Shimla, Manali and Delhi – Dec 2007

I had several personal reasons to undertake a trip to the Himalayan kingdom – Himachal Pradesh. We were given a free 3 night-4 day stay at a very good hotel in Shimla as a freebie for purchasing a Nokia N76 Then, there was the forced 12-day vacation (shutdown as it’s often referred to within HP) at HP that happens every year between Christmas and New Year. This is a blessing to the oft-stressed out IT folks who can rejuvenate themselves with a forced holiday once a year Our visit to Switzerland soon after marriage, left long-standing memories of playing in snow and ice atop Titlis. We were yearning for yet another sojourn to snow and ice. Experiencing snow was always a dream for me since (un)fortunately my entire stint in the US was in tropical Florida. North India was under a cold spell in early December, draping Shimla and upper Himalayan regions in unanticipated white snow. The entire region was looking forward to a ‘white Christmas’ quoting the media.

Having been used to planning holidays from the luxury of the home using the internet in the US, I wanted to see if I could repeat this in India. I was pleasantly surprised at the ubiquitous reach of the internet in India. There were umpteen online travel agencies that gave you a single window solution to planning your travel. Since we already had a hotel reservation, we couldn’t avail of these package tours and we resorted to making arrangements for travel individually. It was so easy to book flight tickets to Delhi using Ezeego1, train tickets using the Indian Railways online reservation portal and suprisingly, even bus tickets in the Himalayan regions. All we needed were printed e-tickets! We also booked our hotel room in Manali and Delhi.

To overcome our apprehensions of being able to withstand the cold wave prevailing in North India, we frequently verified the weather conditions at Shimla and Manali using popular internet sites. There are also several very good websites about Himachal Pradesh. With the weather being close to freezing point, we stacked our bags with heaps of woollen that included sweaters, fur coats, gloves, woollen socks and thermals.

21st December:

On the morning of 21 st December, we set out for Delhi on the low cost Indigo airlines. Fearing fog delays at Delhi and Bangalore (which had stranded passengers for over 8 hours a few weeks ago), we ensured we had enough room to catch our train to Kalka from Delhi. Luckily for us, we landed at Delhi around 2pm without much delay. Now, we had to figure out a way of whiling time until late in the night for our train to Kalka. Not knowing to talk Hindi added to the challenge. I will have to point out that there were quite a few funny instances on the entire tour where we started off a conversation in Hindi but eventually turned to English as we struggled to get the right words out in Hindi. With this experience, I undertook a resolution in the New Year to learn to speak fluent Hindi by the year end.

After spending some time on lunch outside the airport, we boarded a taxi that would take us to the Old Delhi railway station. This taxi resembled a hearse van and the driver helped our opinions by recklessly speeding through Delhi traffic, while we gripped the seats in fear.

After a few hours loitering in the multi-cuisine restaurant outside the railway station, we finally headed to our platform around 7pm. The platform truly supported the ‘Old Delhi’ tag, as we observed large well-fed rats and bandicoots freely speeding through our legs. As the sun went down, it felt quite cold aided by the occasional cool breeze, and we hurried to wear our woollens. The train to Kalka was delayed by nearly three hours and turned our enthusiasm to frustration, while we braved the cold night.

We finally headed out to Kalka around mignight. We couldn’t catch much sleep since the train reached Kalka in the early hours of the morning. On the way, we passed through Chandigarh. It was near freezing as I put my hand out of the train at Chandigarh railway station.

22nd December:

One thing that caught our attention in Kalka railway station was the spotlessly clean platforms, toilets and waiting rooms – a stark contrast to the previous night at Old Delhi railway station. We caught some sleep and then made some friends in the waiting rooms while we waited for our mountain-train to Shimla around noon. As the sun appeared over the horizon, the mist disappeared and the weather became much more bearable. It was interesting to note that Kalka railway station was celebrating their year of cleanliness and there were prominent sign boards that encouraged cleanliness. This comes as a welcome change in a country that is not too concerned about cleanliness in public places.

It was easier to spend time in Kalka since we had noted a few tourist spots during our travel planning. After a brief negotiation with a taxi driver in Hindi, (Come to think of it, cricket has helped my fluency with Hindi numbers! This proved to be invaluable during our negotiations with vendors through the trip) we made a quick visit to Yadavindra Gardens for Rs 50 each way.

Yadavindra Gardens (Pinjore Gardens) has a 7 terrace palace with fountains on each level. These gardens were erected by Fidai Khan under Aurangzeb’s regime, and they were well preserved and maintained. The gardens were sorrounded by mountains. Pinjore had associations with the Pandavas during their period of exile.

We helped ourselves to a satisfying North Indian lunch at the railway restaurant before we boarded the small carriage train, called the Toy train or Himalayan Queen – to Shimla.The train had six carriages with about thirty seats each. The carriage had large glass windows to provide a panoramic view of the mountains. A tourism department map indicated that the mountain railway to Shimla was commissioned by the British about a century back. The engineering skills then must have been phenomenal, to install a railway route through the mountains over hundred years ago.

The train was over crowded with passengers who didn’t have reservations but were quite demanding for seats!As the train set out through the winding mountains upwards, we made friends with our co-passengers, some of whom hailed from Shimla. Along the way, we learned a lot about the Himachal culture. The train moved at a slow pace often stopping at small stations where we could pick up a snack or two. And then, there was the hot tea to kill the cold. For the first four hours, it was an enjoyable ride with nearly 800 bridges and 100 tunnels that were enthusiastically counted by the children on the train.

I also observed the impact of the mobile revolution in India, as several passengers virtually had mobile phones to their ears for the most part of the seven hour journey. It reminded me of the Airtel advertisement that showed mobile connectivity even in the middle of a thick jungle.

Until sunset, we could see some fabulous scenic views of valleys and peaks. As we approached Shimla, most tourists were disappointed not to see white snow along the way. We could see some ice peaks at a distance but no white Shimla as anticipated.

As dusk descended on the mountains, we could see shimmering lights in Shimla. However, the journey became boring when the train had to circle a long mountain range before heading into Shimla. Shimla was nearly there but not quite, for more than an hour!

Shimla railway station was again spotlessly clean. While we tugged our luggage to the taxi stand, the woollens on our bodies increased, to withstand the near freezing cold night. Our hotel in Shimla – HoneyMoon Inn, arranged for a taxi to pick us up from the railway station. The driver deftly sped through the snaky roads and dropped us at the foothill of our hotel. A very friendly porter secured our luggage behind his back using a rope and panted and puffed his way up the stairs to our room. As the days went by, we saw that it was typical in Shimla for people to carry gas cylinders, steel cupboards, firewood and rice bags in a similar manner, by securing them behind their backs. They made it look very comfortable!

Honeymoon Inn was probably one of the best hotels in Shimla. It was centrally heated and well maintained. We were given a cozy room with a nice view of the valley out of the window. The room had additional heaters that made our entire stay very warm –literally. We refreshed after a long day in the train with soothing hot water. The restaurant downstairs was moderately expensive but served very good North Indian food. It was a clear night sky with no forecast of snowfall in Shimla for the next day. Sigh!

23rd December :

We hired a taxi from the hotel for visiting Green Valley, the renowned Kufri ski resort and Himalayan zoo.

We climbed up steeply as we headed towards Green Valley. As we got down at Green Valley, we realized why it has been given the name. We saw a huge valley filled with an endless spread of dark green firs and deodars that sprang up from the bottom of the valley skywards. The embankment overlooking the valley was chocablock with tourists wearing colorful Himachal costumes and posing for photographs. We followed suit. There were any number of photographers eager to grab their share of tourism revenue. Each costume with a photograph is charged at Rs 65 which seems reasonable. However, their trick is that they take multiple photographs with the same costume before you realize it and charge Rs 65 for each photograph. After posing for a series of photographs individually and in different combinations, we were handed a hefty bill of Rs 390! Watch out for this fleece and be upfront about the number of photographs you want them to capture. The model of business is quite interesting. These photographers take the money at the spot and ensure they deliver the printed photographs by evening to the respective hotels. Despite the quick con job, they deliver good quality photographs. Through our trip, we saw several such opportunities for capturing ourselves in a Himachal costume but the quality, brightness and color of the costume at Green Valley surpassed those at various other tourist places.

We looked quite obese with several layers of woollens beneath these costumes. Mridula truly resembled a Himachal girl given her Tibetan/Chinese looks as quoted by several friends and relatives over the years.

As we moved towards Kufri, we could see ice all around the mountains and up the trees and it became increasingly colder. Kufri was flooded with tourists and it was clear that they couldn’t manage the crowd.

The entire place was stinking with mule droppings and very sloppy and slush all over. We reluctantly took off our shoes and hired dirty looking snow boots for Rs 150 each pair. These boots reached upto the knees and made walking quite difficult. We hired two mules for Rs 250 each, to take us up into the mountains to see and play in ice.

We struggled to mount the mules, with me and Vidya taking turns each way to accommodate Mridula on the mule. As the mules started off on the scary ascent of about 2000 ft in 45 minutes, we saw a few mules that slipped and threw their passengers into the feet-deep muck and our hearts missed a beat. It took some time for Mridula to stop her incessant crying and start to enjoy her ride. The ride on the mule was quite bumpy but we were amazed at the grip the mules had on slippery rocks with passengers on their back.

The mules dropped us at the top of the snow point and we had to walk our way to enjoy the ice and snow. Along the way, Vidya and I had a few falls on slippery ice beneath the seemingly normal surface, making Mridula gleefully say ‘I saw three snowfalls in Shimla – My father and mother falling in snow’! The walk was quite difficult with the snow boots on. Thankfully, our falls on ice left us with dirty linen but were not threatening otherwise. We saw a few yaks which we could mount and pose for photographs at a nominal fee. We were also given Western outfits, complete with a cowboy hat and a real gun. We were quite aghast at our callousness for the environment, when we saw the entire place polluted with plastics and non-biodegradable filth. The ice was also quite dirty despite the recent snowfall. Most places where we could see a lot of ice were treacherous and led to slippery mountain slopes downhill. In general, we found Kufri didn’t have many good places to enjoy ice and snow. However, there is a very good view of ice peaks at a distance and some good photo spots.

We trudged our way back to the mules and uneventfully reached our taxi. It was a welcome relief to get rid of the smelly boots and get into our own gear.

We then visited the Himalayan Zoo. It had good exhibits of Himalayan animals but very few in number. The entire zoo was full of fresh snow and ice and had several non-perilous areas to play with ice. Since we were running out of time, we couldn’t spend as much time as we desired. The zoo charges separately for still and video cameras, but I would opine that still cameras are good enough.

As we went downhill after the exhilarating day, we glimpsed golden peaks amidst the trees and streaks of brilliant color in the sky, as dusk descended.

24th December:

After a relaxed breakfast in the hotel, we took the same taxi for local sightseeing in Shimla. The driver was less pleasant than the previous day for no apparent reason.

Our first stop was at the Jakhoo temple dedicated to Lord Hanuman. This place was replete of monkeys and we had to rent a stick to keep them at bay. It was a good climb to the temple but the views from the top were not all that enchanting. It was motivating to note that another small temple here was inaugurated by a muslim governor of Shimla.

Then, we went downhill to Sankat Mochan temple, another temple dedicated to Lord Hanuman. Nothing of great importance here other than that there is also a temple of Ganapathy that is constructed in South Indian style.

We headed towards the Viceroy Lodge atop a hill. This castle was originally the dwelling of Lord Dufferin in 1884 but was later converted into a residential lodge for the Indian president until 1965. Now, it houses the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences and Humanities. The lawn in front of the lodge is quite well maintained and the security guards have a tough time keeping tourists off the lawns. I showed Mridula a fully functional weather cock atop one of the towers – I had in fact never seen a weather cock since my early school days. There was a free guided tour of the castle but very few areas were permitted for public viewing. The interiors were well preserved, lined with rich wooden panels and exquisite antique chandeliers and electrical fittings. The lodge had a rich legacy with the guide showing us a conference table where the famous Simla agreement was signed, a room where Gandhi and Nehru assembled before the partition and a royal chair which was used by the president.

The taxi dropped us at the public lift that would take us up to the Mall Street. It was a strange experience to pay Rs 7 each for a two-stage lift that took us through advertisement-ridden wooden alleys out into the Mall Street. It took us a while to realize that our quest for the elusive Mall on this street would lead nowhere, since there is no Mall on Mall Street! Roadside hawkers sold Kiwi fruits that thrive in Shimla. While at lunch in a restaurant, a group of school students walked in with placards that said ‘We love Shimla – Keep Shimla green’. We knew soon after that plastic bags were banned in Shimla and there is a general public sense of keeping the town clean and green.

Mall Street is divided into lower and upper mall street. While the upper street predominantly boasts of expensive high-value branded stores with a cosmopolitan outlook, the lower street is lined with infinite small stores. On the lower street, one can bargain to nearly half the quoted price on any product and walk out of the store victoriously. Dresses, woollen and walnuts (known locally as Acroot) are of good quality –there’s also good wooden artwork but I would recommend deferring the purchase of wood art until Manali.

Small roadside eateries serve tasty potato patties and chole batura. We made up our dinner with these snacks and a generous serving of honey cakes at ‘Honey Hut’ – a place specializing in honey-based recipes. All the employees at Honey Hut sported Santa caps, to welcome Christmas.

We saw the church on Mall Street lighted and decked up for Christmas. Santa’s surprise gifts were being hung at the top of the church tower in an attractive red sack. Keeping our next day trip to Manali in mind, we resisted the temptation to stay on till midnight. We became adventurous as we explored a walk back to the hotel through the dark streets of Shimla. We were afraid of being stalked and losing our way, but finally managed to reach the comforts of the hotel.

25th December:

We checked out of Honeymoon Inn at 7.30am after a quick breakfast of bread and cereal. We boarded the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC) luxury bus to Manali and very soon, waved goodbye to Shimla.

The seating was quite comfortable but the incessant sharp curves on the mountain roads kept tossing us about in our seats. Our journey was interrupted by a long traffic jam and then a breakdown that required repairs in a workshop. The driver made up for lost time and was quite adept in navigating the precarious roads which were often without shoulders. We passed the longest tunnel in the mountains which kept us in the dark for more than 6 minutes.

Towards the evening, we started seeing the Beas river flowing alongside the road. From this point on, the Beas river mostly followed our road around the mountains. There was not as much water flowing in the river as the large rounded rocks at many places. Ice peaks were all around us presenting an awesome sight at sunset.

We reached Manali at 6.30pm and it was already quite dark. We were at the foothills of the ice mountains. Understandably, it was very cold here. Our layers of woollen saved us from being frozen. Since most star hotels were overbooked, we had booked at a hotel called Ambika. The hotel sent us a taxi to pick us up from the bus stand. We soon experienced the difference between a star hotel and a regular hotel. There was no central heating and the room heaters barely kept us warm. However, keeping to their promise put up on their website, we had very good views of the snow-capped mountains from our room. After settling down in the room, we headed out to explore the streets of Manali. The mall street was a stone’s throw from our hotel.

The mall street was littered with several eateries with nearly all of them serving South Indian fare. I was surprised that many restaurants and stores were selling icecreams while it was impossible to get a hot cup of tea at night. The vendors probably found it easier to maintain icecreams than preserving the heat for tea!

Wood artists abound here, carving and painting customized messages on differing shapes of wood. We found this to be a good souvenir and successfully bargained at half the quoted price.

Many vendors approached us with a strange looking gesture that resembled a small baby. They enquired if we knew about ‘Chingu’ but we evaded them. However, ‘Chingu‘ remained a mystery till the last day, when we discovered what it meant. ‘Chingu’ is supposedly a high quality quilt blanket that can be compressed into a few inches, and justifiably expensive. This Chingu is supposed to keep you warm in winter and cool in summer. The prohibitive price (the vendor quoted around Rs 6000) prevented us from investigating further.

We were initially very enthused about North Indian food but it got to us after a few days, leaving us craving for pure South Indian food. It was a very cold night in the hotel room and we dug into every possible woollen to keep us warm. In retrospect, I would recommend a thorough verification of hotel facilities before booking a room in Manali. It didn’t occur to me to check with HPTDC at Bangalore.

26th December:

After the ordeal through the night, we explored the option of moving into a better room in the same hotel. The hotel gladly obliged to shift us into a deluxe room that had wooden interiors and better room heating.

We took a taxi from the hotel and headed towards Solang Valley. The famous Rohtang Pass is closed in winter and hence we had to settle for Solang Valley, about 20 kms from Manali. Our driver Lall was very pleasant and Mridula developed a liking to him instantly. Our way to Solang Valley was picturesque with ice capped mountains and snow covered trees and houses dotting the landscape. We kept clicking away with our camera and handy cam as we digested the beautiful views. Digital photography is indeed a blessing to nature enthusiasts. We also trained Mridula to take photographs when needed. Given the ease of use of digital cameras, it is no surprise that her photographs have also come out well.

We passed a series of shops, each distinctly numbered, which rented snow gear. Lall stopped at shop 501. The shop owner displayed his business acumen by professionally displaying photo albums of ski equipment and snow gear. He finally convinced us to rent out comprehensive snow gear and ski equipment accompanied by a ski instructor, for Rs 2000. Getting into this snow gear was an arduous task and when we emerged out of the shop, we resembled astronauts. However, the snow gear here was much cleaner and well maintained, compared to Kufri. Our ski instructor Negi befriended Mridula in no time with his soft and courteous demeanor.

There were several feet of snow all around us and we could see many tourists sinking knee-deep into fresh snow on the rocks and enjoying themselves. We alighted at Solang Resort – referred to by the locals as the snow point. Lall told us that the ski resort up the mountains was frequented by foreign tourists at this time of the year.

Negi led us to an enclosed ski arena which was crowded with tourists, ski instructors and yaks! There was lots of snow here but as with Kufri, the white snow was frequently rendered dirty with yak droppings. Mridula first attempted to ski, ably helped by Negi. For over an hour, Mridula enjoyed herself skidding on snow. After stabilizing herself in about thirty minutes, she even tried out skiing independently, to the delight of Negi. Skiing here is on a plain surface, unlike typical ski areas that are over mountain slopes. Hence, it is relatively harmless to attempt skiing here. We had to cajole Mridula to give us an opportunity to ski. Vidya and I enjoyed skiing for the next hour despite a couple of falls when we lost balance. Negi taught us a few tricks to slide over ice. We managed to implement these tricks after a long time – and also realized how much of an energy sapper skiing could be.

Negi then encouraged us to try out some ice activities beyond the ski area. The slush and dirty environment prevailing near these activities promptly made us decline Negi’s offer. At a distance on the mountains, several visitors attempted handgliding. There were also mule rides to the higher altitude where the mule owners promised a view of an ice Shiva lingam akin to the famous Amarnath. We were not enticed and instead decided to scout for clean snow and play in it. After a laborious hunt for a clean and safe area, we stumbled upon a large opening which had spotlessly clean snow that was several feet deep. We rolled on snow down relatively small slopes, dug our legs into the powdery ice and captured very good moments on camera. Our joy was short-lived however, as the owners of this area – A mountaineering school – chased us out of the building.

We grudgingly left the area casting longing glances at the still spotless white snow we left behind. As we stepped out of the area, Mridula started screaming that her legs were frozen. We removed her snow boots and realized that our brief sojourn in knee-deep snow caused ice to get into her boots. It took about thirty minutes of vigorous rubbing of her feet before she calmed down. All of us requested Negi for another ski session and he happily agreed.

Towards evening, we left the place with nostalgic memories of snow. As the sun disappeared behind the mountains, the atmosphere became colder.

Lall took us to a small pool of water called the Nehru Kund and then to Kothi. He explained that Kothi is the last village before the Chinese border. This place supposedly hosts several movie shots and he named a few recent Hindi movies that were shot at this scenic location. Lall pointed to a few barren trees in the area and said they were apple trees. These trees would be full of apples from July to September – he said. It was disappointing to see barren trees since we were expecting to pluck apples out of the trees before we headed to Shimla and Manali.

We resumed shopping after we reached the hotel at nightfall.

27th December:

Lall didn’t get to drive us the next day, as we headed towards Manikaran. It was a long winding drive for 80kms to Manikaran. We passed Kasol Valley along the way. The driver explained that Kasol had a lot of foreign currency exchange shops since it was a haven for drugs and frequented by foreigners.

As we neared Manikaran, we could see steam covering the fast flowing river Parvati and the temple. We walked down the road and crossed the bridge over river Parvati. The place was overflowing with Sikhs, as Manikaran hosts a large Gurudwara – Guru Nanak is said to have visited here during his time. Manikaran is famous for it’s very hot natural springs. The temple here has created a warm bathing tank by mixing these hot waters with the cold waters from the river. We dipped Mridula into the bathing tank and headed towards the Gurudwara and temple. It was our first visit to a Gurudwara and we gingerly stepped inside covering our heads as mandated. We curiously observed the chief priest reciting from the Guru Granth Sahib. We crept inside a nicely maintained hot cave and then proceeded to the Shiva temple. We could sight the actual hot springs here where boiling hot water bubbled up from seemingly nowhere. A temple hawker sold bags of rice and dal to try our hands at testing the heat of the water. The temple is purported to have hot springs which could cook raw rice and dal. We suspended three bags of rice into the boiling water for about fifteen minutes after which the rice was fully cooked and ready to eat. It is a natural wonder that we could sense hot and cold flooring just a few feet apart near the temple. The legend of Manikaran has it that Lord Shiva and Parvati rested here and on their way to Kailash, Parvati lost a jewel from her earring. When the jewel could not be located, Lord Shiva opened his third eye and the king of the serpents hissed loudly causing the hot springs and the jewel to emerge. Manikaran thus acquired it’s name from Mani – Jewel and Karan – Ear. Scientific investigation pointed to radio activity as the source of the hot water.

We had lunch at a hotel in Kasol Valley and then stopped at Vaishno temple. No leather is allowed inside this temple – this includes wallets, handbags, belts etc. We stored our leather belongings in a locker and then proceeded inside the temple carrying money in our palms. This is a multi-storeyed temple with artistic marble idols of innumerable Gods and Goddesses that included Kali, Durga and Saraswati. True to it’s name, the Vaishno Devi shrine here required us to crawl through a cave similar to the original Vaishno Devi temple. We also saw a Shiva shrine with a huge ‘spatika’ lingam (Spatika is a crystal and it is quite rare to see larger sizes of this crystal)

Our driver stopped along the way at Trishla Shawl Factory, one of the series of such factories on our way back to Manali. We could see shawl yarns which had work in progress and also bought some shawls and sweaters at very reasonable prices.

28th December:

We headed for Manali sightseeing the next morning after a relaxed breakfast. Our first stop was at the Hadimba temple of ‘Roja’ fame (Roja was a famous romantic movie made in Tamil in the early 90s and some scenes in that movie were supposedly shot here, though the movie has it’s storyline in Kashmir!) This temple was dedicated to Hadimba –one of the wives of Bheema in Mahabharatha. It had a pagoda shaped roof with animal figures/symbols around the temple. The idols were inside a cave in the sanctum-sanctorum. Then, we walked across to Ghatothkach temple – there’s no temple here but several weapons are embedded on a tree that is symbolic of Ghatothkach. We bought a few idols carved out of Deodar wood but didn’t have much luck negotiating on the rates in our usual 50% style.

Then, we moved into older Manali and stopped at Siyali Mahadev temple that had exquisite wood carvings but the temple was closed. Our next stop was Manu Maharishi temple – Manali derived it’s name from this ancient sage Manu – Again, the temple was closed. We could see some unspoilt snow on the rocks around these temples.

We then went uphill towards Vashisht temple. We needed to walk a long distance to the temple from the taxi drop-off point. This temple is famous for it’s hot springs but we observed that the water here was not as hot as Manikaran. In addition to the main temple of Vashisht Maharishi, there is an ancient temple dedicated to Lord Ram as well.

Not heeding our driver’s recommendation, we insisted on visiting the Manali Club house and soon realized the value of the driver’s advice – There was barely anything of interest in this club house and we departed in ten minutes.

The car dropped us off at a Tibetan monastery near our hotel. We found a big statue of Buddha painted in brilliant golden and some weird and fierce-looking idols. As expected, we saw Dalai Lama’s photo being worshipped inside the monastery. There were rotating drums all around the monastery with tourists fervently rotating each of these drums hoping for good luck (following instructions on a sign board) A notice on the wall indicated that a prayer ceremony would be held only once a year inside the monastery –obviously, we couldn’t spot any Tibetan monks here.

Our sightseeing ended around noon and we explored South Indian lunch in Madras Café, at a prominent corner on the main street. For some reason, this restaurant had escaped our attention for three days.

We bade farewell to the icy peaks as we left for Delhi in the evening by a not-so-good Himachal Pradesh Transport Corporation bus. We couldn’t get a reservation on HPTDC. The 16-hour long journey back to Delhi was quite boring and tiresome. We went downhill and reached the plains around midnight. The road leading to Delhi from here-on was not good either. We packed most of our woollens in our bags since we didn’t anticipate such extreme cold conditions in Delhi. We were mistaken however and shivered all through the way, adding to our misery.

29th December:

Delhi’s morning chill was even more unbearable. We landed at Kashmiri Gate bus stand around 8am. After negotiating with an auto driver at half the quoted rate (yet again!), we reached Hotel Sree Durga in Karol Bagh. This hotel name was given to us by a friend who stayed there recently. Though it is a small hotel, the hotel room was quite warm and the reception, very professional. It was a pleasant surprise when I got a New Year greeting card from this hotel after our return.

We had a sumptous South indian breakfast at a very small eatery and waited for our taxi to show us around Delhi. For this, we had engaged a taxi from Namasthe Travels who were very professional right from the word go. We got a very courteous taxi driver who also was able to converse in English, much to our delight.

He took us to Birla Mandir – No cameras allowed inside (except for foreigners – Indians never seem to be rid of the ‘firangi’ effect!) The temple was being renovated and the beautiful marble idols sustained our interest.

After a quick stopover at a photospot with the Red Fort as the backdrop, we visited the famous Raj Ghat – Mahathma Gandhi’s memorial. The memorial was crowded with school children. Our next stop was at the Bahai temple, better known as the Lotus temple. The architecture was a sight to behold and we were given a few minutes of silence inside the meditation hall under the Lotus structure. Then, we had photo stops again at the landmark India Gate and Rashtrapathi Bhavan.

The driver recommended we visit the Gandhi Museum and we had no regrets at this visit. This was inarguably the best museum I had ever seen dedicated to the father of our nation. Of particular mention is the life-like replica of Mahatma and Kasturba Gandhi, miniature models of several events in his life, a multi media presentation about his life and a photo gallery of his last day on earth. This museum renders a very touching and emotional tribute to the great leader and is a must-see for every tourist visiting Delhi.

We got down at Karol Bagh, had a very good albeit delayed lunch at an ‘authentic’ South Indian restaurant called Rama’s Café and then spent a couple of hours shopping on the crammed streets of Karol Bagh. We struck success with our bargaining skills on several purchases.

We hurried to the airport after packing our dinner. Our return flight to Bangalore was delayed by an hour and we reached Bangalore past midnight. We thanked our stars for being in pleasant weather through the year at Bangalore. As we retired for the night, sweet memories of the Himalayas set us thinking on another holiday!