08/09/2012
Shimla Visit
Actually this tour is best for those who belongs to plane areas and have never visited hill areas. But for Shimla one thing I can say that it has natural beauty beyond expression although life at hill areas is tough and challenging. One thing more I would like to add here that if you have desire of adventure and having budget of at least 1.5 thousand for it, you must surly try at least once and it would be your life time experience of beauty of nature. To travel with fun it is worth full if you are in group of 3 -4 friends since it make easy to hire shared taxi to reduce cost. By luck our team size was of 5 people in which 4 were earning as IT engineer. The peak season of tourists visit in Shimla is December to January for snow fall adventure and secondly in April to June for summer holidays. Due to best weather in summer Shimla was summer capital during British rule in India and railway track was made very earlier in 1847 to connect Shimla. This narrow gage track has more than 43 tunnels and longest tunnel have 1200 meter distance. ShivaliK express running between kalkaji to Shimla is a world class heritage train having facilities like Rajdhani trains. This train runs with average speed of 15-20 km/ hour. It was 10th February 2012 when we had decided once again to visit Shimla. Before this we had once visited there in 10th Sept 2011. First time it was rainy season and we had had enough fun but one desire was left. Each one in us was interested to see snowfall since no one had seen it before. Any way in that season it was not possible there so we had decided to visit there again on 31st December 2012 but plan couldn’t successes. Finally we had a plan to visit Kufari 16 km away from Shimla in weekend. Road and train both transport medium is available to visit Shimla. To avoid possibility of traffic disturbance and road accident, railway was best option for us. We were kept one day reserved for rest so there were only 2 nights and one day for this tour. We boarded at old Delhi railway station in Kalka mail at 11:30 pm (2 hour delay from scheduled time) and reached on right time at Kalka railway station, Punjab on next day 5:00 am. ShivaliK mail was waiting for passengers to Shimla and started on 11th February, 5:30 am and reached on same day to Shimla at 11:00 am. We hired a taxi and reached at Kufari at 12:10 pm. From there we hired long shoes on rent of 100 rupee per pair and horses on fair of 250 rupees each to reach at a hill called film suiting point. Horse riding is an adventure there. You might have to wait for horses so take receipt immediately on reach to Kufari. Horses are so trained that they never escaped from track even track is too rough and full with mud. After reaching to Film point at hill we found entire place was full of snow having a strange look and feel beyond expression. There is a temple at a small hill and slop of that hill was covered by snow where people were slipping and throwing snow on one another. Most of crowd was of young married couples, Childs and youths from different states of north India apart from some foreigners. There were small shops in tent having facility of food and gift items. Some people were having Yak animal charging 30 rupees to take photo on riding its back. Some ladies had also carried snakes and were charging 30 rupees to take photo by putting snake in your neck. Any way it was against wild life so we didn’t give any trouble to those animals. We returned back to taxi at 3:00 pm and reached at Shimla railway station at 4:10 pm. We eat food and boarded at 5:30 pm in ShivaliK express. We reached to Kalkaji in night at 12:10 am. We changed train and boarded in Kalkaji express and reached Delhi in morning at 5:00 am. Now we had returned back safely with a sweet remembrances of a dream land.
Travel cost table
Sr. No. Items Cost (in INR)
1 Railway ticket ( Delhi to Kalkaji) 159
2 Railway ticket (Kalkaji to Shimla) 286
3 Taxi (Shimla to Kufari) fair cost 100 (Rs. 500 shared by 5 peer)
4 Shoes fair 100
5 Horse charges 250
6 Food, tea etc 263
7 Railway ticket (Shimla to Kalkaji) 286
8 Railway ticket ( Kalkaji to Delhi) 159
Total (excluding personal expenses) 1600
