In the state of Uttarakhand, away from the city glamour, there lies an untouched valley called Chopta, that can easily evoke the wanderer inside you. It has the famous Chandrashila-Tungnath trek, which is a year-round trek offering same level of thrill and adventure in every season. This spell-bounding trail is considered as one of the most beautiful treks in Garhwal Himalayan region and offers a spectacular view of Oak, deodar and rhododendron with snow-covered peaks.

Here is the guide how to reach Chopta from Delhi:

• By Road: Private buses, government buses, and taxis are easily available from Haridwar to Chopta
• By Air: Jolly Grant Airport, Dehradun is the nearest airport to Chopta which is 116 Km from Tungnath.
• By Rail: Nearest railhead is Haridwar (225 Km from Chopta) which is well connected with other cities like Delhi.

One can book private taxis/travelers from local agents for comfortable journey, just like we did.

We planned our stay at Holiday Hike Camp & Hotels (Nilkanth Camps), which is located within 1 km from the starting point of Chandrashila-Tungnath trek. This place is owned by an awesome Pahadi Guy – Nitin Negi who was also our trek buddy. He and his fellows offered us their heart-warming hospitality in Chopta at a nominal price of 4000 per head for 2 nights and 3 days. One can get a really comfortable and budget stay, yumm pahadi food accompanied with beautiful landscapes here.

Fueling the adventurer inside us, we started the trek with loud enchanting of “Bam Bam Bhole” in the dim moonlight on 19 April 2019. Soaring up at 13000 feet, adorned with coniferous and snow, covered with a blanket of blooming rhododendrons, this is one heck of a trek you must take. The beauty of the trek was unrivalled, and with every step we discovered a never-seen before scenery, it simply was a moment to witness.

It is a moderate level trek of 4 km that could be covered in 3-4 hrs (In summers) and 4-5 hrs (In winters), however, the morning dew made it a bit challenging for us to move ahead on slippery snow and it took us 6 hrs to reach the almighty, Tungnath temple. Tungnath (meaning- Lord of the peaks) is one of the highest Shiva temples in the world, located at an altitude of 3680 m (12,072 ft) it is believed to be 5000 years old spiritual architecture.

The view from the top was mesmerising, if only i could express it in words, a serene temple in the centre of the snow covered peaks, the snow was fresh glittering like a blanket of white diamonds. You could easily feel the silence that speaks a lot about the unrivalled art of nature. We spent like 2-3 hours there feeling proud enough that we completed it, clicking selfies/groupies, dancing like no one was watching and what not.

With friends, fun and the adventure, we realised that it’s time to get back where we belong, three days passed in a blink. With the memories of our fantabulous trip we packed our backpacks, bid farewell to our hosts and started our journey back to Delhi with a promise to never miss the call when mountains would be calling.

Summers in Delhi are hard to fight, all the delhites would agree with me. One hot evening (June 2019), we decided to beat the heat and planned to visit Shimla. Our journey started from Delhi to Dehradun as it is my hometown and I had to pick up my family for the trip to Shimla cuz Dehradun is equally hot in summers. We started for Shimla via Himsuta, the only direct Volvo from Dehradun to Shimla. No doubt the journey was relaxing and comfortable as well. PS I love to travel at night esp. in summers.

Reached Shimla in the morning, or say early morning. It felt like i was in a totally different world where sky was a bit clearer, birds were a bit happier, trees were a bit greener. I could still feel the breeze, how clean and cool it was. As a delhite, it was a blessing to breathe somewhere “less polluted”.

Reached our hotel (Hotel Surya), I must say, awesome hospitality and the location was just bang on, i.e. 0.5km from the Mall Road. Rooms were clean and food quality was good too, what else do you need!

After relaxing for some time, we left our hotel rooms to explore Shimla. Our first encounter was with the monkeys around, FYI, there are “n” number of monkeys in Shimla. In fact, they belong to Shimla more than anyone of us, they could be found anywhere. After leading our way through the monkey land, we reached the Mall Road. How pretty it was at night, streets crowded with explorers, shops filled up with lights, alluring food everything, it was all so tempting.

People were shopping, roaming around, eating, sitting, talking, clicking pictures and what not. Mall Road had all the ‘Citi lights’, even at 12:00 AM it was alive and kicking. No words for the weather as it was awesome, we enjoyed our first night in Shimla at the Mall Road. Well just an FYI we returned back to our hotel at 01:00 AM, no doubt I could have spent the full night there, if only we could remove monkeys from the story, ha-ha!

Next day we booked a cab to visit Kufri, cab was arranged by Hotel Surya only. Driver who accompanied us was Shubhash, an enthusiastic explorer. He had so much to share about Shimla and the places around, his presence made the journey more enjoyable for us.

Our first stop was – Jakhu Temple, Shimla.

It has the world’s highest Lord Hanuman’s statue, such a beauty it was. A silent temple situated at one of the peaks, surrounded by tall green pine trees. The sense of peace we felt there was one of its kind.

Our next stop was – Kufri, Shimla.

Kufri is all about the journey towards the destination. The way to Kufri is mesmerizing, tall Pine trees, tall Alpine trees, Apple orchards, Exotic birds. We enjoyed the beautiful view and saw a number of Yaks on our way. We also visited the Fagu Devi Temple, Kufri to seek Devi’s blessings. After that we drove back to our hotel and planned the next day itinerary.

On the second day, we booked the cab for Shimla local sightseeing. Our first destination was Sankat Mochan Temple. It is a temple dedicated to Lord Hanuman. The location was so serene and peaceful, surrounded by tall trees the temple had a great mountain view. We enjoyed some time there and then left for our next destination- Tara Devi Temple. It is situated at the Tara Devi peak and had a really pretty road to reach there. After reaching the peak, we had to climb stairs to the temple and it is like a 5 min walk. The temple is all built with wood and had awesome infrastructure. The view from the temple is to-die for. We tasted some really yummy delicacies of Himachal Pradesh in the “Mata ka Bhandara’ at Tara Devi temple. After worshipping the goddess, appreciating the beauty and enjoying the view, we started for our next destination, which was – Visceral Lodge, Shimla.

It was once the residence of the Viceroy of India during British rule. The building infrastructure was appreciable, the garden area is open for tourists and the Inside tour is also available. We explored and enjoyed the strong and planned architecture of that grand building. It is so beautifully built that every corner of that monument seems like a picture-perfect spot. We also visited the “Bird Cage”, it had some exotic bird species inside a cage, open for tourists. The best view was the peacock family.

After clicking a number of selfies, we started for our last destination of the day – Annandale Army Heritage Museum, Shimla. The location I must say, surrounded by green pine forest there lies a beautiful building, i.e. Army Heritage Museum. From the garden area to the Museum, everything is so beautifully maintained and kept. We visited “The Glass House” for various plant/cactus species and the aquarium. At the backside of the museum, there lies a Golf ground, where a number of Army Marshalls were playing golf, it was so peaceful to watch them play, for unknown reasons. We spent 3-4 hrs. there, as the location was just wow!

We were a bit tired by our day-trip and rested till night.

Next day we explored The Ridge, lower Market and the Lakkar Market. The Ridge has Christ Church, Shimla, however, we were not able to visit the church as it was closed due to some reasons. There was some summer-festival going on in Shimla during our stay, a number of exhibitions, performances were arranged for the same, it was a treat to watch the artists and their excelled arts. Our next stop was Lakkar Market, it has hand-made wood items that includes home decor and some daily-use items as well. They have that special timber keychain, in which they will write whatever you would demand, that too on the spot. I picked one as it was a good Shimla-Momento for the tourists visiting Shimla. Lower market is more like a local market in Shimla, visit if you need to buy fruits, vegetables or other daily-use stuff.

In the evening, we visited The Mall road again, the city-heart was enlightened and vibrant as always, loaded with eateries, shopping brands, cafes, local shops and lots and lots of tourists. We tried the Honey Hut (they serve coffee with honey and not sugar), Indian Coffee House (they serve coffee…simple and subtle!), Mehru Sweets (they serve delicious chats and pav bhaaji), Hide out café, Sher-e-Punjab…I can go on and on and on!  I would suggest to go local as well, try the local tea, local bhutta, local momos and local ice-cream it would be equally delicious.

We didn’t even realized how fast the time passed in Shimla, three days felt like some hours. We packed our bags to get back to where we belong, I wanted to stay there forever, but responsibilities were calling and I could not hang up. However I will cherish the trip memories for ever and will embrace the pretty world we dwell in.

I returned with a promise that “Dear Shimla, to escape the chaos I am in, I will visit again for sure!”