The first time Kangra Valley truly registers is on the drive up from Gaggal. The Dhauladhar range fills the windscreen, and the closer you get to Dharamshala, the more those snow-capped peaks seem to lean in toward you, wrapped in cloud against a hard blue sky. It is a genuinely surreal few minutes of road. […]
Kangra Valley: Himachal’s Most Underrated Escape (2026) Read More »
Standing at the edge at Billing, about to run off it with a pilot I’d met minutes earlier, was the most frightened I felt all day. The evening before my Bir Billing paragliding flight, I’d sat at the landing site and watched the gliders drift down one by one against the sunset, quietly noting whose
Finding a good cafe in Bir should be easy. There are dozens of them, lined along the Bir Tibetan Colony road and scattered across the paragliding landing site. The catch is that half of Bir’s most famous cafes are famous for the wrong reasons: a sunset view, a mud-house wall that photographs well, or a
Cafe in Bir: Skip the Hype, Find the Good Ones in 2026 Read More »
Most travellers’ list of things to do in Bir Billing has exactly one item: jump off Billing and glide back down to Bir. I get it, the flight is the headline. But I live an hour away in the Kangra valley, and I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve driven over for a day
12 Best Things to Do in Bir Billing (Beyond Paragliding) Read More »
Most travellers who come to Bir never make it up to Sherabling Monastery, and to me that is the biggest miss in the whole valley. This guide is the on-the-ground version, not one pieced together from other websites: the real timings (which half the internet gets wrong), how to reach Sherabling, what to look for
Sherabling Monastery, Bir: A Local’s Complete Guide 2026 Read More »
Most people who come to Bir never actually walk into Chokling Monastery, and that has always struck me as odd, because the whole town grew up around it. Visitors land at the paragliding site, grab a coffee, and leave, never realising that the maroon-and-gold gompa a five-minute walk away is the reason a Tibetan Bir
Chokling Monastery: The Gompa That Built Bir Read More »
Every time I walk into the Bir Tibetan Colony, I catch the same quiet collision: paragliders drifting down over the valley while, just below them, monks file into a prayer hall and the afternoon chants begin. Most guides file Bir under “the paragliding capital of India” and stop there. They miss the bigger story, that
Bir Tibetan Colony: The Hidden Tibetan World of India Read More »
Ask almost anyone in McLeod Ganj for the Dalai Lama Temple and they will send you to the same gate as Namgyal Monastery, and that is exactly where the confusion begins. Namgyal Monastery is the personal monastery of the 14th Dalai Lama, tucked inside the Tsuglagkhang complex, the spiritual heart most visitors know as the
Namgyal Monastery: Inside the Dalai Lama’s Monastery Read More »
The Dalai Lama Temple in McLeodganj, officially the Tsuglagkhang Complex, is the one place in town I still slow down for, even after walking past its gates most weeks of my life. It is the spiritual heart of McLeodganj: the home of the 14th Dalai Lama, the main temple of the Tibetan community in exile,
Dalai Lama Temple McLeodganj: A Local’s Guide 2026 Read More »
In late May, the plains hit 42°C. Up here, it is 18°C. Same country, same day, 24 degrees apart. That difference is why every hotel in McLeod Ganj fills up by April. But the best time to visit Dharamshala is not just about escaping the heat, it depends entirely on what you actually want to
Best Time to Visit Dharamshala: The Only Guide You Need Read More »