Two days In Shimla On New Year
I together with two friends all of sudden decided to go to Shimla on Dec 31, 2010.
We decided to travel by train. There are some good and bad experiences
related to this tour. Timing of train from Kalka to Shimla is 12:10 PM. My friends had to come from
Chandigarh. I was waiting for them at Kalka railway station.
Due to traffic they could not reach on time. They were 10 minutes late.
The train had gone.
Now the actual story of 10 Minutes late starts from here.
These 10 Minutes made our tour very interesting.
Now to cover these 10 Minutes we went to bus stand Kalka. We boarded into bus to Dharmpur
which is around at the distance of 30 km from Kalka. The next station for train is Dharmpur.
It takes around 50 minutes to reach at Dharampur.
we got down from the bus hurriedly and started for Dharampur Railway Station which is very near to Dharampur Bus stand.
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Then in the way from bus stand to railway station we asked to one person about the train,
he told us the train is just coming. Then we asked the Station Master whether the train has moved or not , then he told us that the train has already departed ten minutes ago.
Then we asked the Station Master that which is the next station and how much time the train will take to reach there. He said approximately 45 minutes then we decided to captured some photographs. We spent 10 to 15 minutes in taking photographs at railway station.
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Then we moved to bus stand Dharmpur. After 10 minutes we boarded into bus from Dharmpur to Solan, which is at a distance of 15 km and it takes 20 to 25 minutes by bus. We were thinking that we will reach there at Solan railway station before train reached there. Again due to traffic bus got late by 15 minutes and it took 40 minutes to travel from Dharmpur to Solan. After reaching at Solan by pass we ran away towards railway station. Within 5 minutes we reached at railway station Solan. We were thinking that we had reached before train.
Then we asked to Station Master about the train. He told that train had departed just ten minutes ago. We asked about next station, next station is Kandaghat and approximately it is one hours run by train. We again spent some time in capturing photographs and decided to reach at next station before train.
There at Solan railway station we found some snow covered areas. We felt happy and we took photographs there and moved to bus stand Solan.
There we had to wait for 15 minutes for the bus. We started the journey from Solan and within 45 minutes we reached at Kandaghat
railway station. This time we were sure that the train has not crossed but when we confirmed from Station Master, he told that the train has departed just 5 to 10 minutes ago. It was evening time. Then we took tea and snacks there and finally decided to travel rest of the distance by bus because next station was Shimla.
Kandaghat is very beautiful place so we spent some time there and we captured
around 60 to 70 photographs at railway station. After that we took bus from Kandaghat to Shimla.
Here are some of the photographs with my friends Narender and Kapil at Kandaghat :
From Kandaghat to Shimlais approximately 40 minutes run by bus. On the way from kandaghat to Shimlawe saw the train was crossing the tunnel.
At that time we decided that on the way back to home we will come by train.
Finally we reached at Shimlabefore train reached at Shimla. The weather at shimla was very pleasant. The scene was very beautiful there.
Snow covered hills were there all around. We captured so many photographs there.
After that we booked rooms there and went towards ridge which is first attraction at Shimla.
This was our fist experience of snow fall. We were enjoying every moment.
Then we took ice-cream and enjoyed the weather with ice-cream. It was wonderful experience, that one should definitely feel
if you are going to Shimla, you must eat ice-cream. Near about 9:00 PM we had to get back to room because we had to reach there
at room before 9:30 PM. We took dinner and then took rest. It was very very cold there, even we could not able to touch the water it was so cold. We were having blankets in the room even then we were shivering. Any how we spent night and next day at 9:00 am we had to
start for Jakhu temple which is devoted to lord Hanuman. To reach there we had to track snow covered way. Houses were covered with snow, even way was very slippery. It was wonderful experience and we enjoyed the track. We enjoyed by throwing snow on each other, so many times
we fall down badly because track was very slippery.
Jakhoo temple is devoted to lord Hanuman and it is located around two and a half kilometers from the ridge on the Jakhoo Hill, which is highest peak in Shimla.
It offers wonderful view of mountains all around.
There are hundreds of monkeys around the temple and also on the way to temple.
These monkeys are real nuisance, so be careful. We had arranged wooden sticks to protect ourselves from monkeys.
Finally we reached at temple, after darshan we stay there for half an hour. When we were coming back what happened-
it was really amazing for us. There were three persons sitting on stairs uncle was wearing glasses one monkey came closer to him
and very gently took glasses away and climbed onto tree then they threw away bananas to monkey in response to it monkey threw
glasses down. This is how they get his glasses back. One of my friend showed stick towards monkey, they attacked him. any how he
escaped.
The view of temple is awesome. About 108 feet high Hanuman idol is there, that is also one of the attraction point.
After that we came back to ridge. Then we went to The mall which is very famous mall there. We did shopping there. Every thing is
available there at very attractive prices mostly woolen clothes. Now it was the time when we had to get back to Chandigarh. We moved
to railway station around 1:30 pm. We asked there about the train. They told us the train will depart at 2:20 pm. We collected the
ticket from the counter. We could not believe the total fare from Shimla to Kalka is just 16 Rs.
Train was already there at station. This time we were late enough. Train was full. All the seats were occupied.
We had decided to go by train so we stood at the door with very difficulty. The train departed at right time 2:20 Pm. The beauty of mountains can be felt if you travel by train. Railway track was covered with snow it was very nice scene.
We enjoyed the journey from Shimla to Dharampur by train then we decided to travel by bus because my friends had to reach at Chandigarh, if we travel by train we could be late because the reaching time is 9:00 pm at Kalka but sometimes it gets late by half
an hour or may be more. So we went to bus stand, there we had to wait for 20 minutes for bus and we crossed Kalka at 8:00pm. My friends reached there
at Chandigarh at 9:00 pm.
Next day we had to go to office. So we took rest and next day got ready for office on time.
I would say those two days were wonderful days and we enjoyed as we could. They have become memorable days of my life.