly outings and also with their parents whenever they come to visit their wards.
If you go here on a Sunday, chances are that you will see a lot of school kids hanging around with their parents in restaurants, in cafes, inside shops, having ice creams and other things that students normally like to eat. We happened to be at one of the cafe's on a Sunday and a 12-13 year old boy happened to be sitting right behind us with his dad and was talking about things that they normally hide from their teachers. He did not know that my brother-in-law was his house master. It was hilarious. But of course we never used this knowledge against the child. And his house master doesn't know all the mischief his wards have been up to. :)
Apart from ice cream parlours and cafes there are several other interesting places where you can comfortably sit and eat various types of food. One such place was Dosa Plaza that serves various types of dosas such as the typical sada dosa, masala dosa, Mysore dosa, and also some unusual varieties such as American Chopsuey Dosa, Schezwan dosa with cheese, Mexican Roast Dosa etc. The restaurant stands out because it is bright yellow and visible from a distance.
Apart from this there is Kwality, Monga's Cafe, Cafe Dalhousie, Bon-apetit Bakes n Fries Fast Food Restaurant. Apart from this, there are several street-side eating places where you can have golgappas, bhutte, momos etc. In short, if you are hungry, there is no dearth of options here.
Coming to shopping, you will find several options here. You can shop for local artwork such as wooden showpieces and Himachali Topis. You can shop for Pashmina and other woolen apparel. Apart from this, you can also buy Himachali fruit wines and ciders.
If you are in the mood to walk a bit, you can head to the Tibetan market where you can buy clothes and scarfs. You can also buy other mementos such as Buddha statues and Tibetan prayer flags. In short, you can easily spend one day just roaming around the Gandhi Chowk.
There are other places, too, to see around here. There is a beautiful church here and if you are in time for the Sunday Prayer, you can experience that too. But if you do decide to do that, make sure you maintain the discipline and do not talk during the service. It is also rude to use a camera.
If you have had too much to eat, you can take a long walk from Gandhi Chowk to Subhash Chowk. This stretch of the mall road is one way and is usually quite peaceful. On good, sunny days, you can also see snow-covered Dhauladhar range. Beware of the monkeys though as they tend to get a little mischievous.
When we were here a couple of months back we walked all the way from Gandhi Chowk to Subhash Chowk bus stand, which is where we were to board our Volvo back to Delhi. All along the way we heard various birds chirping. The one sound that stood out for us was the call of the Great Barbet, a bird we have recently got acquainted with.
Over the last few years, the Mall Road has become quite crowded and as a result, dirty. Hopefully steps will be taken to restore the mall road to its former glory. However, as travellers, we should not wait for the authorities to take action. Simple steps such as not littering, not feeding the monkeys are in our control and we should start from there.
If you liked this post and found it helpful, I would request you to follow these things when traveling -
1. Manage your waste well and don’t litter Use dustbins.
2. Tell us if you went to a place and found it hard to locate a dustbin.
3. Avoid bottle waters in hills. Usually you get clean water in hills and water bottles create lot of mess in our ecosystem.
4. Say big no to plastic and avoid those unhealthy snacks packed in plastic bags. Rather buy fruits.
5. Don't play loud blaring music in forests of jungle camps. You are a guest in that ecosystem and disturbing the locals (humans and animals) is not polite
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