This is my second trip for the year and this time it's with
Family. From the lovely beaches of Goa to the lovely and awesome mountains of
great Himalayan ranges. It was a much awaited tour as we have been thinking
about it for quite some time but somehow it was not working out and this time
plan gets finalized in one hour and booking done same day. At the end of blog
will share the details from where I did booking.
Shimla, Kullu-Manali does not need any introduction as this has
been a tourist destination from many decades and still people are crazy about
the place. Shimla is the capital state of Himachal Pradesh which is one of the
state in the Himalayan mountain ranges and also once called as summer capital
of British India. Let me take you to my journey.
Day 1
Took the early morning flight from Pune and reached Delhi at
9:30 AM IST where our Cab is waiting for us to start our further journey
towards Shimla which 357 KMs away. We boarded the cab and started our journey
on Delhi-Jammu Road. After going some 60 KMs its time to take the first break,
we stopped at Shiva Dhaba (restaurant) for meal and we ordered some food items.
Ohh my, what a tasty food they offer. The food was awesome and Lassi is even more wonderful. After a wonderful meal and making our tummy
happy we proceed towards Shimla. After travelling some 200 odd KMs we stopped
at Yadavendra Gardens at Pinjori. It was really nice garden and a
very good initiative of Haryana Tourism.
Jal Mahal, Rang Mahal, Rani Mahal and
Shesh Mahal are some main attractions of major attraction of this garden. In
the premises of Garden there is food court, Restaurant and bar where you can
enjoy food and drink.
In the evening when multicolor lights are on and it looks
amazing and more beautiful. You can spend 2 hours in the garden easily as we
did and then it time to continue our journey. You can consider Pinjori as the
last town before you enter Himachal Pradesh and started to see foothills of
Himalaya.
It was dark and full ghat road and going further up we are
almost there. While looking outside the
window I could see lights on the mountain and literally they were looking like
starts and one could simply feel like “Tare Zameen Par”. It was really amazing
to see such a beauty in the complete dark. We finally reached our hotel in
Shimla, took dinner and went into bed to start next thrilling day.
Day 2
We wake
up at around 7 AM and very eager for Shimla Sightseeing and when I open the
windows I was shocked to see it’s raining outside in the month of April and was
very disappointed. But it was having a very awesome view out of the window. It was looking like mountains were taking cloud blanket.
We all took our breakfast and get ready and started our
journey towards Kufri. By the time we reached Kufri it stopped raining as we
considered our self very lucky. In the parking itself you will see many agents
offering you a horse ride to take you to the hill top. They will charge you 500
Rs per head to take you to top and return back. It will take 20 odd mins for
you to reach on top.
It was really a nightmare riding those horses, the path
was full of holes and
puddles which the horses slipping and climbing up. On one side it was a trench
and other side there were lots of stones and holes. Sometimes it was very scary
felling that if I fall from horse what will happen to my back or body parts,
Something
gonna surly break. I took a breath of relief once I reach on top and see all my
family members reached safely.
Going further you
will see a Yak standing there for you to click some pictures sitting on him. It will
change you 50 Rs per person. You will also get accessories like hat and gun to
click some pictures.
Going further you
can play game for shooting the bottles that is also 50 Rs for 6 Shots. Moving ahead
there are many stalls where you can have snacks and it’s not that costly
thought.
You can also take
pictures with wearing the traditional costume as there are many photographers
there to give costume do so. There is a view point from where you can see 10
points from telescope.
Some of them are
China border, natural hot
water springs, the palace of King of Patiala, the richest village of Shimla,
the Mata Mandir where many Bollywood movies scenes are picturised .
China Border post
natural hot water springs
King of Patiala Palace
The richest village of Shimla
While returning we were feeling very hungry
and as there were food stalls we had good snacks. While our order come I
decided to roll in the ball. It was really an amazing experience thought not
easy.
Now after
spending almost a day it’s time to return back, you may be required to wait
depending upon the availability of the horses at top pick up point. This time
you will not scared as compared to while you were coming but you will pray not
to fall from horse. After a 15 minutes long bumpy ride we finally reached the
parking lot. We didn’t have much time left to see the Himalayan National park. So we went to Jakhu
Temple (According to Mahabharata Myth Hanuman Ji rested while searching for
Sanjivini Plant) than to vice regal lodge which was once the residence of
British Viceroy of India which is now converted to advance study for its
academic use.
In Evening we exploration on our own The Mall, Scandal Point,
Ridge, Lakkar Bazaar and Christ Church. We did buy some toys for kids and then
returned to hotel. Had dinner and went to sleep.
Day 3
Welcome to yet
another amazing day. We checked out from the hotel in Shimla and heading
towards Manali today. On the way to Manali, we took a halt at Pandoh Dam and
then we stopped at Kullu for river rafting in Vyas River.
There are many
different agents from where you can book river rafting, they will change 200 Rs
per head and also they will charge 1100 Rs if you want a video and pictures of
river rafting. It was amazing experience as before that I had only seen river
rafting in TV.
After that we moved ahead and reached shawl factory in Kullu. We
did lot of purchasing like sweaters and jackets but later came to know the
quality of the products are not good and our money was wasted. Finally we
reached to Manali at near about 9 PM had our dinner and went to bed.
Day 4
Starting
of the day very amazing cause after we went to bed it rained the whole night
which dropped the temperature. When we were going for breakfast it snowed a
bit. From the floor lobby we could see the pine tree on the mountains was fully
covered with snow. We clicked some
pictures in hotel lobby and had our breakfast. We started our day by visiting Hadimba
Devi Temple (This temple constructed in 1553 A.D is Dedicated to Himachal’s
Most Significant Deity Hadimba Mata).
Just behind the temple you can see a very beautiful pine tree forest where many movies scenes are picturised.
We now decided to go Solang valley.Before reaching there we stopped at a shop where
we took the snow suit on rent including Shoes. We got it on rent on Rs200 but
needed to buy socks and globes.
We
reached the Solang valley to find rush cause overnight rain caused show over
the mountain. You need to buy the ropeway ticket RS 650 per head to reach at
the top of Valley.
Ropeway at Solang Valley
I can’t express the feeling once we reached at top, it was fully
covered with Snow and the view of other hills front and back of it was looking
very beautiful, covered with snow as if hills wore a snow cap. It was -8 degree
temperature over there and the good thing was there was no wind blowing.
Up there you can find a snack center just
above the ropeway. You can enjoy good snacks in such freezing cold there after
playing in snow. It was an amazing
experience thanks to overnight rain. We came down through rope way and then
went to Kanchan Nag Mandir and then Went to parking to board our cab.
After this we went to Vashisht Hot springs
(Dedicated to Vashist Muni & well known for its hot Curable water and
Religious).
Evening we
were free to explore the Mall Road & IBEX Market of Manali. Had our dinner
at hotel and went to bed.
Day 5
Today after breakfast we went to local market and did some
purchase. After spending an hour and half we started towards Delhi which was
near about 11 hours of journey. Distance between Manali to Delhi is 542 KMs. While
returning to Delhi we took our first stop to see Dalai Lama temple.
The whole
day is only about travel and it’s our driver driving skills which made it easy
and on time even having heavy traffic in Ghat. We reached hotel at around 9 PM
had our dinner at hotel and had good rest.
Day 6
After a tiring yesterday’s travel, today it’s time for sightseeing
of the Capital. We started our day visiting Red Fort which was built by Mughal
emperor Shahjahan as Royal residence.
You need to keep the bags at the parking
and take the battery operated car to reach the main gate. The Lahori Gate is
the main entrance and while walking through the gate you will see Chhatta chowk
(Bazaar), after that you will see there is an Army at Red Fort Museum which you
can see.
The main attraction of Red fort is Naubat Khana (Drum House),
Diwan-i-Am, Rang Mahal, Diwan-i-khas, Hammam (Royal Bath), Hayat Bakhsh
(garden) etc.
Our Next stop was Raj Ghat, it was so peaceful and silent. We
also visited Rajiv Gandhi Samadhi at Raj Ghat premises.
After Raj Ghat we went to Akshardham Temple it was really a
beautiful place to visit. Due to high security and restriction on pictures clicking
thus no photo. Then we went to see Qutub Minar which is one of the Seven
Wonders of the World and then to Lotus Temple after that our next stop was
Humayun’s Tomb.
We clicked some beautiful pics and there is a very beautiful
garden, I also took a picture of the top of the dome where something is
written, please write in the comment section if you can read it.
Now it’s time to see the beautiful Rajpath Rashtrapati Bhavan
(Indian Presidents house) and Parliament house. We could only see them from a
moving vehicles as civilians are not allowed to stop there but we could stop at
the parking of India Gate.
In the evening light it was looking very good. By standing
in front of Amar Jawan Jyoti it was a pride moment. Now after spending an hour
or so it’s time to end the day.
DAY 7
We woke up early as we need to travel today to Agra and returns
back to Delhi in the evening to catch our return flight back to Pune. We
started our journey towards Agra to see the 7th wonder of world the
very beautiful Taj Mahal. We took the Yamuna express highway and after travelling to somewhat 50 KMs we stopped at a Dhaba for breakfast. As Agra is 233 KMs away from Delhi the travel time reduced to 3 and half hours cause of Yamuna Express highway. We reached Agra somewhat near about 12 am.
From the parking you can
board mini bus to reach to Taj Mahal but we choose local auto rickshaw to reach
to main gate of Taj Mahal.
You need to buy the shoe cover to walk into Taj
Mahal. We enter from the first gate into premises and we saw the beautiful Taj
Mahal. The ivory-white marble tomb was built by Mughal Emperor Shahjahan in the
memories of his wife Mumtaz Mahal. It was very nice experience to see the World
wonder. It’s everyone’s dream to see Taj Mahal and you cannot explain the
feeling being there in words.
After enjoying a day we started our journey
towards Delhi airport where our flight is waiting to take off back home. While returning
we faced heavy traffic entering Delhi but finally we reached airport on time. we
did check-in took our boarding pass and boarded flight and 1 and half our
journey reached Pune airport. We booked cab at airport to reach home.
So this concludes a most amazing and unforgettable trip where we
explore nature, culture and history. It was very wonderful trip thanks to AHP
world for organizing and managing such a beautiful trip. During our whole trip
we did not faced any issues, the hotel and the cab agency was good. The trip
was planned very well and always we had an option to customize even while
during the journey. We did that as we deduced one day on Manali and covered Delhi
local sightseeing. Below are the contact
details of AHP World if anyone wants to plan their trip.
WEBSITE - www.ahpworld.com
CONTACT- sales@ahpworld.com
91-9011030238
91-9284735277
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