Shimla Manali Trip Day 1

 Well , it's been six months after our Munnar Trip. It's time pack and plan  trip.

It's Shimla Manali this time...
Siva , Me , Amudhan , Mom and Dad - our travel team.

Picture Courtesy : Amudhan

It's a hill station trip , that too in the peak winter. So baggage included all winter clothing,  medicines and all other requisites. First time flight experience for Mom and Amudhan and I am super excited about it.
More than enjoying in Trip,  preparing itenaries are always very interesting .Me and hubby love to draft trip plans , read many travel blogs , watch vlogs and decide which are all the best suited points of stop for us.

Travellers say,  

Winter is not a season ,it's a celebration..

We are starting for a trip to celebrate the season now..

Day 1 :
Chennai to Delhi Flight

Packed Bags , Happy and Fresh Minds.. It started to rain heavily from midnight and we were scared if flights will be delayed as the subsequent bookings also need to be changed accordingly.

Call it a selfiee pleaseee 

Luckily , everything went on as per the plan. Charu's husband came home to drop us in airport.
As I told earlier Mom and Amudhan are going to travel in flight for the first time and they loved every bit of airport procedures. And the most loving part of every day was Amudhan's questions on seeing every new thing. Baggages checked in and got our boarding passes , walked slowly to the gate. 

That happiness of getting window seat.. 😀

Love at First Flight - I can sense happiness and excitement in every bit of Amudhan's reactions. I thoroughly enjoyed every little variation of it..

I love to describe meals during the trip , for us Food is an integral part of the journey. We plan to eat most of the famous food of each location and make a rough note of dishes and hotels during the itenary plan itself.

Croissant , Butter , Sambar Idli , Kichadi
and Mango Lazzi

A comfortable fly to Delhi with with a simple breakfast served by the airlines.

Delhi to Chandigarh Train

Here we are now , India's Capital City - New Delhi.
Me , Mom and Amudhan took some time to have a leisure walk around the airport to admire the beautiful infrastructure.  

Indira Gandhi International Airport , New Delhi

Siva and Daddy collected the baggages and we joined them.. We had packed our bags comfortably so that we can all walk easily with luggages. We have to walk to the Delhi Metro station which is connected with the airport. Got the metro to Delhi Railway station. Got down from Metro, crossed the road , walked through the Delhi Smog and reached the platform for our train to Chandigarh.

Mom had a bad head ache and she had to manage the train travel with it. Got to taste some famous sweet of Agra - Kesar Peta from the train , a soft candy made from ash gourd vegetable. It was yummy , just melted through the tongue to the throat.
We got down at Chandigarh Railway Station, we walked to take our self drive vehicle. We had pre booked our self drive car with Revv - a very good car rental company. They gave us  a well groomed Swift Automatic Car , this is our travel partner for the next 7 days.

Chandigarh to Shimla Road Trip :

Well after a long day of travel , we definitely wanted to treat our tummies with some Good Food for the day. Selected a Dhaba hotel on the highway , garam garam aloo parathas,  panneer stuffed paratha , Lacha paratha , Butter Roti and Mali Kofta Curry. No doubt why dhabas are the most famous eateries. The taste was upto the mark, every bite had its own authenticity handcrafted yummily with an extra pinch of butter and ajwain.

Authentic Dhaba Taste speaks for itself 

There were a lot of shops for locally made fresh fruit items. For tomorrow we grabbed some fresh strawberry jam , bread packets and butter. Don't underestimate our food habit.. :P We use to kick start our tummy light in the mornings of trips, so that it has enough space to gobble all the rich flavoirs of the local eats.
Its a 3.5 hour journey to Shimla stayplace .A bright eatery studded Highways , with differently styed and decorated Dhabas and restaurants on both sides . Definitely these people have a great charm for attracting customer to their side with their beautiful lighting and their attractive names.

After some time  , tall pine trees to the left and the sparkling busy Solang city down to the right. My God  , it's a eye catchy view to see the whole city elegantly glowing in the night lights.
Definitely a 'Sleeping Beauty'.Now I understand why these two words are blended together aptly.

Reached Shimla , drove to our stay for the next two days - "Eat Pray Love Home Retreat". It was a 20 min drive from the Shimla Mall Road (a very famous tourist attraction). A decent stay for the night with comfortable beds , kitchen unit with all basic requirements and a cute hall with heater. It was Damm cold,  a complete shift in temperatures that we have gone through during the travel. A long journey definitely required a happy sleepy night to gear up for the most excited trip of the year..

Well , stay tuned for the #ShimlaManaliSeries