Shimla : Visit to forget the chaos of life

Landscape

Every year or whenever I get the time, I prefer to run away ( not from the police or any possessive girlfriend). Its my chance to explore nature and take a vacation. Just run away from the hustle bustle of any crazy city. This vacation was undertaken 2 years back but never made it to my blog because it just slipped from my mind then. The city was Shimla as my family members wanted to visit it and I too was looking forward to a place about which I had heard so much. It was a weekend so it was decided that we would go by flight so as to save time and the energy but the flight was only till Chandigarh so no problem. Sometime you make crazy travel plans, mix of transportation. We booked a flight from Delhi. Domestic Airlines are more much faster than trains abeit a bit expensive. The Flight Schedule suited us. An early morning 55 minute flight was what was needed to reach Chandigarh and then we proceeded by road.

Tourists

Shimla was a bit chilly by the time we reached our hotel. The best part was that our hotel was prebooked and I could see hundreds of tourists tugging along with their luggage on the roads finding accommodation but due to the fact that it was a festive weekend , no rooms were available. Sometimes its not smart to just go to a place at the spur of the moment without any pre bookings. Well it was cool there and we decided to explore the so called “Mall Road”. Its quite an expanding main street in the middle of the town with shops flanking it on the roads below it too and it also being the main shopping area. The roads and steps lead us to various alleys of mall road which is so huge and expanding that its impossible to see it in a day. 

Thats a cute doggie bag

The view to the landscape was breathtaking. You get tired waking on roads in towns but a thing with hill stations is that the quest to explore means that you never feel an inch of fatigue no matter how long you travel. While exploring the road, I visited visit Honey hut. 

The cute honey

There is honey in each one of them

Its a cafe which adds honey to every preparation hence the name, whether tea , icecream or whatever you like. Years back I had read about them in India Today and now decided to visit them. It was so quiet then with a wall plastered with stickons and paper napkins having messages from the customers. This honey bee was cute. 

The church

We roamed the way till we reached the Ridge which basically is an open space. The state library and the church are separated by just a road. I was too eager to explore both the places but my family members are not too keen book lovers whereas the church was closed when I reached there and they were not willing to wait for it to open. The time could be used to explore more places. The architecture of Gaiety theatre and Town hall really caught me eye and I eeven rested in an old bus stop. It was mesmerising. We spent the day exploring mall road and it being a no road for wheelers, we saw lots of people walking and exploring. It looked even beautiful in the evening with all those lights on. 

Capturing this really sprained my neck

The next morning was a trip to Jhakhu temple. Its dedicated to Lord Hanuman and its on a hill. I would say that only the taxi drivers of Shimla can manage on that road with very tight turns, damn steep slopes. How do they do it only they know. Only the way my taxi driver showed me the school in which Preity Zinta studied. The chill in the air made it very pleasant- just like the weather which I loved. I rushed up the stairs mindful of the Vaanar sena at every few mtrs. taking care that they should not snatch the camera out of my hand. In the courtyard, there was such a huge and imposing statue of Hanuman that it became virtually impossible for me to capture it in one frame. After the worship was over , saw that some people were feeding the monkeys grams and there was quite a battle going on between them as to who gets the most grams.

The next stop was the Tara devi temple. In comparison to the Jakhoo temple I somewhat didnot like its ambience and particularly also because I did not like this one sign I saw there. 

The sign which fused my mind and I left asap

Sometimes I feel so shitty about such things. Why such bygone era messages? With such a bad taste in the mouth I did not say anything to my family but was the fastest one out of the temple after the darshan. While they all took their time, I quietly sat on a secluded spot and kept staring the hills infront of me.

Indian Institute of Advanced study

The next stop was Indian Institute of Advanced Study. It’s a tourist attraction because its of its architecture and also because its residential institute for students who are doing research. The building was british and very detailed, not to mention huge. There were 2 gardens with even a metal sun dial and an engraved landscape map. The so called “ history lover” public had made away with the pieces of the dial and all that was left now was just a run of the sundial with just the markings. For 2 days I had been walking kms and now all that had taken a toll on me and my legs were paining so much that although I wanted to roam and take pics but was unable to even move. Mustering all my strength I clicked the pics of the institute and the landscape and left.

Front 

Winding staircase

In my visit spanning just 2 days in shimla, it was nice weather wise just like how I liked it although would have loved a bit more time on time to explore the Gaiety theatre, Church, toy train… maybe next time. 

With such a short trip and my mind busy occupied with something else majority of times, I could not pen down my observations this time.