Last 2 years it become almost a custom to have a long family vacation around christmas , this year we planned to do a north india trip as my mum wished to do a round trip around delhi. Plan was to cover Delhi - Agra - Ajmer - Manali and back to bangalore in 10 days. Myself , mum and my friend vinay all started on 29 Dec in bangalore rajdhani.
We packed couple of Kalki books (Alai Osai , ponniyin selvan) and jack welch winning and few warm clothes. little we realize our warm clothes doesn't have any chance before dhilli ka cold. Rajdhani used to serve good food earlier now a days there is a significant let down in that aspect , even hygine needs a little improvement. I wrote my comments in the feedback form , I am optimistic that irctc will do something about this.
Well we reached delhi on 31rst morning , alas what a weather . I always believe winter is the best time to visit delhi ( I can't stand delhi summer , my main reason to move out of that city after 3 yrs working there), mum started complaining that she is feeling like an eskimo with all the warm clothes and shoes , she was looking bit funny :). We started to Agra with out any delay (Blue line bus), reached tajmahal around noon. our plan was to continue to ajmer with out any stay in agra so we spent few hours around tajmahal. The first time I visited tajmahal i was bit let down but this time it looked more beautiful.if you are not planning to stay in agra please note you can leave your bags in the cloak room before tajmahal, auto wallahs will try to misguide you saying that you can't take your bags inside.On the way we saw a huge crowd with lots of dove in nest cheering up , auto driver explained that these are all winning birds of a yearly race. the bids go up to 10 lakh rupees!! We then went to Agra fort , rebuilt by Akbar! Amazing architecture. Don't miss this. (No cloak room here)
We then went to Ajmer by train, reached a hotel near by railway station. spent 800 for a day stay later realized i could have got the room for 400!! Morning we went to sufi saint Kwaja Moinudeen dharga (Garib Nawas) offered a small prayer and moved out looking for a church. Luckily we found a auto driver who took us to a church and later dropped at the bus stand to catch bus to pushkar.
(http://www.rajasthantravelguide.com/rajasthan_fair_festivals/pushkar_fair.html) . Once in pushkar you need to walk a 3kms stretch to reach the brahma temple , on the way we visited the lake. It is a amazing site with so many doves sitting on the shore.The entire stretch from bus stand to brahma temple was overflowing with shops, mostly targeting foreign tourists. You get to hear a lot of fusion music here. if you have couple of leave at hand, I recommend spending few days here.
Same day we had to catch our train to delhi , vinay suddenly fell ill in the transit. luckily he was ok in the next morning. we were supposed to catch our next train to kalka then simla toy train from delhi. we reached the station on time , initially we heard a announcement that train is delayed by 4 hrs due to fog we decided to stay in the station. slowly we realized we don't have adequate warm clothing to with stand the cold that is sweeping in the station. it is painful to note that the delhi station (country capital) doesn't even have a decent rest room !!.
Determined to wait we waited another 4 hrs and realized the train got delayed by another 4 hrs. we then decided to drop our plans to simla and thought of going to manali next day from delhi. we looked for auto, the auto drivers asked 100 rs to drop us to the near by hotel (pahar ganj) looking at the fog condition i agreed. people who visited delhi in winter will do what it means to drive in delhi fog , you have zero visibility. auto driver partly stood on the driver seat and looking out he started driving slowly , though it looked bit funny i couldn't thank enough that guy for dropping us safely (In bangalore no one will drop you in that weather condition even if you are ready to pay 500!!)
Next day i went to himachal pradesh tourism center in chanderlok building, janpath to book bus tickets and hotel rooms. spent around 8k for 3 people to and from bus tickets and hotel room. Manali was one of the best places we have visited in the trip , amazing views. it started snowing very next day we landed. where ever you look it was completely White. it looked like whole city is bathed in cream milk. amazing site. we went to solang next day. the cab couldn't climb after palchan , solang was another 3 kms far. mum decided to stay in the cab. me and vinay started walking in that snow filled roads , wow each scenario reminded me ice age movie and Christmas card images. It is really an amazing experience.
After spending two days in manali it is return journey to home. During transit a small fight erupted among we three for kalki books finally we settled for sequential reading. since mum is a fast reader she completed both books in no time, I got to read alai osai, kalki is one of my favorite author. Reading through the book i realized how much my spoken tamil is corrupted these days , it is fantastic to re learn all those vocabulary again. At least to correct my spoken tamil i decided to start all his books from start to finish when i reach bangalore!!
Photos posted here http://picasaweb.google.co.in/isachere/DelhiManali#
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