Travel Shokeen!

This decision was the easiest of all. My exams are going to finish on 27th and 29th is Saturday. So we decided to go on 29th, the Saturday and return to Delhi by Sunday. But that wouldn't have given us a good time period to enjoy, as a major part of Saturday would have gone in travelling. That's why we decided to travel in night on 28th, the Friday and reach the destination by morning.

The major dilemma we faced was the destination. It had to be closer to Delhi but also not too close such as Agra or Mathura and it also had to be a hill station. There are not much hill stations around Delhi that can be covered in a two day time frame. So the list came down to places like Rishikesh, Haridwar, Lansdowne, Nainital, Shimla, Mussoorie and Dehradun. We selected Shimla because none of us had already been there and it was also much accessible than other options by the means of Railways and Roads.

Shimla can be reached by both roads and railways and we have decided to try both. We are going there by the train and returning back on a Volvo Bus. To go to Shimla by train, you first have to go to Kalka, the last railway station connected by Broad Gauge Railway line on the Delhi-Shimla route and then you have to take the toy train to Shimla from there. Toy train is not literally a "Toy" train, they are just a little smaller than usual trains that we travel on, because they ply on Narrow Gauge tracks that are narrower than the usual railway tracks.

Toy trains from Kalka starts early in the morning around 4 am and the last one departs at around 12 noon. We are travelling by night so the options we had were Shatabdi Express and Kalka Mail. Shatabdi leaves at 5 in the evening and reaches Kalka at around 9:20 pm. Thus it was ruled out as there is no toy train in night and we were left with Kalka Mail that leaves at 9:25 pm. Fortunately, the reserved seats were available because travelling unreserved in a general coach of Indian Railway is in itself an adventure. Kalka mail that reaches Kalka at around 4:30 in the morning also acts a connecting train to Shivalik Delux Express that departs at 5:30. Shivalik Express is like the Shatabdi Express of all the toy trains because all reserved coaches are air conditioned with comfy seats and breakfast served on the seats and charges included in the ticket. Tickets are somewhat expensive when compared with others but then there are other options as well like the Passenger Train. It depends on you how you want your journey to be. So, we booked the tickets for Kalka Mail and Shivalik Delux Express thanks to the much improved IRCTC website. 

For the return journey, we booked a Volvo Bus of Himachal Roads Transport Corporation on redbus.in. Thanks to technology that we booked an entire trip on the computer.

I'll also write about how the trip went and also about Shimla and places to visit there and food to eat there in a new article. You will find a link of that at the bottom.

1.  For all the information regarding how to reach shimla, click here.