02-May-2015 – DAY 0

After a wonderful Kashmir vacation in 2012, I decided to continue my exploration of the mountains, this time through a circuitous route of Shimla and its surroundings. Mountains always beckon during summer. This is a legacy that the British Empire has left behind. Being the Summer Capital of the British in India, Shimla was the country’s focus during the Raj era. Now it is the state capital of Himachal Pradesh and continues to attract the masses and is one of India’s most popular hill stations. Perched at 2205 metres it is a perfect getaway during summer.

I wanted to catch up with Shimla first before commercialization did. I did my running around the web and gathered all the basic information required for my trip but entrusted the actual trip itinerary to a travel company “Himalayan Holidayers”.  My objective was simple … minimize my travel hassles and maximize the fun. Somehow, the objective got mixed up!!

A little about my travel package itself; I had pick up and drop to Delhi airport. Hotel stay included a MAP [Modified American Plan] meal plan. i.e. it included breakfast and dinner for all 10 nights. The hotel plan also included an extra bed. All the hotels ranged from decent to very good and were centrally located. Post discount, the package worked out to 79k for four members.

On May 2^nd we reached Delhi from Pune around 8 PM. We stayed at Blue Castle close to the airport. It is a small but decent hotel at the outskirts of the airport.  The following was our Itinerary – Start from New Delhi -> Shimla ->Manali -> Dharmashala-> Dalhousie -> Amritsar -> New Delhi ~ 1623 Kms by road.

We wanted to start early so I had instructed the driver to pick us up at 7 AM. Having taken care of the planning we retired early as we had 10 hours journey ahead of us.