A Traveller's Cup of Tea

It's almost as if Geography, by creating the Dhauladhars has killed two birds with one stone, by halting an easy access beyond Palampur, and stopping rain clouds which are then forced to rise, washing the tea gardens clean and thus lending that magical aroma and the fragrance of freshly washed earth.

Apart from very few tourists, thanks to limited availability of tourist accommodation, one is treated to people of varying hues and colours lending a cosmopolitan appeal. There are the residents who have taken over the British legacy and now occupy their pretty houses with large gardens filled with Hydrangea in sylvan isolated surroundings. They are either Anglo Indians or retired Army officers with a more western outlook as well as attire. Almost every such house has those disobedient pet dogs so typical of Army families. One also comes across pretty Gurkha tea pickers with their baskets tied around their foreheads. But the most striking people who lend the most natural cultural influence are the Gaddis, a nomadic pastoral tribe, inhabitants of the Dhauladhar ranges. Fair skinned and handsome, they have fine features with closely set eyes. They are tough and sturdy given the harsh conditions of living in the Dhauladhar ranges. They make the most reliable trekking guides as they know this wonderful trekking region like the back of their hands. They have a remarkable knack of forecasting the weather and can tell you with shocking accuracy when it will rain, how hard and for how long.

Taking advantage of a scenic spot, Himachal Pradesh Tourism has set up a café against the backdrop of the Dhauladhars, with tea gardens in the vicinity and adjacent to the Neughal Khad and the Bundla river. Difficult to ask for a better location, Neughal Café, as it is called, has become the place to spend the evening with a cool glass of beer, or a cold drink or even more appropriately , tea picked freshly from the gardens.

Himachal Pradesh Tourism has yet another property in a beautiful location. The appropriately named Hotel T-Bud is right in the middle of tea plantations. An elegant place with rather large, spacious well kept rooms, it remains the best hotel to stay in. Prompt service gives you well cooked meals in your room or in a smallish restaurant on the ground floor of this two storied building In

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