[mobike008]

Trip Details

Places Visited : Himachal Pradesh and Amritsar
Time Period : Dec 20th- Dec 31st, 2009
Travellers : Mobike008, Wife and Brother-in-Law
Distance Covered : Delhi-Shimla-Kufri-Narkhanda-Jalori Pass-Tirthan Valley-Manali-Mandi-Pathankot-Amritsar-Delhi : 2400kms

As its been a tradition since past 5 years, I have been taking long vacations during winter each year.

Two reasons :-

Slack time at work and lovely winters in vogue.

This time a plan had been brewing since early november and taking inspiration from AP-AP team, i had initially planned to drive down to Himachal Pradesh along with a cousin. But, as things usually happen with non-tbhpian's ( trust me, tbhpians once roll a plan, they NEVER backtrack) he backed out at the last minute and i was completely left in the lurch with a very short time to devise an alternate plan.

I first contemplated the drive alone with my wife. When i proposed this idea to her, she was horrified and even asked me if i need any medical attention. Since she flatly refused the idea of such a long drive, i hurriedly abandonded this plan ( well, it still lurks at the back of my mind and will do it some day for sure) and planned a more safe, liesurely and chilled out plan.

Booked flight tickets Hyderabad-Delhi-Hyderabad.

Left Hyderabad on Dec 19th morning, spent the day loitering around in Delhi and even dug out some time to grab a quick bite at Karim's.

When the clock struck 7:00AM, we got up and excitedly got ready and went down to the waiting cab which was to be our ride for the next 12 days.

Here are some teaser pictures of what was in store for us in Himachal when we left Delhi that cold and foggy morning........

[shishir_bn]

nice teasers. When will the full film be shown to us.nice pics

[tsk1979]

Welcome back!
So the snow eluded you. In my travels in the hills, I have found that snow fall is a matter of luck.
for example, we have been to Khajjar, McLeodganj, Shimla, Kufri, Narkanda, and even as far as Kalpa and chitkul in snow season, and have had to come back with just a glimpse of month old snow.
However we got heavy snowfall in mid may at Rohtang, heavy snowfall in Lahaul at Diwali! So if luck is with you, I guess you can see snowfall even in June, however if the weather gods decide, even January will leave you dissappointed!

[Fordmanchau]

Yeah!! so you finally started your thread.
Great pics!!you look good with all those sweaters and jackets on.
Or did you actually lost weight ??
Subscribed to the thread, will be following it eagerly. I know you will have loads of photographs to dump here.

[traveloholic]

Hooked on to the thread Avi Bhai. Keep those memories flowing in. Would love to see more of Avi's Travelexperiences.

[srikanthpotluri]

very nice pictures so far, keep them coming!

[pulsar56]

Good start for the travelogue Avi.
Nice teaser pics.

[MileCruncher]

Sunscribed to the thread. Amazing pictures! Bring it on!

And please tell us about the food too.

Cheers

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Welcome back!
So the snow eluded you. In my travels in the hills, I have found that snow fall is a matter of luck.
for example, we have been to Khajjar, McLeodganj, Shimla, Kufri, Narkanda, and even as far as Kalpa and chitkul in snow season, and have had to come back with just a glimpse of month old snow.
However we got heavy snowfall in mid may at Rohtang, heavy snowfall in Lahaul at Diwali! So if luck is with you, I guess you can see snowfall even in June, however if the weather gods decide, even January will leave you dissappointed!

Tanveer, without trying to coat you with butter. The best time i had was the time spent in Tirthan Valley. It was an absolutely wonderful place which even most Himachali's arent aware about. Thanks for this tip !

Anirudh was a great host and was continously coordinating with me through my journey till i exited his resort. I reckon your name worked the magic

Originally Posted by Fordmanchau

Yeah!! so you finally started your thread.
Great pics!!you look good with all those sweaters and jackets on.
Or did you actually lost weight ??
Subscribed to the thread, will be following it eagerly. I know you will have loads of photographs to dump here.

Thanks Manish. Well, i was just careful of what i was eating in Himachal not being my greedy self and gorging into those awesome paranthas with tons of white butter.

Yeah, over 2000 pictures available. But, i will be ousted from TBHP if i decide to upload all of them

Thanks to all others !!!

19th evening was crazy as we had a night out and came back home pretty late so hardly had any sleep that night and though didnt want to but unfortunately was dozing most of my trip to Shimla.

About 50kms away from Delhi, we stopped at a place called " Ahuja's" for their yummy Paranthas famous in Murthal.

With the breakfast completed, it was nap time until we got up at Timberland.

[Fordmanchau]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Yeah, over 2000 pictures available. But, i will be ousted from TBHP if i decide to upload all of them

Thanks to all others !!!

Would love to see the most of them, if not all.
The 2nd pic of your 2nd post has come out really well.Nice pic of the woods.

[mobike008]

When your on the ghat section going towards Shimla, you will come across a huge signboard on your right which you just cannot miss.

It's called " Timberland". Here you can take a cable car joy ride up to a nearby mountain. However, despite our sardar driver warning that there would be a huge queue for tickets ( being a sunday) we still decided to try our luck.

He was right, there was a 1.5 hour waiting for our turn to the ride. And, i was slightly shaken up when i saw that the ride will last just 6 minutes and each ticket is priced at Rs.400

Has anyone done that cable ride? Is it worth Rs.400? I would rather spend that money on Paragliding at Solang Valley

Well, as you can see from these pictures i even tried taking some long shots from inside the Timberland premises. That close-up of the truck is not that close, it is actually too far out, see the picture next to it.

[kkr2k2]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Trip Details

.....
Here are some teaser pictures of what was in store for us in Himachal when we left Delhi that cold and foggy morning........

That water stream pic is lovely avi. I think you have made use of the tripod very well.

[tsk1979]

Its doable one time, esp if you havent ridden cable cars before. However now a road also leads to the resort on the mountain above, and if you are just in for views, you can drive instead of take cable car

[WanderNomad]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

In my travels in the hills, I have found that snow fall is a matter of luck.

Or a matter of wearing that Jacket of yours.

[theodore_ftw]

Nice...Keep them coming...In case you want to share an entire album in one go i would suggest you use Flickr or Picasa or something similar. That ways you dont need to upload all @ TBHP.