I don’t like going away on tours and I certainly don’t like going to places which are anywhere above the sea level relative to where I am sitting right now at my home. But I went against that usual policy yesterday when I decided on the spur of the moment to tag along with some friends on a trip to Shimla. They were planning to go on their bike which actually scared me a bit. Hero Honda bikes especially Splendor and Passion are not known for their performances so I doubted their ability to drive comfortably on the hilly region that comes on the way to Shimla from Panchkula. So, we adjusted our plan a bit, decided to take a chauffer driven car. This decision later proved to be very good indeed.

I am afraid of heights. Let me repeat that I am DEAD afraid of heights. So, our first stop at Timber Trail Parwanoo was a pretty scary one. I don’t know how high the other cable cars in the country are, but this one was high. Apparently, now that I think about it, the beer I had on the way to Parwanoo helped a lot because I did actually got into the cable car and actually survived to journey to the destination hill and back in one piece. It was a really scary scene from the trolley but was a damn good experience indeed. If you even traveled to this place, I do recommend taking out an hour or so and taking this awesome journey on ropes!

Next in line were small towns like Dharampur, Kalka, and Solan where we stopped for little while and took pictures. We also had our lunches at some dhaba on the way. We did not stopped for long at any of these places for the lack of time as we had planned only a 24 hour journey with one night stay. We were also thinking of going to Kufri if time allowed.

We almost made it to Shimla in good time for us to plan the quick trip to Kufri when it started raining cats and dogs on us as we just entered the city. It was raining like someone decided to submerge the city into waters. It was not only raining, even small snow balls were dropping. Even the car wipers running at the full speed were not able to get the visibility good enough for us to carry on. Apparently, scenarios like these are pretty common in Shimla considering the city was moving as nothing extraordinary had happened. But we were stuck. Going ahead in that kind of weather in unknown territory (Kufri) was not a good idea considering we were driving a smallish Zen on the slippery roads that were as wide as roads inside small markets in old Delhi.

We tried 4 hotels on the main road but none had any rooms. Considering it was almost the peak season days, we almost were terrified of the situation if we could not have found a room. Luckily it stopped raining (which we found out later that it was what normally happens. The weather is pretty volatile!) And we got some time to travel around Mall Road in Shimla. Nothing much amusing to me but it was fun none the less. The summer fiesta was going on and their was a big festival like atmosphere on the church ground on the Mall Road. We got to see Silk Route perform (well, we almost did except for the unreasonable delays that drove us nuts) and we got to see the initial rounds of Miss Shimla 2004 contest (Don’t ask!).

Then it was back to room hunt and we ended up in a pretty discreet lounge called Hill Bloom which gave us a smallish room at an hefty 600 bucks for the night. At least we had a place to sleep in! Later on it was pretty normal. We shot all kind of snaps on the Mall Road, had our dinner and later on went to sleep. And avoiding any more unexpected delays, we left back for home today morning and reached back at around 12. We had another round of showers with snow balls on our way back but this time we were less scared! Although it was not a proper holiday or a vacation, it was still a thrilling experience that would make me prepare for my next trip more carefully. Photos we clicked on the trip depends upon how good they came from the digital camera we used and I shall be able to post a few of them as and when I get access to them (ah for the lack of proper equipment on my PC).