Trip to Himachal (took us for a ride)

Hi everyone….

Hope you’re good…

Well, I have shifted to New Delhi and hence decided to explore it.

This blog is about the crazy trip I had (Kalka, Kasauli & Shimla) on this weekend!! J

Well.. I’m slowly getting adapted to the climate here… Travelling is an energy booster and I always have the need to recharge myself. And thus evolved the idea of a trip.

Delhi is hottttt, people do say this is nothing compared to march (gets me the chills I tell ya).. So I decided to search for a cooler place to go.. after a little research here and there, I found that Kalka-Kasauli trek is about 15kms and is supposed to be a wonderful trek. So I looked for the train availability and made a rough plan about budget, (told my roommate cum colleague, he joined along).

Trip was planned for a Friday night travel to Kalka. We boarded a bus from Munirka (place where I stay) to New Delhi Railway Station; we were already running late, the scheduled time of the rain was 21:25. So we hurried and somehow reached the station by 20:30. We went inside and saw that  there was a long queue, got the tickets to Kalka, and we relaxed.. (little did we know about what was ahead!).

We started searching the platform where Kalka train was supposed to be boarded from, we asked people in uniforms and laymen, but no one (NO ONE!!) had heard of a place called Kalka. We were in a dilemma, because the ticket was to Kalka and no one knew the place! It was 21:00 and the train was in 25 minutes and we were running around asking for directions,! Luckily there was a good Samaritan who told us that the train is from old Delhi station, once we got that news, we both ran like crazy towards the metro station. I had low balance in my metro card (11rs) and there was no time to wait in line for the token in any counter, so I took my chances and swiped it anyway and boarded the metro.

It took 8 minutes to reach Chandni Chowk, and we ran again (the time then was 21:10), we didn’t even stop to take a breath(metaphorically of-course! We breathed heavy alright!! :D ), we were sweating and gasping, but neither of us wanted to miss the train (Metro charged only 7rs getting my balance to 4rs,  lucky huhJ). 

Train Delhi - Kalka

Finally we entered the station at 21:20, with only 5 minutes left and we had to still find out the platform! So we spoke to few people got to know that its platform 5 and ran (remembered the movie Bhagam bhagJ). We reached and saw that general compartment was packed… it was 7 hours journey and we didn't want to stand in that compartment, so we boarded the sleeper and got 2 seats, so occupied those and slept as though we owned them J…

Kalka - First Destination...

Now that we got the time… my roommate (Mayank) told me “Next time thoda planning karke ayenge”…I smiled (laughing in my head.. thinking ‘when do things happen according to our plan anyway! :D’ )… the train started its journey at 21:30 and we were all set. After an hour or so the TT came to check tickets.. I smiled at him and handed him our general tickets… he looked at my face and informed that we need to pay 200rs for seats, we bargained and got them finally. After that I slept like a baby, the next morning around 4:45 we reached our destination.

It was early and around 5:30 when we started walking, we asked a few for the route to Kalka by walk and they looked at us as if we were out of our minds! Coz it was more than 30kms. They suggested that it would be better for us to take the bus. We anyway got the route and started walking, the view was good.

Snake route

It was a long walk after which we found people and they showed us the way. After walking more than 7 kms we realized that it’s just the road route and that there’s no path through the thick forest…even if there were any people, they did not know about it. So our trip got boring.. (boring coz I love walking through the forest!), the view was amazing and the feel was great, but.. it was still a road trek.

Bus - Shortened the trip ;-)

Mayank and myself discussed and decided to cut short the trek as the “Thrill” factor was missing, we boarded a bus to Kasauli. After  40 minutes we reached Kasauli and the climate was AM AAA Zing.. loved it... drank tea and had a light breakfast and then..off we went to see “Manki point” (its Mann Ki in hindi, lord Hanuman’s foot print can be seen there).

Church of England

People told its 4 kms to Manki point… but as we walked, the view was soo beautiful that we didn’t know when we covered 4 kms. We reached the place and it was within Air-force vicinity so no photos could be taken. Sad part was that only one was allowed at a time, as there was no locker for mobile phone (which was strictly not allowed btw).. So I let Mayank go ahead and waited outside the gate..all alone.. looking at the beauty of creation and day dreaming… after 30 minutes or so he returned and it was my turn to go…(lot of formalities ID proof etc) it was quite a walk, I met few army folks on the way, spoke to them, got to know the history of the place saw the temple on top. The view from there was mind blowing (one could see entire Chandigarh from there).. stayed there and spoke to few people and returned back to Mayank and we continued our journey back.

Nature en-route to Mann-ki point

We reached the bus stop, saw the Church of England which was built in 1884. We had to plan ahead as there was an entire evening to be spent. So as we sat in the bus stand, we decided to go to a new place. Boarded the bus to Dharampuri (40 mins) and then from there.. to our new destination - Shimla (2hrs).

We reached Shimla around 15:00 and din know any places so we went to the old bus stand and started walking to find some place to eat (till then we were living on minimal food).we found a Chinese restaurant (simply Chinese ka board, actually hard core desi), had 2-3 Paratha’s and with the help of android application started exploring Shimla.

Church in Shimla

We went to the mall road and saw lot of pretty girls J then visited the Church. After which we saw a temple (Hanuman ka) there was an open challenge

    "below 30 years if they reach the temple in 30 minutes they’re absolutely fit, in 45 minutes then only fit etc".

So we took up the challenge and started walking faster, after some distance the climb got steeper. We took some rest and asked few people about the distance and they told we had walked only 5% of the climb L.. We were looking at each other when we saw an old man carrying a wooden bed to the temple.. that boosted our energy and we started running.

en-route to hanuman temple

We met a lot of monkeys made few pit stops to get nice pictures and kept moving, finally reached and saw the time, we had reached in exactly 24 minutes (yes a record J). We were happy, Mayank visited the temple when I waited outside listening to the tales of mischievous monkeys.

Once he returned from the temple we started our journey back to the Shimla bus stand (had decided to try the bus). Boarded the bus to Shimla bus stand and from there bought the tickets to Delhi (bought deluxe tickets; nothing deluxe about it baaad experience; push-back seats doesn’t work, charging point doesn’t work & there’s a TV only for showcasing)..

Somehow managed the journey partial sleeping, partial fighting for a better (comfortable) position to sleep. Once we reached Delhi we had smiles back on our faces….

Well I hope you guys enjoyed reading this blog...Thanks all…have fun J