Shimla - the apple orchids and beyond

 Shimla - the beautiful hill station 






The city which was famous for its apple orchids earlier, is now more popular due to Ranchod Das Chanchad of 3 Idiots and Geet (Karishma Kapoor) from Jab We Met.

Places to visit: 

  • Mall Road
  • Ridge 
  • Toy Train 
  • Jakhu Temple 
  • Kali Badi Temple 
  • Lower Bazaar 
  • Lakkar Bazaar 
  • Visiting local cafes and shopping

We have started our travel by toy train (narrow gauge) from Dharampur to Shimla. 


We reached Shimla by 9;00 am and used the Public Lift to the reach the mall road. Our hotel was located right opposite to the lift which was quite convenient for us. We checked in and left the hotel for lunch on Mall Road. We went to a restaurant called Pakwan which was on the first floor and right on the mall road. It was a very good and hygenic place for having vegetrain food. But we could not resist ourselves with this 1873 Cafe which looked great. 



This place needs a special mention as this cafe can cater to audience of all age groups, provided they are vegetarians. It had some great North India food, while Italian food had its own level. We enjoyed spending time in this cafe and lazing around after walking hours on mall road and the Jakhu Temple which we did by Trek. 


One can not miss this spot when in Shimla. I was here 30 years back and still have an old photo pictured here wearing shorts. It is the iconic Church built by the Britishers on the Ridge. 









The above shot is the same place where Shahid stops his car in the movie Jab We Met and Kareena Kapoor crosses him without even noticing him. 

Shimla has been named after this temple. It is the Kali Badi Temple and was at one end of the Mall road. 



The Mall road has been split into Upper Mall Road, Middle Mall Road, and the Lower Mall road. It is best to shop at the lower mall road or even Lakkar Bazzar to get a local products. 







Shimla and the mall road looks really beautiful at night time. The illuminations on the buildings make it look bigger than life and adds a different angle to the same road. 


There are some nice cafes and hangout places at the famous Mall Road. Zero Degrees, Garden Green Cafe, 1873, Indian Coffee House and so many more. 



The town hall building gives a real European feel. It has some restaurants located inside like the Pizza hut, Costa Coffee, and KFC. 

























Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Golden city of Jaisalmer, Sand Dunes, the blue city Jodhpur, and much more

Image
Jaisalmer - Thar Desert: Sam Sand Dunes and beyond  The much awaited trip after Rann of Kutchch was the Sam Sand Dunes. It came as a surprise as it was a last-minute plan and we could not get confirmed train tickets and flight prices were sky rocketing already. Since we had made up our mind, I decided to drive down all the way to Jaisalmer. Now the next challenge was that it was a long journey and could not be completed in a day. Hence, I decided to break it up and cover few more cities in Rajasthan.  The final route map looked like the one below:  Jaipur < Ajmer < Pushkar < Jodhpur < Jaisalmer < Sam Sand Dunes < Longewala border < Bikaner < Back to Home  Jaipur - Bhangarh Fort, Hawa Mahal and a Movie in Raj Mandir  Bhangarh Fort is 30 Kms before Jaipur and need to take a detor. It is closer to Alwar / Siriska.  Up next, we moved to Jaipur. Since we had already visited Jaipur last year, we wanted to see a movie in the cinema.  W...
Read more

Mumbai - city that never sleeps!!!

Image
 Mumbai - the city of dreams When someone talks about Mumbai, the first thing that comes to mind is the Gateway of India. We are no different and decided to go to the Gateway of India and the famous Taj Hotel to click some pictures. The idea was to go in the evening to see some lighting, and the temp would be a few degrees cooler than the day.    The Famous Taj hotel looks much more picturesque than the Gateway of India. It is the same place where terrorist attack took place a couple of years back.  Colaba Causeway is a nice place for shopping as well as home to some of the oldest cafes in the city.  These are two popular cafes in the area. I personally preferred Cafe Mondegar due to aircon and better sitting. The food quality was equally good in both the cafes. Leopold cafe has their own merchandise like mugs, t-shirts which is a delight to see and tells about the popularity of the cafe.   Cafe Mondegar has its own cutlery which is a delight to see. T...
Read more

Teen Dham (Yamnotri, Gangotri, and Kedarnath) 2024

Image
                                                         Yamunotri, Gangotri, and Kedarnath  We were a group of three friends and decided to do two dham yatra. But as we all know that when boys start the trip it is next to impossible that the trip will end up in the same direction. The same happened with us. Kedarnath, Tungnath, and Badrinath were planned initially but as we united in Haridwar a day before the start of our journey, the plan took a U-turn. I started my journey from Delhi and boarded the Dehradoon Shatabdi express from New Delhi Railway Station.  The historical pic when we decided to change our plan in the middle of the night :-) We decided to visit Gangotri first, followed by Kedarnath as Helicopter bookings were yet to be confirmed. The twist does not en...
Read more