[cefiljoseph]

It was a long one month and a college experience like never before. A sleep deprived emotional roller coaster journey filled with fun and academic challenges. We had earned a break.



On Friday, the first term was coming to an end. Many of us had only slept for a few hours the night before owing to our project submissions that morning. Most of us went and crashed right after out presentations. After catching some sleep, we excitedly gathered to celebrate our batchmate Vamshi's birthday. Post the celebration in our hostel, we were leaving for road-trip to Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh.

In our residence, we gathered around to cut the cake and wish Vamshi.


We sang the wishes, ate cake and chatted around for a while.

It was road-trip time!

Six of us were going including Vamshi to celebrate his birthday and a weekend getaway after a challenging yet rewarding term. We has booked a zoom-car for the same. Our choice was a 2022 Renault Triber. The criteria was to select a six-seater with an automatic tranny. This Triber was the 'cheapest' one we could find with these features and hence decided to take this. Unlike the old days, Zoom Car has become significantly more expensive. 2023 being a 'funding winter' for startups, I am guessing startups are focused on profitability more than ever and don't give incentives to use their app like before.


We paid around 300 per hour and then some as platform charges. Recently, as many of you might have been observing, many startups be it food delivery or car rental are increasingly adding a platform fee to stop burning VC money and move towards profitability.


Not wanting to be more broke any further, we also took the best possible insurance Zoom Car had to offer.


Despite all this, the car we received looked nothing like it did in pictures and it would be an understatement to call it a shitbox. Nevertheless, not having much time to fight we took it and left for the road-trip. Being a rental car, it had already covered about 65k kms in about a year. This coupled with a lack of maintenance you find in typically Punjabi cabs, resulted in the cars bad shape. Spongy brakes, full of dents and scratches and worn out interiors, it was just barely drivable. ZoomCar requires declaring any problems with the car before taking delivery. Hence, all the issues were painstakingly documented with images. This gave us peace of mind of not being responsible for the issues that were already there.



Not surprisingly, the car barely had enough petrol to reach the nearest pump. First thing after getting the car was to fill enough petrol for the trip.



Right before leaving, most of them in the hostel came to click a picture with the car. This camaraderie and brotherhood among the batchmates is what I love about the batch.



After taking the picture, we left for the AirBnB that Vamshi got for us as his birthday treat. Pranav took charge of the wheel eager to drive since joining at Plaksha. Our AirBnB was in Solan. We stopped for dinner at Dharampur. Had yummy vegetarian curries and roti.



After a sumptuous dinner, we drove for another 30 minutes and reached our stay. Our cottage was at the top of a hill and the incline was steep. Pranav couldn't drive it on the extreme slop as the car would shift to the second gear when the rpm increased. A local staying there magnanimously offered to help us. Changing the shifting to manual mode and keeping it in first gear, he managed to get the car to the top.

Reaching our AirBnB, we were so grateful to Vamshi for treating us to such a great place. I have been to other AirBnBs before but nothing like this one. It had a great caretaker, Mr Hitesh and had all the amenities one would need. The view was breath taking and the property was extremely well kept.





Many of us overslept and didn't wake up to catch sunrise. Those who did clicked cool pictures. This particular one was clicked by Pranav who particular told me to talk about his amazing photography and driving skills



Once we all woke up, we made Maggi and had it together. After that, we checked out from out stay in Solan and left for Kasauli.

Roamed around in Kasauli


Saw some monkeys.


Checked out the Tibetan market and shopped for a few things.



Had our lunch from a cafe there. The highlights were their momos, thupka and grilled chicken.

Still tired yet food kept us going.


We had to return the ZoomCar at six in the evening. Therefore, we left from Kasauli around three.

En route, we stopped at a shop to buy HPMC Apple Juice and later to buy fresh Golden Apples. Both the juice and the apples were delicious. Made a friend on the way. At this point, we realised we won't be able to make it on time to return the car. Hence, extended the trip by another hour. This is quite a useful feature in ZoomCar.



Post that, we bid good bye to Himachal and left back to our hostels to finish a python test we had remaining.

[ElectricVrooms]

Logging in just to say that please don't refer to the transmission as "tranny" :/

[Maverick Avi]

Originally Posted by cefiljoseph

Reaching our AirBnB, we were so grateful to Vamshi for treating us to such a great place. I have been to other AirBnBs before but nothing like this one. It had a great caretaker, Mr Hitesh and had all the amenities one would need. The view was breath taking and the property was extremely well kept.

Short crisp travelogue!! Would you mind sharing the details of the Airbnb stay. How are the roads till Kasauli post the monsoon havoc that swept Himachal this year?

I first visited this gem of a place 10 years back when it used to be quaint little hill station with less visitors. Loved it so much that came back 5 to 6 times again during the next few years. Our favorite place used to be Gilbert Trail!! This 1.5 km trail used to just burst with wild flowers post monsoons and was less frequented with travelers who primarily used to visit sunset and sunrise points. Unfortunately that's not the case now as this hill station too is loosing its charm to irresponsible travelers who just want to live their life(YOLO) without caring for the environment or surroundings.

[ritedhawan]

Nice trip and an AirBnb is something of a novelty. Good accomodation, Kasauli is max 2 nights and usually a nice place for walks. However, I would advice, stay away from Zoomcar, thier service has deteriorated to an extent that its beyond repair. Luckily, you made the trip without any hiccups, thier vehicles are least maintained and are accident prone. There is already a thread running on Team-Bhp which has dissatisfied users comments in galore, including me:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/stree...india-119.html (Zoom Car Reviews - Self Drive Rentals in India)