After a nice breakfast, we started driving to Shimla at about 9:00 AM. Shimla is a hill station situated about 375 kms. from New Delhi. (I didn't know this fact regarding the distance and took the driver's word on faith that we would reach Shimla by 4:00 PM). It is also the capital of the Himachal Pradesh state. I had never visited this city when I stayed in India, and was tempted therefore to include it in the itinerary. The drive to Shimla appeared rather comfortable initially, and we were also able to take in a couple of interesting spots along the way:
- The first place we got off the car was Panipat. The 1st battle of Panipat heralded the Mughal empire in India, and was quite exciting (for me) to see the present day Panipat.
- Kurukshetra was the second place we got off on the Delhi-Chandigarh highway. As any serious student of Bhagavad Gita would know, this place is considered to be where Lord Krishna imparted eternal wisdom to his protégé, Arjuna, as the epic battle of the Mahabharata is fought. The city of Kurukshetra has created a nice panorama of the battle, about 7 kms. off the main highway.
The highway drive is peppered with dhabas - Punjabi-style restaurants - and sometimes the smell of the food is quite inviting. It was during this drive that I discovered that, even though the tourist car had a cassette player, it was rigged to provide music only to the occupants in the rear seat! As the head of the touring family, I got to sit in the passenger seat next to the driver, and was robbed of the pleasure of listening to fine music from the Hindi film Kal Ho Na Ho, a copy of which I bought in one of the music shops on the highway.
Near Kurukshetra, we stopped for lunch and, after the meal, felt ready to tackle the next portion of the journey. Little did I realize at that time what was in store for us in the rest of the journey. The time was 2:00 PM or so.
At about this point, the driver branched off to a less prominent highway that was undergoing considerable reconstruction. By the manner the early portion of this road appeared and felt during the ride, you would not know that this was a highway! The road signs assured us that this was indeed a highway, however. Eventually, by 7:30 PM, we reached Shimla, and we were all very ready to check into a hotel room. It was here that the worst part of the trip unraveled: The hotel that we had accommodation in was not in the main part of the city of Shimla, but rather in a little known resort town called Shilon Bagh, a resort hotel named Toshali Royal View, and the drive to this resort town beyond Shimla is the most treacherous that I have experienced! The fact that it rained during this time didn't help infuse confidence in safe driving!! The driver, for his part, was surprised at my discomfort, and tried to calm me by saying, in Hindi, Tension Mat Lo, Saab; I was not at all comfortable, however, and my children were kind of speechless.
All through this driving, I was not at all certain we were going the right way, particularly since the driver himself felt obliged to check with local folks every once in a while. I felt a sigh of relief when, eventually, at about 9:45 PM or so, we reached the resort hotel. The hotel was live with action, and there was some music and dancing that went on in one of their banquet rooms.
The room that we were shown into was not a particularly inviting one. The toilet didn't flush and, although someone came by and got it "fixed", we didn't realize that it didn't work properly until sometime in the morning. The "fixing" person was called in again and, after about 30-45 minutes later, left hoping it was really "fixed" this time. These resort hotels are so badly managed that I am amazed that people patronize them quite well. This particular resort hotel has been in business for more than 30 years, I believe.
After a brief snack for a dinner, we slept hoping the next day would be more enjoyable.
