SHIMLA - The Queen of Hills

I was in my tenth grade when I visited this stunning creation of god. Manali is amazingly beautiful. Everything about these mountains is spellbinding. We went to the mountains around November when winter starts to set foot. Shimla was our first halt. We took the Shatabdi Express from Delhi to Kalka and then a cab ride from Kalka to Shimla. In transit to Shimla we stopped by these roadside Dhabas (restaurants) and the food is typically Punjabi and filling at these places. You find a combination of vegetarian Indian as well as Non Vegetarian food here and for the hygiene conscious there are plenty of Hotels with an elaborate menu as well. But the fun of dining under shining stars is unparalleled.

In the freezing cold we left for Shimla after a filling dinner and touched Shimla at the break of dawn. It looked very ordinary in the dark like any hill station would be. We all went to bed hoping morning rays would warm us all. And I was right! Morning had brought a totally different picture of Shimla in front of our eyes. Shimla was indolent, charming and dreamy. The owners of the lodge we were in, made some steaming hot Aloo Pranthas for us and just got us up for the day. We walked down the winding roads of Shimla as that’s really the best way to explore any small town. Vegetable vendors along the roadside and mist all around, felt like time stood still.

We walked down the mall road and it was Sunday and most of the shops were shut. People were sipping hot tea and coffee outside the descended shutters of shops selling merchandise. The smoke rising from the hot cups gradually vanished in the cold air and the mall road seemed endless. When our feet gave up we also took shelter on this walkway where a group of people were warming up beside a camp of fire. Just when we started to warm up a bunch of monkeys jumped and spilt our cup of tea. Shimla is full of monkeys and they are quite a menace I must say. We then took the toy train that moves around the town so slow that you could easily match up if you walked slightly faster. One thing I realized here was SLOW is the key to enjoying everything in Shimla. Since we had seen most of Shimla in that one day and a few locals also told us that Manali just had the seasons first snow fall, we decided to end our Shimla stay there and move ahead to Manali. We took the late night bus to Manali which takes about 10-12 hours to reach destination.