A sharp whistle at Pathankot Junction, and the narrow-gauge train to Kangra starts its long climb into the hills. Outside the interstate bus terminal, conductors call out Dalhousie, Dharamshala and Jammu, because most people here are heading somewhere else. Stay a day and the town makes its own case.
Up the Ravi, the cave shrines of Mukesar were carved, legend says, by the Pandavas, and the Ranjit Sagar reservoir spreads between green hills. Summers run hot, the monsoon soaks July and August, and winter nights turn chilly. A Local Friend gets you through doors you would not knock on alone, like a litchi grower's gate in June.
