Thank you every one. Appologies for the late continuation. And here it continues...
Day1 . Nov 10th
We all leave for Delhi by an evening 630pm flight from Mumbai. Half way to reaching the airport, my parents realise they have forgotten their ID cards. Panic. I was traveling directly to the airport from work and was to join them. So they had the house keys and had to go back for ID’s. It was very close to departure time and they missed that flight. Amidst all the chaos and panic, luck favoured us and they managed to come on the next flight. Wifey, kiddo and myself waited for them at the airport. Their flight was late at Delhi due to smog. We were put up at my Uncle’s place in Ghaziabad. By the time we reached their house it was 2 Am. Quick greet and meet and crash for the night.
Day 2. Nov 11th.
Nice family reunion at my Uncle’s place. Great food as always. And a small nap. We were headed to Shimla by the HRTC Volvo. And we had 5 big luggages to tug around. Kid’s are tiny, but they do command a lot of luggage. Bus left Himachal Bhavan on time @830pm. The usual dinner halts and chai breaks happened on the bus and we were dropped off in Shimla at 630am the next morning.
Day 3. Nov 12th
Shimla. My first time there. Its a beautiful place. Lots of walking to do which is the best way I think to visit any new place, especially a hill station.
We stayed at Hotel Dalziel which was close to the HRTC drop point. My parents are quite old, so lots of uphill walking for them would be difficult. Dalziel is a nice English era home, now a Hotel. Food in the hills is always good and Shimla was not disappointing at all. Yummy paratha’s were canned for breakfast. We hired a car to do some local sightseeing and had lunch on the way.
Later in the evening we had a nice long walk at Mall Road which was not very crowded. Bought some woollen head gear and managed to have some yummy gulab jamun’s.
A splendid sunset and a nice walk later we headed back to our hotel and it was time to hit the sack post dinner.
Day 4. Nov 13th
A great morning. After a nice round of breakfast, we were ready to meet Mr. Anil Thakur, who was our local friend and driver for the trip. I got his number from a travel forum, where he was well recommended for Kinnaur and Spiti. But since he was based out of Shimla, he agreed to drive us around Tirthan valley until Manali. Loaded our luggage in his Innova and we headed for Narkanda.
The usual Kufri halt happened, which was a nice pony ride all the way to the top. My toddler son was brave enough to enjoy the horse ride and he loved it. Lunch happened and then we headed straight to Narkanda.
We had not booked any hotels, because I had spoke with Anil ji on getting nice home stays / hotels. And he assured me that he would get us the best of home stays / hotels. We stayed at Hotel Snowflake, Narkanda, close to the bus stand. A nice place with some insane views. Cold for a Mumbai person has a different definition altogether. Temperatures dipped further at Narkanda than Shimla. But my family was pretty geared up, with warm clothing. Food was great at Snowflake and the views were stunning.
