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Till August 2009, I had only dreamt of doing this route on a motorcycle (detailed dreams here)… all this changed when I got a booking for this sector and started the preparations in full swing much before August. (more…)

Ahem! After a lot of avoidable delay caused due to laziness or de-motivation, here’s the 3rd contribution of my Himalayan sojourn. Sleepless night, early morning drive – tiring! gang (three of us) started form Gurgaon to Dalhousie, which is blessed with enchanting beauty, a certain tranquility of its ambience and the serenity and sacredness of its culture. All the parts of Himanchal that I visited are stunning nature’s wonder; however there are few places that stand out from the rest. Not as crowded or commercialized as Shimla or Manali, Dalhousie is a delightful quaint little town.

An evening in ... Dalhousie

One day we planned to visit Shimla and Kufri. So I started the journey from Ludhiana and my friends from Delhi. We met at Chandigarh ISBT to catch a bus to Shimla. There are two major bas terminus in Chandigarh. One in Sec 17 and another one in Sec 43. You have to catch the buses for Himachal Pradesh from Sec- 43 bus terminus. We catched a Keylong Depot bus, that was going to Keylong via Shimla. It was early morning around 4 AM. The bus passes through the beautiful hilly terrain of Himalaya’s Shivalik Range. The beauty of nature is spread all around you on the way. En- route to Shimla bus stopped once for the tea and snacks. It is around 4-5 hrs bus journey from Chandigarh to Shimla. There were different types of people in the bus. There were tourists, local folks and students of ITI going back to their home after vacation. We enjoyed our conversation with the students, even some of them from Keylong invited us to visit Keylong and to stay at their places. Anyway, we thanked them and terminated our journey at Shimla around 9 AM.

Chirst Church, The Mall

Ambitious two day trip to cover Narkanda , Jalori Pass, around 1100 Kms in chilly weather of December 2009. Narkanda is at 2621 metres (8599 feet), about 65 km from Shimla and surrounded by the Shivalik Ranges that span a large part of Himachal Pradesh. It is an enchanting place abounding with natural beauty, serenity and calm.

Day 1 : Gurgaon to Narkanda (around 450 Kms) 25th December 2009
Our journey started in a chilly winter morning at around 2:45 am from Gurgaon. Early morning Air was fresh but chilly. We started in our ALTO three of us, me, my husband & my brother, plan was to reach Narkanda before Sunset.

We took a small break in Muruthul to have famous Gulshan’s paratha and we all liked the taste. Our journey was going really smooth but soon got interrupted by dense fog near Ambala.

Dense Fog near Ambala