Dec2021- Remotes of Shimla!!

**A trip to Shimla** so common right? But this one was different.. very different...I will tell you how!

There was corona.. there was lockdown, there was wfh, again corona, again lockdown, wfh continues (no complaints) and then there was this strong desire for a vacation😅
It all started with  "कुठेतरी जाऊया ना yaaaaaaaarrrr..कुठेतरी जाऊन wfh करुयात...."
This went on for almost a year ....with a number of options like... leh laddak, coorg, rishikesh... if nothing then atleat panchgani चलते हैं ना यार😧
just me n my bestie making plans(as always) ... lets go somewhere far away... somewhere remote.. where we could just be ourselves... no hustle bustle... no भीड़ भाड़... no tension... just chillax... somewhere in the remotes of SHIMLA!!

Finally, Thursday 2nd Dec to Sunday 12th Dec it was...
tickets booked- check
hotels booked- check
And thats it! No other items in the checklist- guess this unplanned plan is what made the whole trip turn out so damn amazing!!

Amidst the new corona variant scare.. and talks about another lockdown in Pune... keeping our fingers crossed started our wfh कम vacay ज्यादा 😎

Day 1 Pune to Chandigarh via B'lore! Yeah you heard it right... so sort of bharat darshan from the sky it was!🤷
Chandigarh to Kasauli (our first destination) was by cab where we reached around 5ish in the evening- our first ठिकाना was "Kasauli Windsor Resort".. and BOY!! what a place it was 😍😍 

Such a welcoming reception, lovely interiors, beautiful room, and the most interesting part... 

the simply WOWW balcony with a WONNNDERFUL view of clear skies, pine trees, mountains and the roads making its way through the dense forests!! One could just sit in the balcony for hours together sipping coffee (well ofcourse your hot coffee would turn into cold coffee sooner than you would even realize 😜), gazing at the white capped Himalayas silent, peaceful, serene! Like the mountains telling you a story and you feel lost in the wonders. Divine 😇

Day2 was a relaxing day- started with a morning walk on the cold roads, cool breeze and foto session OFCOURSE!!    

The dinning area was so well made up with lights all over and the courteous and humble staff with the " ji ji madam ji" and "haan ji madam ji" made us feel so warm and cozy!! A very helpful staff also went out of his way and shared a few contacts in case we would need any help!! Guess the caring and helping nature of people also makes the place seem more beautiful 💝💖  

After the delicious breakfast we were all tucked in our room for our first day of work from home... errr... work from shimla feel 😆     

Day3  Saturday was the journey to Rampur Busharh up north- another small village in shimla.
A thought (maybe some can relate)- When some long lost wishes come un-imaginablly true and you decide not to accept it. It is that one total filmy friend who understands and makes you understand
यही वो मौका है...
कल किसने देखा है !!
And to believe... मंजिल से बेहतर लगने लगे हैं ये रास्ते... 💭👻

So that raasta from Kasauli via Shimla, Theog, Narkanda, was truly unforgettable and did not seem as लंबा as it actually was 😉. 

On our way we ate lip-smacking  kadhi-rajma chawal and a famous himachali dish called siddu(something like momos). The steaming hot siddu served with ghee introduces your taste buds to another heavenly world altogether!!

  
After the (theoretically) long drive of almost 8 hours (including a couple of mandatory foto shoot stops😛) , we reached our next destination "Hotel Nau Nabh". This is a heritage hotel within the premises of the  Padam Palace- needless to say completely surrounded by beauty- gardens, greenery, mountain tops and the river Sutluj running beside- that totally gave us the QUEENLY feeling 😇😊!!

 

Only once in the room did we realise how tired we were after the full days excitement and travel- the bed seemed the most precious invention and exploring the hotel was left to another day!

Day4 Sunday- Today was the day for Baga Sarahan- another lesser known paradise which lies on the border of Kullu.
I can surely tell you that almost at all times, the journey has been as exciting as was the destination!!

We were so thrilled by the natural beauty, every turn on the roads painted a different picture thus revealing a different story!! 
Ohh those long narrow winding roads with steep hairpin turns, the crossing over of two cars would mindlessly make you close your eyes until wooooshhhh.... you were already through!! What skill!!!

 
Click click click.. we went on and on and on... and just couldn't stop! We kept going higher and higher with still no sight of the so called "flat" land (also checking with the locals to make sure we were on the right track 😛).
But finally we were there. सब्र का फल मीठा तो होता है,  लेकिन इतना सुंदर होता है वो ऊस दिन जाना!!  What we saw was absolutely breathtaking!! 

The whole landscape was so huge, so perfect, so picturesque!! A beautiful little temple  in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by mountains on one side and flat land on the other. 

At the far end we could see apple orchards cuddled by the mountains- all dried now- but waiting to get on the green leaves!! As far as your sight could reach, all you could see was beauty, beauty and only beauty 😍😍

  

I am already amazed by how it would look like during summers with all lush greenery and flowers all around!! The peace and tranquility called for just sitting there in silence and soaking in all that we were witnessing and thinking..

ए खुदा तूने कैसी ये हसीन कुदरत है बनाई...

तेरे करिश्में का दीदार करना, है मेरा नसीब या तेरी खुदाई!!

Having captured all the beauty in our human cameras 👀 it was time to return to the hotel- rewinding and replaying throughout 😇💖

Day5 Monday- Shraikoti today it was- one more temple of Maa Kaali.
The weather was not as good as we had hoped for- it was raining since morning and the forecast only said clear skies by 12ish in the afternoon. Talks were such that if it kept raining then there were all chances of a snowfall. What? Did we just hear SNOWFALL?? 😻 As we definitely got xcited on hearing snowfall, the following talk about roads getting closed also made us a little worried 😮#WorriedXcitmnt!!

However as predicted, the skies started to get clear and we started our way to Shraikoti. Just like the previous day, same beautiful roads, deep valleys, colourful houses- only difference was that yesterday it all felt new to us and today we felt we knew all this since long!! 🤗🤗
So the running commentary today was like अरे ये हमने कल भी देखा था, अरे ये कल जैसा ही रास्ता है, अरे गाड़ी आराम से निकल जायेगी 😂
And so we kept going and re-living the elegance and charm of mother nature! What amazed us everytime was the way houses were built in the valleys, how could one reach there, what mode of daily transport would they have, where do the children go to school, AND most importantly.. how do they survive in the colds and snow.. truly amazing!

 

 

As we kept rising higher and higher, the weather started to turn cloudy and foggy and seemed like the clouds were all descending to give us a closer look!! It all seemed superbly fascinating and artistic!! The more we rose higher, the lesser was the visibility due to fog. 

We were only about 10-12 kms from the place when our driver bhayya said it would start snowing now and if that happens, the roads would get blocked. 😲 #Fear!! We saw a shepherd coming along and checked with him- he too had a similar say- so the best option now was to not go any further and start our decent... (not something we wanted 😞) but were left with no option.

 It had started to get so chilly already, that we stepped out of the car for some clicks and we could feel  ourselves shivering and teeth chattering (another mind-blowing experience 🥶) But obviously pic के लिए कुछ भी करेगा.. and so we managed to use up some more camera memory in different poses and styles 😅

As we started returning, we could actually see the snowfall had started- small snowflakes making their way towards us so we could also meet and greet them with even more enthusiasm!! So obviously we could not reach the planned destination.. but what we experienced was totally unplanned and completely worth it!! 

It had become really really cold by now... and on our way back we managed to spot a small tapri where they made maggi.. believe me... I never knew maggi tasted so amazing until that day 😋

Day6 Tuesday- To Kufri

The day to reach our third destination via Narkanda. Today was bright and sunny and pleasant! However, news was that due to snowfall the previous day, road to Hatu Temple in Narkanda (one in our list), was closed- #ALittleDisappointed 😞

On our way back to kufri, and as we approached Narkanda, as our luck would have it- we got to see

snow on the roads from yesterday's untimely snowfall!! We were so thrilled to see the mesmerizing view of snow clad roads, the tall trees covered with snow, and somewhere at the top the sun trying to peep through the branches and wave at us!! Ohh how delighted we were to see this little  paradise on earth 😇💖

Cherishing the moment, we reached Mundaghat- our final destination located here. Well the approach road to the hotel was not very pleasant- gave us the feeling of a mini roller coaster ride. While driving through with this little question mark on how the hotel would actually be like, there stood a tall and very handsome building!! Just like the feeling of finding a real treasure hidden in the jungle- true to the name "The Jungle Mountain Retreat" it was!!
It was so crazily super chilly cold that we could hardly wait at the reception- which obviously the staff noticed 😁 and we were immediately escorted to our room!!
And Ohhhhhhhh what do we see...
The place was so so so damn amazing that we started jumping and hugging eachother like crazy 😂. Could we have asked for anything more??

Day 7, 8, 9- Work From Shimla!!
 

Waking up every morning to the most mesmerizing view of deodar trees pull over the thick blanket of sunrays... standing tall and shining bright 🌞 gave us the feeling-  जरूर कभी कोई अच्छे कर्म किए होंगे जो आज ये मिला है!!

The day temperatures were HIGH like 2 or 3° and night times were in minus 😆

The bonfire(where we managed to go just once and braved to sit around for a full 10 mins 😝),

the lazing around in the room, the wfh, the showing off of the view during VDO calls, 

the "kitthe chaliye" playing on repeat (we must have heard it a 100 times 😆), the बीच बीच मे wale foto sessions, 

the most elaborate lunch (comprising of thepla, tikhat purya, god polya, bakarwadi, khare shankarpali, ladoo, kadboli, etc etc. along with chai), 

the back to back movies (when we realised it was just 11.30 p.m. when one mvi got over... hell nooo- we must watch another one 😂), the dinner times where we were made to feel like such special guests with seating made right in front of the heaters. Trust me... there was not a single moment when we got bored!!!

Day 10 Saturday- Chail
Today was the last day we could do the most of the trip! 

We visited a shiv mandir in Janed, the

temple which is being built in stone by a single man since 1980. The story goes that this man had a dream wherein lord Shiva told him to build a temple.
The temple(still in the making) is so extremely beautiful that seems like the GOD himself is making it, the man is just a mediator 🙏

Having visited this humanly divine creation, we moved to visit the Kaali ka Tibba temple having the

most scenic location! Situated at the top of a hill with valleys surrounding the temple all around- quiet and peaceful!! 

After that was the Chail cricket ground (worlds highest cricket ground). But unfortunately it was closed due to some planned events and we could not see it. We headed to the Chail palace and witnessed another piece of महान कला amidst beautiful Nature!! Having seen all this and the day coming to an end (it used to start getting dark by 5) it was now time to return to the hotel.

Day 11 Sunday- Time to return 😔

Well... I obviously will not write much about this day- a day we thought had come too soon 😖
What an expedition this was... YES.. it was an expedition!! Couldn't thank enough to the RAJ we experienced here!!

We laughed, we played, we fought, we teased, we (I) sang (dekheya maine Chand dekheya 😂)... and we had (yet another) memorable time of our lives... difficult to put in words and impossible to forget 🤗💝😎

Physically we returned... but our hearts stayed back..