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To – Manager

Subject – Regarding leave

Body -

"Hi sir,
I would be on leave tomorrow.
With best regards
ASP

"

-> Clicked sent button
-> Pressed Windows key + L.

Flashed my access card on the ODC gate of my office and there I was. All set for a much-awaited break from the routine 9am-6pm life. Called up my friend to check about his whereabouts. And we were all set for a short but memorable trip.

From a long time, I had not taken any leave from office for going out of the station.

Office timings for IT guys are mostly 9 am to 6pm, rather the routine schedule is from 6 am to 9 pm.
Right from the moment you wake up, you start running for office, to the moment you crash your bed in the night, you think about the office. When you look back over the past few hours you spent in the day and wonder what if all your life will just go like this. Without achieving anything extraordinary, without being known to the world. With these thoughts flashing your mind, you fall asleep only to follow the never-ending loop. Not writing too much philosophical, let’s just get back to business. One fine evening, one of my old & best friends called me up & asked me to join him for a trip that was long pending and it would be a good idea to break the monotonous daily routine to come back with a fresh mind. Travelling always brings out the best version of yourself. I surrendered to my friend's will instantly and an extended weekend was planned. Leave was applied for Friday and we started our trip.

We started our journey from Delhi to Chandigarh and took a break in Chandigarh to refresh.

After our first pit stop, we started for Kasauli via Chandigarh-Shimla highway. The car was my friend's Honda City Diesel. Though the new City never scrapped the road anywhere, I must say the diesel engine is too noisy. His car is just 2000 KMs old, yet the solid & premium feel isn't there. Though pickup was still good and the feeling of driving a diesel Honda City was altogether new!

The Chandigarh-Shimla highway is in god condition, with its widening process also going on along some patches where the roads are bit narrower. Some curves are really smooth and beautiful to drive on. Kasauli is around 300 Kms away from Delhi. Some roaming in here and there, and out total journey(to & fro) was 700 Kms. All pics clicked from a Nikon d3100/18-55/55-200 mm setup.



The entry to the expressway



First toll plaza



We thought to cover Pinjore as well but ..may be some other time.



Beautiful views along the road



As you drive on, you start to appreciate nature's beauty



Those curves...



Mountain view



Initially, the road is in very good condition



and the journey is on...

The average speed due to the curves and ongoing construction around the highway drops to as low as 20-30 KMPH on some occasions. We were already feeling tired and planned to take a break at CCD on Chandigarh-Shimla highway. Along the way, you get to see some really beautiful scenic views across the roads. As you keep on driving, you start to submerge in the beauty of the nature and lose focus on the daily chores somewhere running behind the back of your mind.



Looks like these mountains have a story to share.





Finally entered Himachal Pradesh



CCD on the highway, good pit stop point for the travellers



It's time to leave Chandigarh-Shimla highway and move towards Kasauli...



From Bharatpur, you take a left and start towards the Kasauli.



As the altitude increases, the beauty of views across the roads also increases



Some real horse-power, eh?



Nature at its best

As soon as you leave the main highway and turn left towards Kasauli from Dharampur, the road condition worsens. We hardly drove over the speeds of 30-40 KMPH. The turns are even narrower with so many blind spots. One needs to be extra careful while navigating through Dharam pur-Kasauli road.





And finally, we entered Kasauli.





All the most known places to visit in Kasauli are at a small distance from each other. Our first preference was to visit the Monkey point.







Monkey point is located within the airforce station and thus you have to go through security checks. No cell phones/cameras are allowed.
There is a temple of Lord Hanuman at the top of the monkey point mountain. You have to climb around 500 meters of height to reach the temple.





It is believed that the temple is the same place where Lord Hanuman placed his feet on the top of this mountain while searching for Sanjivni Booti during Ramayana war.

After coming from Monkey point, we roam around the Kasauli roads to have the luxurious views of the mountains from the height of 6,322 ft. Below are some selected photos of the same.

Our next to visit in Kasauli was the Christ Church. Just along the Christ Church there is upper & lower mall road leading to heritage kasauli market and sunset point.





The christ church is a very old church built around 1850s. It is beautifully built. People were spotted doing Photoshoots in the church campus.



We then walked towards the lower mall road, that leads to many food joints and heritage market. The market has mainly food shops, clothing and handicrafts sellers. Prices are bit high for almost everything in the market.







After seeing the market, having snacks we started walking towards upper mall road to see the sunset point.







The upper mall road is quite steep and it is somewhere around of 2-3 kms of trek. Some people go via bikes/car but we preferred walking and left our car at the Christ Church.

The Sunset Point is a famous view-point in Kasauli which is located at the end of the upper mall road. After finishing the 2-3 kms of the steep trek, we finally reached the sunset point. Though we couldn't experience sunset at the sunset point because we reached in the afternoon :D

This area is also guarded by army.

All the clicks below are from the sunset point. We spent some time there and clicked pics.

Coming back from sunset point, we started our journey back to the place of our stay in Kasauli - The Kasauli Resort. The view from the room, the dining area is mesmerising. The First seven pics are clicked from the upper mall road and the last three pics are from the resort.





















We stayed there for the night, enjoyed food, experienced the cold winds, the mesmerising view of the nature. Forgot about the urban chaos we go through every now & then. We experienced Peace and wanted the time to slow down for a while so that we can extract each moment from our trip.

Next morning, after having breakfast and getting fresh, it was time to bid adieu to the place that has given us the freedom from the daily chores of the life; even though for a short while. But the experience was truly amazing, it also made us realise the importance of all what we have in our life. Made us rethink to appreciate what we have while not cribbing for what we don't.







And we started back for Delhi.





Same beautiful road after joining Shimla-Chandigarh expressway.











All set for home - heading towards Delhi.

Feeling after reaching home - There's an interesting thing about coming home after a journey. Nothing changes. Everything looks the same, feels the same, even smells the same. You realise what's changed, is you!

Good quick trip, bluevolt! :thumbs up and cpics:

We also were in the same part of the country past weekend. Contemplated about going to Kasauli first, however we went to Shimla and then drove further in, towards Rampur enroute Chitkul. Had a lovely experience driving into those areas with extremely scarce traffic. In fact most of the time we were the only vehicle for kms! Stayed at the banks of Sutlej river in a small town called Tatapani, famous for natural sulphur hot springs. Was a nice weekend, although return journey was particularly congested since there were too much traffic on road returning back from Himachal on Sunday and we were hung over by empty tracks we drove on earlier!

Thanks Ace.

For a long time now, I was not able to take even a day off from work due to various releases/deployments scheduled in early 2016. Was totally dried up and burnout situation was cropping up. So had to plan for a trip though a short one.

In coming times I have plans to cover entire Himachal, Uttrakhand, states along the Golden Quadrilateral and of course the mighty leh-ladakh! I want to do all these trips within next 5 years at least! stupid:

@bluevolt- fantastic travelogue and beautiful pictures indeed. Is this the Piccadily Kasauli Resort in the pics? I too am planning a similar trip with wifey and a 3 yr old and a 5 month old with night stop in chandigarh for the kids convenience.
Any more comments on roads and places to see would be much appreciated.
Thanks

Pardon doc! I don't know how I missed this post.

I hope by now you must have visited Kasauli.

Though, yes, it is Kasauli resort. Since our's was a quick trip, we covered upper/lower mall road, sunset point, monkey point & Christ church.

We wanted to do Gilbert trail but somehow missed it.