Shimla - Queen of Hill Stations

Shimla is the capital of Himachal Pradesh and is often referred to as "Queen of hill stations". Shimla is located in the north western part of himalayas and is at an altitude of over 7000 feet. Shimla has a pleasant summer, and hence British considered it as summer capital. Winter in Shimla is very cold and experiences heavy snowfall. Shimla is connected by road, rail and air. I would recommend getting there through the narrow gauge rail route has some stunning sceneries and also passes through over 100 tunnels.

All through the route, you will see some stunning beauty of the nature.

There are various places of interest in and around Shimla, although most tourist agencies limit them to just Shimla and Kufri. I will take you through some of the less explored, yet amazing places around this part of Himachal Pradesh.


The Ridge is a large open space and is the most famous tourist attraction. One can view the stunning mountain ranges from The Ridge. It is also used as the venue for any celebrations or events in Shimla.

Church at The Ridge

View from the Ridge

Kufri is a hill station that is located at about 20 km from Shimla. During summer, one can view the breathtaking views of the himlayan ranges from this place. The weather would be perfectly pleasant during summer and one can enjoy the much needed vacation. During winter, this if filled with snow. For the adventurists, there would be lot of activities like skiing, trekking/hiking and so on. To reach Kufri, one has to trek for twenty minutes or they have an option of taking a horse-ride. (I would not recommend the horse ride, as the route it takes is very dirty due to the wastage from the horses.. Roughly about 150 horses ply everyday to Kufri).

View From Kufri

On a clear day, you can even see the hills of Badrinath (not the temple though).

Chail is around 30 km from Kufri and has the worlds highest sports ground.

If you are interested, you can also visit a zoo enroute to Chail. This zoo hosts few species of Himalyan Wildlife.

Himalyan Tahr

Palace Hotel, Chail (Remember Ranchordas Chanchad's palace from 3 Idiots?)

Naldehra has the highest golf course. The route from Shimla to Naldehra offers amazing views of the himalayan mountain ranges. One can take a horse ride (not recommended) to view some of the places here. Lot of movies have been shot at this place. You can also view River Sutlej flowing amongst the himalayas. You can also view the stunning himalayan mountain ranges that are covered with snow throughout the year. You can also view the highest peak in the Shimla region. You can also trek to the top of this peak.

The Highest Peak in Shimla District. 6 Hours of trek/hike to reach the top

The snow capped mountains are from China. It looks so close, but its a 500km drive!!!

Tattapani is around 50 km from Shimla and one have to descend about 5000 feet to reach this place. Tattapani is famous for hot springs that co-exist along with the freezing cold water that flows in the river Sutlej. The water in the natural hot springs are boiling hot and the water in the river (hardly 3 feet away from the spring) is freezing cold. Apart from the hot springs, adventurists can do rafting, trekking and so on.

River Sutlej

Narkhanda is located at around 50 km from Shimla and at an altitude of 7000 feet. The best time to visit Narkhanda is winter as it receives lot of snow. In winter the Narkanda ski resort offers skiing classes to visitors. About one hours trek from this place is the Hattu peak. This peak also offers skiing, hiking and other adventure sports. On the top of the peak, you can also visit Hattu Mata temple.

That's it for now. Hope you had a nice time at the Himalayas :-) See you until next time :-)

An Evening in Paris

Paris, also known as the Fashion Capital, is one of the greatest tourist destinations in the world. I was lucky to visit this place (on business trip). I had about a day here, giving a presentation to customers during office hours, and one whole evening!

It was a hectic day at office in Zurich, Switzerland after which we flew to Paris. It took a couple of hours to reach the hotel from Zurich (one hour flight, and one hour on taxi). I just crashed into the bed after entering the room, and had an undisturbed sleep for more than eight hours!

I got up in the morning, freshened up, and off to the restaurant that was serving the breakfast. After loosing the way couple of times within the building, I suddenly noticed something out of the window.

Yes, it was the Eiffel Tower! I knew it was in Paris, but didn't know it was so close to the hotel. How come we hadn't noticed the previous evening, when we checked in. Perhaps we were too tired. Okay, now I know what to do in the evening :-)

We were done with the presentations by around 5:30 pm. We came back to hotel and were ready to go to Eiffel Tower. On the way we found some interesting places.

We finally arrived at the Eiffel Tower. It was just awesome. A fantastic view of the tower in the dark. To be honest, the view in the morning was just normal, but the tower looks amazing in the night.

I love photographing low light photos. And it was tough to judge among these two photos (above and below, let me know your view :-) ).

When we reached the foot of the tower, we realized that we could go up the tower as well. Yes, lets go. I can help you save about 16 euros through this blog :-)

Getting to the top involved going in two elevators. One that is angular, to cover the lower half of the tower. And the other that goes straight up, of course, the upper half. There was a huge queue at the place where we had to change the elevator. Old habits die hard, and I am off to take few more snaps.

Wow! Isn't that amazing? I was too excited to see the view from the top. The view from top was incredible. Feels like I am on top of the world!! (Same view as above, but from the top).

The other side of Paris

With such beautiful views, who wants to get down, and go back. Unfortunately, we can't stay there for ever. It was too late, and we had to go back catching metro/subway (whatever its called there), and we did not know when those would stop! So we decided to get back around mid night! It was a beautiful evening, and  a wonderful view of the city!

The tower is also illuminated with flashing lights every one hour (for five minutes). That is another spectacular view of the tower. However, that cannot be captured by a still camera. If you ever visit the tower, I request you to stay there till the hour, and witness the incredible view.

You guys might ask where is Mona Lisa. I think she is safe in the museum :-) I had couple of hours the next day, but it was too far from my room, and two hours were definitely not enough. So I had to keep it for the next time! I, instead was roaming through the old Paris city, before heading back to the airport.

(The Opera House)

(Old Town of Paris)

I hope you had a nice time. See you until next.

The beauty of Solang Valley

Solang Valley is situated about 10 km from the scenic town of Manali (towards the route to Rohtang Pass). This valley is about 8000+ feet above sea level and is also popularly known as Snow Point. This place offers a lot of adventureous activites like paragliding, zorbing, snow scooter ride, yak ride and so on.

In this page, I will take you through some of the adventures that I was up to. I hope you enjoy going through them.

A view of Solang Valley from a distance

Activities start here as early as 7 AM.

Amazing place, with picturesque surroundings

You can go for a yak ride

Or Paragliding

Or Skiing

Or A simple snow slide

I had a wonderful time paragliding at Solang Valley. Imagine the scenario, where you have snow covered mountains all around you... And you are flying high getting a glimpse of the whole surroundings covered with snow all around, and below you! Watch my experience below!

Well, you also have a great time in just sliding along the snow :-)

The people of Himachal Pradesh come up with some unique adventures :-)

Thats it about Solang Valley. I now conclude the online journey with some facts below. I hope you had a great time. Thanks for dropping by.

Place: Solang Valley
Nearest Town: Manali (10 km)
Nearest Place to Stay: Manali
How to reach?
Option 1: Kulu (30 km) has an airport that has connectivity from Delhi
Option 2: 8 hours drive from Chandigarh airport
Option 3: 14 hours drive from New Delhi airport

Best Time To Visit: March - November (when it doesn't snow)