Hey guys! How are you doing!? This blog post marks the start of a new section of Moonshine and Sunlight, because I have been bit by a bug, the Travel bug! Since I have grown up across the country, long vacations or holidays meant going to our home town and long weekends etc meant visiting places nearby. And since I have stayed in places with forest and reserves in the vicinity the most, those were our places to go!
I can safely say that I have been to almost
all reserves, sanctuaries in India but I would love to visit the ones I haven’t
been to because, travel bug :P !
But today I am not going to write about
those, I am going to share everything about my most recent trip and that trip
was to Himachal Pradesh. I will soon be sharing all about two more places, but
first this in two parts.
Because I don’t want to write one lengthy
post, I am writing this in two parts. So let’s get started!
Day
1: Delhi to Shimla –
How
to get there? I flew down to Delhi and met with my
family there, then directly from the airport left for Shimla, early in the
morning. So, Bangalore -> Delhi -> Shimla. One day’s journey by car.
You can save up to half a day’s travel, if
you go to Chandigarh Directly and from there take a car. You also have buses
available, but since we were a family of four, we preferred renting a car for
the whole trip. Please message me on my Facebook page if you want the car
rental details.
Since we reached Shimla around 8 pm, after
a day’s travel, we decided to take some rest to be ready for the next day. Also,
mostly everything was closing down by the time we reached.
Day
2: Shimla and Kufri –
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| View of Shimla |
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| The Horses at Kufri |
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| At Kufri ! |
We left for Kufri in the morning, about an
hour and a half’s drive from Shimla. You have to go on horses to reach the
actual place where visitors go, the top of the mountain. Honestly, it was a
very, very dangerous route. Apparently, the actual road was closed for repairs,
so they were taking the visitors from another route which was rocky and muddy
in some parts and it was plain dangerous, because of the number of horses going
through a narrow ledge of the mountain. When you reach at the top, you have a
20INR ticket per person and it opens into a small valley dotted with various
shops for food and warm clothes.
There is a place where a group of people
will offer to show you few places via a telescope in exchange of 200 INR per
person. DO NOT go for that! It is not
worth, as they will hurriedly show you 5 – 6 places/points from a cloudy
telescope, which are easily visible by naked eye. Other than that there is a
small temple, a “Fun world” which has a few attraction like zip lining, Go
karting on the highest course etc, I would rather ask you to go for this , not
the Telescope BS.
The view from here is lovely, but we didn’t
get any snow here. Relax for some time, soak up the cool breeze and the view,
but do not spend a lot of timehere, if you plan to explore Shimla in the same
day.
Although I wanted to explore the city a
bit, but due to the shortage of time at hand, we directly headed towards the
Mall Road. There are quite a lot of places on Mall road including the Church, Scandal
Point, etc.
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| View From Kufri |
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| Temple in Kufri |
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| Green Vallley, while returning from Kufri |
I wanted to visit Lakkar bazar, but again due to shortage of time, I couldn’t. The
scandal Point is a nice place to be at, beautiful in fact! We also visited the Kalibari, where I
encountered a monkey who gets his kicks by scaring people. Hahaha! It was
delightful to roam around The Mall during
the sunset! I would recommend you go there with a bit of time at hand to
properly explore the places to eat at and shop!
After a bit of shopping after the sunset,
we went back to the hotel and on the way I picked up some Cape Gooseberries!
They are delicious, in case you haven’t had them!
Day
3: Shimla to Kullu – Manali –
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| Church near Scandal Point |
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| Shimla Post Office |
How
to get there? We started early morning from Shimla
and headed towards Kullu and Manali. It was almost a day’s drive. It easily
takes 8 -10 hours if you make multiple stops.
Kullu has a lot of river rafting places, but
there are only some who are approved by the government and trained properly.
Make sure, you have a change of clothes ready in case you go for river rafting
and opt for a trained professional to accompany you.
Up ahead, in Kullu there are a lot of shops
and factories which manufacture Kullu Shawls. They are really beautiful and
make really great gifts, but please be careful because they usually quote any
price they like. Visit a few different shops, before you make your purchase.
The Road trip to Manali is really
beautiful. The road goes alongside the rivers and the natural beauty is
breathtaking! Soak up as much of that as you can!
I think it is time for a pause so, I will
end this post here and will start the next one with Day 4.
Remember
to: Focus on the view and nothing else in case you
are scared of heights or get nauseous easily. Carry something light to munch
on, also do not eat a lot or nothing at all before setting out for the trip.
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| On my way to Manali |
Hope you like the post, since this is my
first travel post, I would really appreciate all your critical feedback. Also,
do let me know what you think about the pictures!
Have
you been to Shimla, Kulu and Manali!?
Share your experience in the comments below! Would love to know!
Loads of love,