Sri Lanka to Shimla. Mission Completed ...

nishanthe

Hello Freinds..
It was like a dream came true. My wife and I just returned to Sri Lanka after 8 day trip in India.

12th July.
Left from Sri Lanka to Chennai. Our flight to Delhi was on 9PM, hence went to T-Nagar for some window shopping.

13th July.
Arrived to Delhi Airport around 12 mid night and came to Delhi Railway Station around 1AM. Touts were so disgusting and Station floor was full of sleeping men and women. Stayed at Juckazo Inn Down Town Hotel which was the worst hotel I came across in my life. Fellow IndiaMike member, my freind puchoo (Sidharth) rendered an unforgettable help at the difficult hour.

14th July
Delhi - Kalka Shatabdhi (1AC class) - Worth the price, good service
Kalka-Shimla Toy Train, a life time experience. Unlike in Sri Lanka, trains were on time
Stayed at Hotel Holiday Home, Shimla, 2000+10%+Hidden charges per night
Not worth the price at all, staff need some training on hospitality and customer care. another bad hotel

15th July
Stayed at Shimla. Changed the hotel to Hotel Classics. rates were reasonable (770/night). The owner was too pushy for over priced sight seeing tours, but the place seemed worth the price.

16th July
Sight seeing tour to Narkanda, and Hatu Peak. Got an Alto Car for INR 1050 from HimTours, at mall road. Driver Sathpaal was a good guy, but we had lot of communication problems with him because he cannot speak English at all.

17th July
Stayed in Shimla. Lakkar bazaar and Lower bazaar.

18th July
Around 2AM left to Kalka by a Car (Cost INR 1050) to catch the 6.10 Delhi Train. 11.10 to Delhi, Went to India Gate. Delhi was always the unavoidable bad experience. Heat, Touts, Noise you name it. Only good experience at Delhi was the Lunch we had the the restaurant at the Airport entrance. It was clean, reasonable prices as well as friendly people. 17.45 left to Chennai by IndigoAir flight. Stayed the night at Suriya International Hotel in T-Nagar. The Hotel was situated in a good place so we could saved lot of money for traveling. room was INR 1180 all inclusive. Clean and Hotel staff was friendly.

19th July
Shopping, Shopping, and Shopping.

20th July
7AM Returned to Sri Lanka

I would like to thank IndiaMike members for the useful tips. IT WILL BE REALLY USEFUL IF somebody can post Hindi Translations of most useful terms. (IE, how to ask a price, Numbers, ask distances, Foods etc)

Radjesh

You were lucky with the trains... and looks like you had a great time, save for Delhi

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MY 2008 KASHMIR TRIP

puchoo

No problemo! Glad the trip worked out , i thought other than overcharging you the hotel was fine..

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Cheers!
Sidharth

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nishanthe

Nope..
$114/Night very high, but I agree that was mentioned on their web site, so I cannot complain on that. The problem was the service for the price.

Review : http://www.indiamike.com/india-hotel...owntown-h4102/

nishanthe

Yeah..The trip was great. Frankly we are already decided to go there in next Winter too

Radjesh

Shimla again? Its a nice place but there are so many other exotic places in India...

Gametotravel

Did Gods present some snow at higher altitudes?

nishanthe

Unfortunately no snow at all. We even went to Hatu Peak, which was 3400m, but we couldnt see snow even from there, at least even at the neighboring peaks.

puchoo

Did you walk to the top, or did you take some transport..

nishanthe

There is a road up to the peak. It cost INR 1050/= from Shimla for an Alto with a Driver
http://www.indiamike.com/photopost/s...3/ppuser/34320

puchoo

Yep i know there is one , when i climbed there wasn't any , it was quite a walk through a footpath and in some cases none..

Could not think of a more stupid thing to do than build a road like this..

nishanthe

LOL.. I agree. But I am glad that they have done that stupid thing

vasuki

If you plan to come in winters here, the peak would be off bound coz of the snow. The best time to visit will be Jan 20 - Feb 20. Plenty and plenty of snow at Narkanda. I loved the pics taken at the peak. Pity it was a foggy day and you couldn't see the snowline.

In fact the road has done a lot good as more people are able to visit the peak now as not everyone prefers walking to the top. The trail is still there if you prefer walking. If you remember the old path, we guys at Narkanda would take our Yezdi's and Bullets on this trail betting on a bottle of beer. I had a Yezdi then but could not negotiate the last 1.5 km. Good ol days!!

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Of all the things lost.. I miss my mind the most

nishanthe

Oh!.. is the Snow line can be seen through out the year? Unfortunately we couldn't see a single neighboring peak during our two hour stay there.

puchoo

Thats exactly what i meant , the limited traffic due to accessibility issues earlier has got negated, meaning its turned into a Kufri..