My Himalayan Adventure in Shimla — of Mountains & Memories
I love travelling. These vacations are very special, since these trips are the only time when I am able to really disconnect from work. Somehow, the act of physically disconnecting from home and office allows my mind to really take a break. When I look back, my most cherished memories are from my past trips.
This year, in April, I went to Shimla with my wife and my son. Shimla is a scenic hill station in North India’s Himachal Pradesh. Nestled in the Himalayan mountains, Shimla is surrounded by forests, water bodies and stunning views in all directions.
Travelling to Shimla
We took a flight from Bengaluru to Chandigarh. From Chandigarh we took the scenic road trip route towards Shimla. Our resort, the Wildflower Hall by Oberoi, was situated on the outskirts of Shimla.
Oberoi’s Wildflower Hall is an exquisite property situated at 2,515 metres in the middle of the densest Deodar (Cedar) forest of Asia. The resort was built in the 1990s with dazzling views from every corner. The architecture is very vintage, British colonial style with huge airy spaces. There are lots of fireplaces all around the resort where guests can sit and enjoy beverages, long chats or even curl up with a book.
The rooms are immaculate and the service is amazing. Personally, I felt that their standards of service are much higher than the Taj group. Wildflower serves lip smacking food in its in-house restaurant, which made our vacation even more delightful.
However, nothing, and I mean nothing beats the feeling of living inside a forest with loads of monkeys and tons of apple orchards. The elevation of the resort, the service, the upkeep of the property and the experience practically makes it a slice of heaven.
A quick story about apples. The entire valley around Shimla is full of apple orchards. These are covered in nets to protect the delicate flowers from snow. A typical fully grown apple tree can produce 2000–4000 kilograms of apples every year. We also saw a lot of cherry and peach trees in the region. To our novice eyes, all of these seemed similar. They all blossom at the same time of the year as well — in August and September. Apple is a sturdy fruit. With wax coating and cold storage, it is able to stay fresh throughout the year. That is the reason that unlike most other fruits, apples are available at our stores all the time.
Our Himalayan Adventures
Day 1 in Shimla
Once we had settled into the resort and relaxed a little bit, our adventures began. We kicked off our vacation with a 3 km mountain hike. It was a wild strawberry trail within the forest which is out of bounds for tourists in general. But the Wildflower has special permissions to let its guests enter. The trail was abundant with wild strawberries. My son particularly enjoyed this trail since it was a mini treasure hunt for him.
After our hike, we went to a well-known local restaurant named “Siya Ram Siddu” for lunch. It is a typical small-town food joint where the food is piping hot and the staff is extremely friendly. We ate “Siddu” , a local delicacy that is very similar to Bao.
The outer covering of the Sidhu is made from fermented refined flour (maida or wheat). The fillings are practically where all the fun is. There are Sidhus with different fillings such as cabbage, walnuts, sweet jaggery and onion. We followed it up with a sumptuous meal of Rajma Chawal and Kadhi Chawal. I was surprised to see that the restaurant offers you all you can eat Rajma Rice and Kadhi Rice for Rs. 70/-.
I think the very essence of small town hospitality lies in their generosity. I also noticed that the elevation and the weather increases the time required to cook food. But at the same time the food is tastier too.
After lunch we travelled to Kufri, a small hill station near Shimla. Kufri is well-known for its resorts and adventure parks. The adventure park we went to was a tad bit run down. But children didn’t seem to mind it. Kufri is a fantastic place during the winter for snow adventure activities.
Day 2 in Shimla
The second day of our Himachali vacation began with another forest trail trek. We had a guide named Ravi who took us through the 9 km long trek. During the trek we gained an elevation of about 1000+ feet from our base site. The trail was absolutely phenomenal with mesmerising views all around.
We got to see a huge variety of rare and expensive mushrooms through the forests. I learnt that “mushroom hunting” is a thing in Himachal Pradesh and people take it quite seriously.
The weather was super pleasant even in the middle of the afternoon. As we hiked, we felt the usual effects of the change in altitude including slight breathlessness. This trek was definitely one of the high points (pun intended) of our vacation and it is a precious bonding experience for our family.
After our trek we drove down to Shimla city. The city is spread over 35 kms with approximately 1.4 million people. As a resident of Bengaluru, these numbers are shockingly low for me!
In fact here’s an interesting tidbit, the entire state of Himachal Pradesh has a population of about 7 million people which is less than the population of Bengaluru, let alone Karnataka.
So this beautiful city is not built on some plain terrain. It is built on the Himalayan hill slopes. And this adds an otherworldly charm to Shimla. The houses, office buildings and even hotels are all located on hill slopes with winding and narrow roads to drive through.
We visited the Jakhu Temple, which has the largest Lord Hanuman idol. Of course, since it was Lord Hanuman’s temple, there were a lot of monkeys in the vicinity. These monkeys were apparently used to seeing human visitors and love the sweet prasad served by the temple. They snatch visitors’ belongings and hold them as ransom until they are given the Prasad.
We toured around the popular Mall Road, a tourist attraction with a lot of footfall. The Sol Cafe where I stopped for a quick bite was a hidden gem. It had good views and a good ambience. It has a disc, lounge and even a brewery. I noticed that Apple Cider is a popular drink in town enjoyed by both tourists and locals.
The other tourist attractions in Shimla include the Christ Church in The Ridge and the Himachal State Museum. The museum was an insightful and educational experience, especially for my son.
Day 3 in Shimla
The next day, we woke up raring to go for another adventure. For this day, Ravi, our guide for the trip planned a special 15 kms long bike ride.
We rode our bikes from the top of a mountain downhill into a valley, ending at the base of a small water stream. It was an absolutely thrilling bike ride and we enjoyed every bit of it.
Post our bike trail, we moved to Taj Theog, Resort and Spa, Shimla. Theog is a village 27.5 kms outside of Shimla. This is a luxury Resort property owned by the Taj group.
My Honest Review of Taj Theog
Taj Theog is a beautiful resort, away from the hustle-bustle of Shimla. It has all the modern amenities and good rooms. However, it paled in comparison with the Wildflower as far as the hospitality is concerned. It was also not as cozy as the Wildflower Hall. The resort had less greenery but it had clear views of the nearby hills. In particular, what caught my attention was the direct view of Mt. Churdhar. The Churdhar peak is one of the highest peaks in the Shivalik range which stands at an elevation of 11965 feet.
Day 4 in Shimla
Our fourth day in the lovely foothills of the Himalayas was a comparatively laidback and relaxed day. We decided to take a cab to the Hatu peak. The roads in the Himalayas are narrow, steep and in many cases only single laned. Just being a passenger in this car ride was thrilling and scary at the same time.
Hatu peak, which is at an elevation of about 3400 metres has a temple dedicated to Kaali Mata. The temple is popularly known as Hatu temple and had many devotees visiting to take the blessings of Maa Kaali.
Day 5 in Shimla
My son, who has never seen or played in snow was really keen to see some snow. However, there is no snow in Shimla in the month of April. Ravi, our guide, made a few phone calls to a few locals to find out if there are any accessible peaks that may still have snow. He found one and we decided to do a hike to that peak on the last day of our trip.
We had to travel for about 2 hours to reach the base of Kupar bugyal. Our start point was by the banks of Giri Ganga — a tributary of the holy river Ganga. There was a Lord Hanuman temple there. The day we visited happened to be an important religious day, so there was a small Mela or funfair near the temple.
What pleasantly surprised me was how enthusiastically the locals had climbed 5 kms to visit this Mela. Everyone, young and old had shown up and was having a gala time. The atmosphere was so jovial and electrifying with food, music and colours. Being a part of this celebration felt amazing. I felt connected to India.
Once we had soaked in some of these scenes, we began our hike through the forest. The hike was a total of 14 kms (round trip) with an elevation gain of approximately 1600 feet. As we kept moving higher, patches of snow became visible.
Before we knew it, we began hiking in the snow! This was something we hadn’t anticipated, since we visited Himachal in summer. But since this hike was on the northern side of the mountains, the snow had yet to melt. Geographically, the southern slopes are more exposed to sunlight and hence, the snow melts faster on that side. But the northern side is a whole different story. This paradox of trekking through snow in the middle of summer made this hike super interesting and fun for all of us.
One of the best things about this hike was walking freely through the forest. We could see majestic oak trees, conifers and blue pines. We could stop and have a picnic lunch in the wild. At multiple places, we just stopped to have a snowball fight with our son. We laughed till our stomachs hurt and walked for long hours into the day.
As the layer of snow kept growing thicker, it started getting overcast. Ravi told us that there may be a thunderstorm and it is risky to be in forest during such times. He showed us burnt up tree trunks which were destroyed due to lightening strikes. We were already at the top of the mountain ridge and walking in thigh deep snow. As the sound of lightening became more intense and more frequent, we decided to take a u-turn.
The trek downhill was even more thrilling as Ravi made us walk and slide through downhill slopes. In many places the snow was just too deep and we were getting stuck and not able to come out. Ravi helped us. It was scary but once the snow patches ended, we felt glad that we did it. My son Aaryan had an absolute blast walking through the son and was always ahead of us throughout the hike.
Final Thoughts
Leaving Shimla on our sixth day was not easy. This vacation had given us everything — thrilling adventures, connection with nature, great memories and immense joy. Our journey back weighed heavily on my mind, but I came back as a lighter, happier version of myself.
I believe every travel experience teaches you something of great value. This Himalayan adventure was no different. In fact, it made me ponder upon multiple aspects of my life.
Here are some of my “Notes to Myself”:
- I finally managed to “stay in the moment”. Being fully present and fully aware made this experience gratifying, exhilarating and precious.
- Our mind is the biggest trickster of all! When I am at home and in my daily routine, my mind sends signals of pain and distress throughout my body. I have a bad back, stiff shoulders and feel hungry every couple of hours. But on this trip, I woke up fresh, I pushed my body beyond my normal limits and yet there was no pain.
- Maybe, all this idea of physical comfort and what my ideal lifestyle looks like is in my head. My body doesn’t really need that much comfort. It has the capacity to go above and beyond such trivial factors.
- Travel more. Travel far and wide. Let your mind and body experience much more than work and everyday life.
