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It was that time of the year again-WINTERS, which happens to be our most favorite season and as always we normally plan my annual vacation around this time and the first destination that comes to mind is some nice cold place up-north and reason is actual twin-pronged as we can spend time with family as well as take some time out to visit a few nice places in the mountains
Other than above, we love the winters in Delhi as overall aura and charm of Delhi during this season is indescribable. Hence, the idea took shape a month earlier and as usual Himachal Pradesh won our vote hands down which also happens to be my favorite state for a holiday and have been there quite a few times in the past
While deciding the vacation spot, we even briefly touched upon the north-east which I incidentally have never been (except to West Bengal) and Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh is on top of my North East destination but, the thought of coupling a family reunion and a vacation was too alluring to skip
Alas, NE will have to be shelved for some other time in near future....
We swapped between multiple ideas of how to travel to Himachal (having drove down to Delhi in the past, I was not in a mood to repeat that mistake again:D) and decided the mode of transport to Delhi should be by air and from thereon it was everyone suggestion to take a cab and relax and enjoy the drive to the various destinations planned in Himachal.
But, being a BHP'ian it's tough to give into such insipid suggestions and I decided to hire a car from Zoom/Myles and drive down to Himachal for our 8-day holiday from Delhi
And, how it panned out will get unfolded as we move on. Now time for some snapshots of places we visited during this trip
P.S : Been thinking from last 3 months to write this travelogue but, due to constant work travel and other comittments I could not. I will try to spend less time writing something laborious and will let most of the pictures do the talking
P.S 2 : All pictures were taken from an iPhone 6S+ and a few have been edited via. Snapseed !!
Delhi to Kangra Kangra-Dharamsala-McLeodgunj Kangra-Chintpurni-Dharamsala Cricket Stadium
Kangra-Dalhousie Dalhousie to Palampur Palampur-Tirthan Valley
17th December, 2016:
Excitement for this long holiday was a bit tough to handle and there is always a joy to travel to Delhi for reasons cited below. We flew via. Vistara and this was the first time through this airline and even though I'm not a big fan of air-travel (especially domestic), I was quite impressed with everything about this airline. Impeccable service, delicious food and pleasant hostesses
Delicious meal In-flight. The hostess were so nice that they gave an additional meal when we commented it was tasty rl:
We spent the weekend in Delhi at home, meeting relatives, cousins and enjoying the different hot food-spots of Delhi :-)
We visited Connaught Place, Jan path and enjoyed their popular offerings like
Depaul's Coffee, Mushroom Patties, Wenger's Kebabs etc.
All of above was using the Metro which was fun
We also visited my Maasi (maternal aunt) and she had a fantastic lunch spread fit for a king prepared for us. It was my favorite continental meal. Steak with Mash Potatoes, Chicken Nuggets, Russian Salad and other lovely accompaniments
We were planning to head out on Monday and by then we had not even decided the mode of transport for our trip to Himachal. Dilemma was to book a cab (most favored by in-laws), take the family car (got a growling look from FIL :D) or get ourselves a self-drive rental car
While checking for the tariffs for self-drive cars, we found that Zoom was exorbitantly expensive compared to Myles and since it was just 4 of us, we decided to look for a sedan or a small SUV.
In that category, Myles threw up 2 options
1.) KUV 100
2.) Ford Aspire
There are no prizes for guessing which car I chose. Aspire was a blind choice (not just because I own it) as its spacious for 4 people, great handling in mountains and a powerful engine (realized this was a moot point to some extent later on) to enjoy the drive :-)
This was going to be our ride for next 8 days
Nicely maintained Ford Aspire TDCi 37XXX kms on the odo when we picked up the car
19th December, 2016: Delhi- Kangra
We had planned to pick up the Myles Aspire at 7am from Aerocity which is just 3 kms from Indira Gandhi airport. Waking up so early in the cold weather was dreadful. But we all managed to wake up on time and left home at 7am.
We reached there by 7.30am and took the car after hassle free and quick visual check of car and basic documentation.
I was not aware of this rule whilst booking and when we took the delivery of the Aspire for our trip, Myles representative outlined the rules and one of them was the max speed of 100kmph and if you cross that there are different fines (1st time : Rs, 500, 2nd Time : Rs. 1800 and 3rd Time : Rs. 2500) and this played a big spoilsport in the whole drive
I found it to be such a stupid and painful rule:Frustrati
The following is the route we followed:
Delhi-Ambala-Anandpur Sahib-Dehra Gopipur-Chintpurni-Kangra
It is very very hard to drive the Aspire at 100kmph on 4-lane highways and I was exhausted just looking at the speedo to ensure we dont cross the 100kmph mark.
After driving for first 200kms, I made a smart move and handed the car over to my B.I.L...LOL!
We had started from Aerocity around 8:00am and thankfully the route had less traffic but we were driving slow since we could not exceed the speed beyond 100kmph.And, the first stop which as you might have already guessed was at Murthal and we wanted to stop at Sukhdev the largest and most popular dhaba (now it's a plush place and does not look like a dhaba from any angle) and decided to stop at a different one (Gulshan Dhaba)
All of us enjoyed a hearty breakfast of wholesome and yummy paranthas with white butter and this ensured that we can skip the lunch. And, on the way we decided to eat some cheese sandwiches and fruits if hungry. We drove through the lovely NH1 which thankfully was easy to coast through due to sparse traffic.
When we entered Himachal, I took over the wheel as I wanted to enjoy the ghats and last 150kms was all twisties and Aspire as known to be was super fun to drive on the ghats with its tight steering and precise body control and 100kmph on ghat's is plenty of speed so the thrill aspect was retained.
We crossed Chintpurni which is popular for Durga Ma goddess and when we took a wide sweeping turn on the ghat, I spotted a large and rather attractive sign board in the middle of nowhere. It screamed out "Deejay One by Earth" and since we were in a momentum we crossed it and stopped some 300 meters ahead and then took a U-turn to double check if that was were we booked? Indeed, that was our hotel
It was a pretty hotel atop the corner of a hilltop and had a fabulous view. We checked into the hotel and enjoyed a nice walk on the grounds behind the hotel which had a spectacular view and settled down for an early dinner viewing the lights on the mountain side
During the entire Himachal trip, this place served some outstanding food and as most know generally the food isn't that tasty in the mountains but, here it was better than you get in the plains. Thanks to the manager and a chef (he personally was recommending some unique dishes and cooking it too)
Some pictures from our first day of the hotel and time spent that evening over dinner
Beautiful cold morning for a drive Being a biker myself, it was enjoyable to see this lady riding a bullet with a pillion and was wondering how she would be changing gears in her "Jhooti". Besides, she was riding the bull quite aggressively!:) Yummy Paranthas at Gulshan Dhaba We stopped for some delicious Kinu juice too Team-BHP Addiction :D
Covered 456kms and reached just before sunset Beautiful ambience of hotel Glorious view from the open top dining area Chicken with some coating-One of the best starters I tasted Dinner
21st December, 2016 : Chintpurni Temple, Dharamsala Cricket Stadium
We woke up late as yesterday was a bit tiring since we had driven nearly 160kms during the whole day which is not an easy task on ghat roads
After a leisurely and yummy breakfast of Poori and Subji we decided to take bath and visit Chintapurni Temple during the first half of the day.
Later part of the day was reserved to visit the iconic Dharamsala Cricket Stadium. It's a beautiful cricket stadium surrounded by mountains. Weather was pleasantly cold and with sun keeping us warm
We saw plenty of school going kids practicing cricket and can see the amount of seriousness in their session
After spending a couple of hours there we headed back to the hotel
Yummy Breakfast Chintpurni Temple Delicious Prasad (Halwa)
Dharamsala Cricket Stadium
Dec 25th, 2016 : Dalhousie to Palampur, Neugal Cafe
We headed out early on Dec 25th towards Palampur and it was an uneventful drive until we reached Kangra as there was young kids/children all over the place standing in line on both sides of the road with a congress flag in hand
And, the atypical political parties supporters on the road on their 2-wheeler creating a ruckus. During one of the jam, we got to know that Rahul Gandhi was visiting the district and being the youth icon of the country entire youth of that district had assembled to greet upon his arrival:D
Due to above, our movement was slow and we could reach our hotel only by 1:00pm
We checked into our hotel which had beautiful views around. Palampur is not known for anything in particular but, is a nice scenic place where plenty of Bollywood movies were shot. And, there is nothing much to do here and we decided to go for a drive after getting freshened up
We were told to visit the Neugal Cafe which had fantastics views around of the mountains. We spent most part of the afternoon there having our lunch and enjoying the views and light sun on the cold afternoon
We returned late evening and then played an hour of table tennis in the hotel premises and then spent an hour sitting by the fireplace to get away from cold. Weather was in range of 5C-8C during most of the days
Our plan was just to spend the night there and leave early morning towards my favorite destination in Himachal "Tirthan Valley"
Somewhere enroute Dalhousie-Palampur Beautiful Beas River flowing through the Valley Our quaint little hotel in the mountain in Palampur Figo Twins- A weird coincidence in place you would never expect Hotel Grounds Neugal Cafe, Palampur An outstanding breakfast next day before we headed out towards Tirthan Valley
I like driving through this section ( have done it a couple of times in past as well) when you near the tunnel that takes you to Manali. But, we had to divert from there towards Banjar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrbLas5Agro Well, I thought a bumper to bumper traffic is a feature of metropolitan cities https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdWXws8X4gY
Note from Mod : Feels silly to say this to my own travelogue:D. But, I want to let you all know that my travelogue has been moved from the Assembly Line to Travelogue section :)
Sorry for delay in sharing it, hope you like reading it as much as I enjoyed the trip and writing about it
Cheers
Mobike008
Quote:
Originally Posted by mobike008
(Post 4169063)
I was not aware of this rule whilst booking and when we took the delivery of the Aspire for our trip, Myles representative outlined the rules and one of them was the max speed of 100kmph and if you cross that there are different fines (1st time : Rs, 500, 2nd Time : Rs. 1800 and 3rd Time : Rs. 2500) and this played a big spoilsport in the whole drive |
Hi mobike008,
I can understand your frustration, I faced the same when I booked Ford Aspire from Zoomcar. I had to constantly remind myself not to cross speed limit (120), this was more important while overtaking.
However I feel this is needed for the larger audience, specially with so many people abusing self drive cars and getting into fatal accidents.
If you don't mind could you please share amount you paid for 8days/1800 kms. How much was the difference between Myles and Zoomcar?
Regards.
Quote:
Originally Posted by antardaksh
(Post 4171405)
I can understand your frustration, I faced the same when I booked Ford Aspire from Zoomcar. I had to constantly remind myself not to cross speed limit (120), this was more important while overtaking. |
Well, 120kmph is perfectly fine for highways but, 100kmph is NOT:)
Myles unlike Zoomcar have a 100kmph speed limit which was hard to maintain on 4-lane highways but, is more than enough for mountains
Quote:
Originally Posted by antardaksh
(Post 4171405)
However I feel this is needed for the larger audience, specially with so many people abusing self drive cars and getting into fatal accidents. |
Completely agree. I fully attest and agree to this rule. However, I just feel it should have been 120kmph limit besides, a warning for the first time instead of slapping a fine
Quote:
Originally Posted by antardaksh
(Post 4171405)
If you don't mind could you please share amount you paid for 8days/1800 kms. How much was the difference between Myles and Zoomcar? |
I paid INR 13,XXX for 8 day's rental and about INR 5,XXX for diesel for 1800+kms that we covered
Overall, the total cost for rental car worked out ~ INR 19,000/- which was wonderfully economical (If we hired a Innova with a driver at INR 11-12/km, it would have worked out more expensive)
Whereas, Zoom car rental itself was working out to about 27K
Man Avi! Thats one *BIG* Food-log that you put forth! I can already see the crowd from weight loss thread weighting to unleash their might upon you! :)
I had been to McLeodGanj almost 13 years back! The memory still remains.
Quote:
Dharamsala and Mcleodgunj was nice place to visit but, the place to visit is Dalhousie which was simply gorgeous
|
Agree. Dharmashala is more for quiet weekends.
During that visit 13 years back we visited Manali, Dharamshala and Dalhousie. And yes Dalhousie was the best.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ampere
(Post 4171459)
Man Avi! Thats one *BIG* Food-log that you put forth! I can already see the crowd from weight loss thread weighting to unleash their might upon you! |
Thanks Amp, as they say they can take the food out of me but, can't take the foodie out of merl:
Quote:
Originally Posted by ampere
(Post 4171459)
I had been to McLeodGanj almost 13 years back! The memory still remains. |
Dharamsala and Mcleodgunj was nice place to visit but, the place to visit is Dalhousie which was simply gorgeous
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