Shimla

Vacation time has come an year after Darjeeling vacation. This time I have planned to tour north India. As I usually like cold places, I chose Shimla, Manali, Delhi and Agra for this tour. I fell in love with Shimla when I first visited. After a tedious train journey to New Delhi which took 28 hours to reach from Hyderabad, I had to board another train which has taken me to Kalka which is the end of the broad gauge rail, from there narrow gauge rail  starts which  runs till Shimla. These rails are basically for the toy trains to run on.

This is an awesome and pleasant journey of six hours on a toy train which takes you through the small towns and villages on the hills and mountains. As you go high on the mountains, the weather gets colder when Shimla is getting closer. The tiny train stations on the hills are British style wooden roofed classic buildings. While train halts in those stations, you can get down from the train to grab a cup of coffee or tea and to click few pictures of those old stations.

By that time, I have reached Shimla it was 6 in the evening. I did not book the hotel in advance, cabby helped me to find a hotel which is about 3 miles away from railway station. Hotel is clean and decent, luckily I have got room with beautiful views through glass windows. Weather was freaking cold, I had to wear two sweaters to rescue myself.

Excursions I went when I was in Shimla are Naldehra and Kufri. Naldehra is about 22 kms from Shimla town. There is golf course situated at the height of 2044 meters, I hired a horse and rode around the golf course  I was afraid as the horse trainer did not come along with me and the way we (me and horse) are going is very steep and narrow. If one of us slips I'll go straight down into the valley. However, those horses are well trained and government licensed.

Post lunch, I head to Kufri  and hired a horse again to climb the hill top for the spectacular views. Ten minutes horse ride took me to the snow capped hill top. There I found a big crowd playing with the snow, eating freshly prepared hot noodles, getting the pictures with a Boa and Yaks and making snow man.

I spent one evening on Ridge where most of the tourists and locals hang out. This place is very near to Mall Road. Usually this place is foggy and snowy in winters. There is beautiful church at the corner and lot of restaurants serving Indian, Chinese and Continental food.

I was fortunate to visit a small bakery run by an old lady on the Mall Road two or three railing lanes down from the Christ Church. She was very kind and welcoming. She bakes all the items in her bakery on her own. I had a delicious Chocolate Brownie followed by a Hot Coffee.

I visited the art gallery for free and found many arts new and interesting. They had different kinds of arts to showcase. Painting, Sculpturing and more. Below is the picture of one which I found interesting.

My favourite place in Shimla is Ridge where one can spend the evenings sitting on a wooden bench and enjoy the weather and scenic beauty of far away hills and mountains. All you need to have is a hot coffee or tea in your hands. This place is awesome!