Prashar Lake Trek, My 1st One, 7th/8th July 2018

Has it ever happened to you that you get an intuition about something that is yet to happen and then you see it come about just like you had imagined it would be? Well, it has happened to me quite a lot. But, my experience on Prashar Lake Trek is not one of those instances! As soon as the trek began, I started getting a feeling that it won’t end up well, that I’ll have a bad experience of trekking and that the decision I took to go on a solo trek isn’t going to be worth the effort, & money, & time. But, how wrong was I, and I’m glad I was.. because what transpired was a hell of an experience. My first trek and the experience out of it couldn’t have been better.. I certainly couldn’t have asked for anything more. I’ll just stick a pin to this thought and come back to it. Let’s first start from the start.

I had planned to go this solo trek and had done the booking via IndiaHikes.com a month back. Also, my bus tickets were booked in advance too from HRTC. As per the plan, I left home on Friday afternoon, took Uber to Huda City Centre metro station, then metro to Kashmiri gate station which is right next to ISBT. I reached ISBT an hour before my bus departure so took the liberty to look around. I must have visited ISBT after many years because transformation I saw was astonishing.. it now looks as well maintained as an airport and nothing less spectacular than any bus terminal of this scale. Grand entrance, security checks, spacious waiting areas, air conditioning, clean floors, lack of heavy crowds.. all makeup for a beautiful view.

From Home to Metro, to ISBT, to Volvo Bus, to Mandi.

My bus departed on time and my overnight journey was pleasant and uneventful. Only things I’d probably like to call out to add some colour are as follows.. a sincere & compassionate bus conductor; 35-seater bus having at least 10-12 trekkers; a group of young under-18s travelling on their own probably on a trekking trip; few Tamilians in the row behind my seat; a lot of bi-lingual discussion in Tamil & English on a whole spectrum of topics ranging from politics, cinema, engineering, football, mythology, Rajnikanth and north Indian ghettos in Chennai & south Indian ghettos in Delhi. There must have been a lot more things I must have heard (& partially understood) before I fell asleep in anticipation of an exciting day of trekking the next morning.

At assembling point in front of Mandi Bus Stand

Next morning I got down at Mandi Bust stop and after a little coordination, all trekkers of my group and the trek leader managed to get together.

A glimpse of IIT Mandi

A tempo traveller and a car took us all to the trek starting point. On the way, I saw some beautiful views as well as a glimpse of IIT, Mandi. I remember my exact thought when I saw IIT was how amazing would it be to study here.

At trek starting point (a cafe on Parashar Lake Road called Cafe One Love!), before we would get breakfast served, we were asked to assemble atop a natural round & high platform which had beautiful mountain & valley views on either side. We had a round of introductions followed by a briefing from the trek leader covering Trek itinerary, IndiaHikes guidelines, safety & security protocols and green pledge. It was an enthusiastic bunch of people and most of us were trekking for the first time.

Group Photo before Trek Started

Post breakfast, we started the journey at 10 am which lasted for 6.5 hours and nearly 7.25 KMs. We had at least 3 major halts on the way including one for lunch. The weather was good and moderately cold which was helpful. The disappearance of the sun intermittently provided a much-needed respite from the heat. The scenic beauty of the trail kept getting better and better as we moved along. At a major halt point post-lunch, we found ourselves in mid of a large green grass field surrounded by deep valleys on either side followed by distant mountain ranges of Himalayas. Clouded weather and pleasant breeze added to the lovely experience. It was so beautiful that no one couldn’t get enough of it and we ended up staying there for an hour at least. Fun, chatting, music, selfies and words of encouragement were the highlights of the whole trail.

Day-1 Trek Up the Hills (Collage-1)

Day-1 Trek Up the Hills (Collage-2)

Finally, we reached Parashar Lake by 4.30 pm after a journey of more than 7 KMs and 6.5 hours. What was the feeling like? Take a look at the lake view yourself and just imagine!

Panorama view of Parashar Lake from West End.

After getting together, we had a debriefing session from trek leaders followed by cool-down exercises as well as neck & shoulder massages 💆‍♂️ 💆‍♀️. This was so refreshing & rejuvenating that all body pains went away in a snap! We then were served hot Maggi along with hot tea both of which were just so delicious! Rest of the evening before dinner was left to our disposal. Some of us went to Parashar temple, walked around circling Parashar Lake, did minor trekking next to Lake and spent time at leisure chatting & resting alongside.

View of Parashar Lake and Temple from different Angles

Dinner was extremely delicious too and had a decent variety. We had Rajmah, Kadi and Aaloo sabzi along with chapati & rice followed by halwa. All of us had a stomach full of meal and then headed to our dormitory rooms with a promise to meet early morning next day for a short trek to Sunrise point. Dormitory we stayed in, was built using stones & wood blocks giving a beautiful raw feel to it. We were staying on 1st Floor of it so had to climb up a wooden staircase making it even cooler than it was!

The dormitory where we spent the night!

17 of us were packed in two big spacious rooms and given expedition level sleeping bags, which, as we were told, could withhold in a temperature of -10 degrees! In fact, sleeping bags were rather too cosy for moderately cold weather we had there. But it’s understandable because the same bags are supposed to be used when it snows there in winters. Before we went to sleep, we had the fun of playing a couple of relaxing games that Gautam, our trek leader, facilitated. He was gracious enough to then tell us a couple of stories of ghosts in the mountains (legends of sorts) which were thrilling as well as scary! Rest of the night was uneventful except for the little annoyance due to the presence of rats in the dormitory which kept making intermittent noises & running around in-wall holes.

Some memories captured!

We finally woke up by 4 am with plenty of time to be ready for 5 am short trek to Sunrise point. The beauty of the morning trek was enhanced by the mist of clouds and constant cool breeze which helped us with steep climb we had. Wait for the sun at the summit point was an amazing experience in itself. If there was a perfect place for meditation 🧘‍♂️🧘‍♀️ or self-introspection, this was it for me. We all had few quiet moments as we let the serenity sink in. This of course then had to be followed by a round of selfies, portraits and candid photography 😊. Sun didn’t quite come out as clean as it does in the plains but was good enough for us to feel blessed with the view of moving clouds atop mountain peaks and sunlight falling on cloud-filled valleys around us.

Sunrise Point on a Summit near Parashar Lake

After getting down and post a delicious breakfast of Poori Bhaji with tea, we were briefed by Gautam for the day ahead of us, before we finally began our descend. Journey downwards was even more beautiful as the trail was right through the dense forest full of Pine trees filled with clouds and with views of mountains in between. The trek this time, of course, wasn’t as tiring as the previous day but we had to be extra careful nonetheless to avoid injuries that descends typically cause.

Food Shots!

Scenic Descend Trail

After 3.5 hours of almost non-stop walk we finally reached back to our trek starting point (Cafe One Love!) just in time for lunch. The feeling of accomplishment was quite visible on everyone’s faces. It was a beautiful feeling indescribable in words. All of us relaxed before having our lunch of Pulao & Raita. Before our bus could pick us up to take down to Mandi, we had enough time for fun-filled discussions in smaller groups that allowed us to get to know each other better.

Stats for 2-Days of Trekking

After coming down to Mandi bus stand, we were up for one final surprise. We all were awarded a Certificate of Accomplishment which infused us with a sense of pride and achievement. A couple of folks from our group were also awarded Green-Trekker Certificate because they had made the best use of the Green bags we were given before trek to collect store & bring back the non-biodegradable waste instead of polluting the trail. That was then time for final goodbyes as everyone departed in smaller groups to utilise the leftover time to their personal liking. As for me, five of us headed to the local market and ended up in Dominos to savour the taste of little bites of Italian food. When we got back to Bus stand, our buses came almost back to back and we split up after saying our goodbyes for one final time.

Sense of Accomplishment

Few pointed feedbacks I have of the Trek are structured as below :

1. IndiaHikes.com Staff: All people representing IndiaHikes.com did a great job, right from the trek coordinator Radhika, trek leader Gautam, support staff Umesh, Sunil & Sanju and local people involved. Trek leader especially was really cordial and helpful, making sure of all aspects including safety & security, taking everyone along, ensuring food availability, discipline, time management, etc.
2. Food: Food qualify & variety was decent.. only slight feedback was about lunch on 1st day that there could have been curd or gravy alongside pulao which was little dry to be eaten alone. Otherwise, the food served was awesome, especially dinner which had so much variety and taste.
3. Accommodation: Dorm, where we stayed, was really nice and had a raw feel to it thanks to it being built using stone & wood. Some of the trekkers in our group were expecting tents instead (although IndiaHikes website always maintained it would be dormitory as accommodation for this trek), but at the end, I felt that Dorm gave an equally good experience. The only annoyance was the presence of rats in the dormitory which kept making noise & running around in-wall holes whole night.
4. Safety & Discipline: Safety & security protocols that IndiaHikes laid out we were diligently followed without any exceptions. It’s so heartening to see an organisation taking responsibility for its trekkers’ actions and ensuring strict discipline is maintained. So-called ‘fun’ things people do when in woods like drinking & smoking aren’t permitted on IndiaHikes treks, which I think is their biggest USP!
5. Trek Trail & Journey: Really awesome. Nature at its best. And trek staff helped us enjoy it to the fullest, guiding us along, explaining various aspects about flora & fauna and local mythology. We took halts at beautiful scenic places along the way and managed to capture beautiful scenery around us.
6. Trek Group: It was a good mix of people and we all had a lot of fun. Made friends, enjoyed the trek to fullest and carried back awesome memories.

So, it’s now time to take the pinout. As it’s quite evident from my blog that I had an amazing time on the trek. All my apprehensions that I had at the start, blew away just minutes into the trek. Not just I had an amazing experience, I also met with some wonderful people and learnt quite a few new things about trekking. Needless to say, I am going to go on further treks in the near future. I am in it for Life now. As someone told me that travelling is an addiction, but thankfully it’s not a harmful one!! Won’t you agree?

Awesome Memories!

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Shimla Trip - 27th Dec'11 to 30th Dec'11

Traveling.
I always thought I'm also one of those people who love it, but never could really live up to the expectations of being a avid/passionate traveler. But in last couple of years, I'm starting to experience and appreciate the magic that traveling exposes you to with the wide range of emotions that go as the under-current. The combination of passion, energy, excitement, thrill and most importantly - curiosity, make up to a perfect break from routine life. There's so much to explore on our mother earth that one lifetime is not enough perhaps. But for a true traveler, that's a good news I would say because never in your life you can say - "I'm Done".
This traveling blog of mine - first of the many to follow I hope - is about my trip to Shimla. I mostly wrote this while still on the trip, capturing the events as they unfolded to make sure I didn't miss important little details.

December 27th 2011, Tuesday, 6 pm
Scene : HomeWe are packing in hurry. Radio Tuk-tuk is waiting outside to take us to HUDA city-center metro station. Mumma-papa are preparing carrots' juice and making sure we have it before we leave. My wife is preparing dinner for us to carry. I'm in-charge of packing! I pack everything that I had been provided but as one would expect I missed one of the most important things that one should carry when on a trip to a hill station and that too in winter - my woolen wear and my jacket!
Anyway, there was a good news also that perhaps made me too excited to remember the basics, and that was the confirmation SMS of our train ticket from Kalka to Shimla. It was on waiting sequence 39/40 when I booked it 3 days back but luckily found its way up to the confirmed list. Thanks to my colleague & friend Nivedita for her advice of going for this train despite of big waiting list. So good so far, we catch the auto and each metro station on-time. There's lot of rush but we manage to get a seat.

December 27th 2011, Tuesday, 7.30 pm
Scene : Inside Metro TrainWe are sitting comfortably on two corner seats in metro when two working 'professionals' board the train. Young, in mid-twenties, with hands-free ear-phones, goggles, bag on the back, happy go-lucky cool dudes - stood adjacent to a poll in front of us. But bad news is they started having a ball and start commenting on girls nearby including my wife. Also passing comments but trying to act smart as if they are super-cool heroes of mid-90s bollywood movies. We ignored them for a while but soon it became too much - for me at least. While we are on that point, I wonder why are girls in our society trained to ignore such jerks and not react. Words like patience and forgiveness are attached to whole of female fraternity to make it obvious that strong reaction from them would be a breach of the "patience-law". I only wish things change for better in my life-time.
Anyway, so far I had seen this in movies only, never so close and personal. I mean not these comments and eve-teasing (they are as common in India as girls are!) but rather a strong reaction to it. (Reaction would be from me by the way, unless that is already obvious). I started a little chit-chat with one of the "kewl" guys and asked him to stop doing what he was doing. His response was not unexpected but intensity of his reaction was. He said he wasn't doing anything and started blaming me & my wife for insulting him. Things started to go out of hand a little bit when he started commenting on my wife publicly. Soon my patience ran out, I stood up and told him that if he did say a single word for my wife again, I'll not spare him. But he was too rude & shameless and ignored my advice.. That was it! I held him by his neck and pushed him back, hit his face with the fist of my other hand. I remembered famous words of a not-so-famous writer : When in a fight, hit first and hit hard!!
That's precisely what I did. Hit him couple of punches more while still not letting go of his neck that was by now stuck on the other side-wall of metro. His friend and rest of the crowd became alive soon and brought us back to reality where compromise and forgiveness are bliss and it's 'bad' to fight. While they were pulling us both apart, my fellow-fighter got the opportunity to hit me on my forehead. But that was the extent of it, couple of more punches here & there from either side and we were separated. I'm glad I listened to crowd & my wife and let go of that person (crowd - because I would have lost their sympathy had I ignored them and wife - because, well, that's what husbands do :-)
Dude started bad-mouthing after he was made to taste the dust. I was done teaching him a lesson so stayed quite. His friend joined him and soon after both of them were loud enough for the people around, so they were shut-up forcibly by people and told to calm down.
Nothing eventful & exciting happened from there on till the time they got down on Rajiv Chowk and soon after we got down at Chandani Chowk. Although between Rajiv Chowk and Chandani Chowk, I met a theater-actor (a nice guy) working with a famous group in Delhi & we exchanged face-book IDs but that's not much exciting I suppose.
Two things last scene would have told you, I guess, are :-
(1) that it's not really a 'travel' blog (although I'd hope I don't encounter any non-travel stuff further in my journey) and,
(2) that sometimes it's necessary & important to park aside Gandi-ian principles of nonviolence and teach a quick lesson to people who prefer to learn it the hard-way.

December 27th 2011, Tuesday, 11.00 pm
Scene : Old-Delhi Railway StationKalka mail is now delayed by 2.5 hours and the wait is becoming endless. We are done visiting Seesganj Gurudwara which is quite close to the station and had couple of trips to Mc-Donalds which is on first platform inside the station (one shouldn't be surprised to see people preferring it over 1st class waiting-room!).
Now that it was clear the Delhi-Kalka train is running late by 2.5 hours, it was very difficult for it to cover-up for the delay & get to Kalka on time to allow people catch the connecting train to Shimla. So, we decided we should cancel our Kalka-Shimla toy-train booking & save few bucks. BlackBerry didn't prove to be friendly, so obvious thing was to call an actual friend. Following his own advise that :

कुछ दोस्त ऐसे होते हैं जिन्हें आप आधी रात को भी कॉल कर सकते हो..
और कुछ दोस्त ऐसे होते हैं जिन्हें आप आधी रात को ही कॉल कर सकते हो !!

I dialed his number. I didn't expect Sushil Dubey to be sleeping at 11 & he wasn't. He willingly agreed to help & cancel the ticket using my IRCTC log-in. In the meantime train came & we thanked heavens for that. Got a birth, made our beds and went to sleep even before train had started. Sushil had tough time fighting IRCTC website and I guess he could not cancel the ticket eventually. That turned out to be a good news instead since when we got down at Kalka station next morning, we saw Kalka-Shimla train waiting for us! (I was told later that it waits up to 3 hours for Delhi-Kalka train to arrive).
We got our confirmed seats in the toy-wonder and started enjoying the scenic views in the chilly winter morning. Within few moments in hills, we felt need of overcoats and this was the time, I realized my packing disaster :-(
Maneet wrote a shayari in no-time on this incident :

शिमला की वादियों में है काफी ठण्ड..
चाय की चुस्कियां और ब्रेअड-ओम्लेट हैं हमें पसंद..
खुशनसीब हैं हम जो इस जन्नत में आए..
पर कैसे काटेंगे रात दिन सर्दी में, हम अपनी जैकेट तो घर भूल आए ;-)


Nevertheless, very soon the sun was out and I was lost in breathtaking views of valleys & mountains & life in between. While Maneet is catching up on her sleep after we celebrated our ride in toy-train running on toy-tracks and passing through toy-tunnels & toy-stations, I decide to pen-down (rather thumbs-down!) my journey so far.. Sips of hot railway tea and taste of delicious omelets & cutlets are making our entry into hills a welcome one!
Maneet sums this up beautiful in her sher below :

एक ताज़ा एहसास है इन् सुन्दर फिजाओं में..
हलकी धूप की गर्माहट हैं इन् सर्द हवाओं में..
ज़िन्दगी की भाग दौड़ को पीछे छोड़..
खोने चला है दिल कुदरत की पनाहों में..!

Toy train was fun.. and the morning sun was making the moments even more enjoyable. When train stopped on a station on the way, we managed to bring our camera in action !

December 28th 2011, Wednesday
Day-1
Finally, after a five hours long run we reached Shimla.
We took a cab from outside the station which took us to our hotel in no time.. we ordered lunch in the room itself and relaxed for couple of hours. Hotel was appx. 5 KMs away from the city center (mall road) but it was a nice one. Very beautiful location on a small elevated hill and was surrounded by trees all around. On our request, they had given us a room on first floor that had the beautiful view of the front. Also the sunlight would come right in the room if we open the curtains off the huge glass windows.
We decided to go out to mall road at around 4 pm after taking a bit of rest. Hotel provided free-of-cost cab to and from mall-road only once per stay. Any cab needed over & above that was chargable. We thought of sparing the free cab for later time and decided to arrange cab/transport on our own and left the hotel. After walking only half a mile, we got a bus towards Mall Road and in half an hour we were walking on Lakkad Bazaar Road which was an extension of Mall Road. There was a group of local school kids coming across who perhaps found my cap too good to be left without its comparison to that of Dev-Anand. That made my day :)
Walking along the road we reached "The Ridge" which is right on the center of mall-road and is perhaps the most famous tourist place in whole of Shimla. It's a small flat ground situated on top of a hill and gives all round view of Shimla city. We roamed around a bit and had few snacks. There was a fries shop on mall road selling a variety of potato fries, i.e., french fries, smileys, potato wedges, potato nudges, etc. Smiley Fries looked very happy so we tried them :)
We took few snaps there to make the moments unforgettable!



















We then happened to witness the strike by local municipal corporation employees who were agitating outside their office which is right in the middle of Mall Road.Best scenic view of my entire stay in Shimla has to be following picure.. taken from Mall Road in the evening. It such an incredible feeling looking at the mountains hidden beneath Deodaar trees and few of the hut shaped homes giving it the look of a perfect fusion. I could easily sense something mystical about this place.. as if there was so much unknown that would remain so and perhaps should remain so as well.























For dinner, I somehow persuaded Maneet to go for Pizza. Dominos was very invitingly situated right in the middle of Mall Road. We placed the order and went upstrais.. Everything was pretty much like any other Dominos except that Cheesy Garlic Bread was bit different than what we have here in NCR.




When we came back to our hotel after enjoying a nice meal and hot Gulab-jaamuns for dessert it was 9 pm. Hotel was shining from a distance - thanks to beautiful lighting they had done to celebrate the peak season time and the upcoming new year. Hotel really looked fabulous with the lighting as if there was a wedding happening here.

December 29th 2011, Thursday
Day-2
Our commute from Hotel to City Center was a pleasant one in morning sun with cold breeze all around. I managed to capture couple of nice views of the city.








There was a HPTDC packaged tour to Kufri and Chail that we had booked for the day. Before we headed for that, we had a nice breakfast at 'Alfa' restaurant on Mall Road. Breakfast was nice but what made the moment special was a kid on the table next to us who was really sweet and innocent. Must be of 3-4 years of age and was talking non-stop about so many things.. he surely was loving his breakfast, as you can see in the image below..


Our trip to Kufri & Chail didn't make the day an extra-ordinary one.. To begin with, there was no hint of snow or snowfall.. and to add to that it was little too sunny during the day.
Nonetheless we had nice time with yarks , beautiful Green Valley and a 7-8 KMs ponny-ride.


From Kufri city to go further up on the top of the hills, you would need to hire ponny. That ride was the highlight of the day because it felt like we are Gladiators going for a war in groups.


In Chail, they have converted the old palace of King of Patiala into a tourism hotel. We had our lunch there.. nice food and good service. Plus the hotel was decorated very nicely. I think this is the best part about winters.. Right from Diwali till Holi, for around 6 months you can feel festivities and celebration in the air all over north India. And time around x-mas and new year is the best !


We came back very tired from a long day trip and rushed straight to the hotel. Had dinner at hotel only. It was really nice mushroom masala they had prepared.. Although I have never ever seen anyone in my entire life messing up with mushrooms. Or may be it's not possible.. :)
December 30th 2011, Friday
Day-3
Since we had a very tiring day on Thursday, we decided to spend the last day of our trip at leisure relaxing as much as we could.. To begin with we had our Breakfast on Mall Road only which was really nice as well.. Could not resist taking a picture of that for the records :)


Then while we were sitting in sun on busy mall road, we found a large group of police-men being addressed publically by some officer who was not in uniform. When I went closer and asked someone who he was, I was told he was Superintendent of Police, Shimla and was giving directions to his men in prepration for their duty on New Years' celebrations. It felt really nice to hear him speak.. young, dynamic.. talking proudly about values, responsibility and how important it was for police to stay vigilant & deal with bad elements in a tough manner while making sure that innocent locals and tourists are not ill-treated. It was very refreshing to see someone leading from the front..



After roaming around there for a while I had a weird idea to chill to the next level. I had seen a guy in a french movie "Priceless" getting drunk during the day and enjoying the vacation.. I am glad my idea wasn't shot down by my better half.. because the experience I had of drinking during the full blown day on a open terrace bar in a perfect weather, was amazing and indescribable.


Maneet's shaayari was ready as usual :-)

मजबूर किया हमें इस मौसम के सुरूर ने

कहती हैं ये वादियाँ कुछ अपने ही गुरूर में

हैं अलग सा मज़ा इन् जानशीन फिजाओं में

मीठी सी एक खुशबू इन् चंचल हवाओं में

जाम हो हाथों में तो महफ़िल में रंग जमता है

यह है वो नशा जो धीरे धीरे चदता है

We decided to skip the lunch and on the recommendation of a friend thought of going to Indian Institue of Advanced Studies that was some 5-6 miles away. Amongst several other things for which this building is famous, we were told that decision of India's partition was taken here.. In one of the images below you can see Congress & Muslim League leaders sitting across the table with Viceroy Lord Mountbatten.


Decision about India's partition was taken in this building.. see image below.

Had I not been in love before.. I would definitely have called 'Deodaar' trees, my first love :-)


By the time we came back to Mall Road it was 5'O clock.. We still had few hours before we'd be off to catch our bus to Delhi.. We had spotted a Stage-Theater while having drinks earlier in the day.. We went there and much to our delight, we were told that a children's play was in progress. We decided to go in and enjoy the art..


Place was called "Gaiety Heritage Cultural Complex" and is one of the very few surviving theater of its kind that British had built in late 19th century. It's claim to fame in recent times is the shooting of few of the famous Bollywood songs there. "मैं निकला गड्डी ले के..." from movie Gadar is one such song was was filmed inside this theater.
They play was appropriately titled "छुट्टी" and was the outcome of a 3-months long theater workshop by school children. Having been part of one such workshop myself, in the past, I didn't want to miss on the oppotunity to be the audience and appreciate the hard-work that goes behind mnaking a theater production.

Kids did a fabulous job performing.. We had a very nice time and enjoyed the act thoroughly.




When we came out of the play, it was dark already and the Mall Road was full of tourists.. if it was an indication of what was in store for the 31st Dec night, I realized we were going to miss celerating the new year in Shimla amongst thousands of unknown fellow tourists. But there's always a next time they say.. and may be then there'll be snowfall too :-)
Still an hour with us, we went to a Himachal Tourism restaurant called Ashiaana for a quick snack and a hote coffeee..

As if it was written, we met a famous NDTV jounalist there.. Nidhi Razdaan .. Just to add I am huge fan of her anchoring (along with that of Barkha Dutt) and don't miss a chance to watch her show called "Left Right & Center".

Here are couple of links showing her pic.. just so that you know who am I talking about.

Nidhi Razdaan
Nidhi Razdaan
After a spicy hot & sour soup and very tasty manchurian, we headed towards Victory Tunnel where our Volvo Bus for Delhi was supposed to come. We said our final good-byes to Shimla with a delicious Walnut Brownie at a famous bakery on our way..


That was pretty much it.. Volvo Journey started at 8.30 and was not as comfortable as one would want it to be.. but anyway one would not expect it to be even comparable to that of a train. We reached Delhi by 5.30 am. We were greeted by a chilly and foggy morning in Delhi..
We reached home by 7.30 am and later in the day, we realized that it was less cold in Shimla that day as compared to Delhi !!