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Posted on: Jun 24, '09

The Great Escape ....Shoghi

While being very busy with getting our new bunglow ready to live and then shifting we forgot that its summer vacations for the kids and we haven’t taken them anywhere out of town for many months. Hence a break to banta tha. But where? Big question. We can’t go for many days as the interior designer and her people were working on giving a face lift, demanding our constant and regular opinion. We only had 3-4 days to spare. We closed on Landsdowne, but first week the resort where we wanted to stay was full. Next week there was no water and the owner said the resort is closed down till it rains.
Hmm look somewhere else. Since we’ve been to all other key destinations in Uttaranchal, we looked at Himachal. My favorite is Kasauli and we were getting rooms at Rosscommons , my fav again but kids and mom had different idea in mind….”how about camping with us dad, we know you’ve done it but we also want to do it with you”. Now camping in real terms is not easy in India and with kids..forget it. So we searched for a middle path.. and we found one close by…SHOGHI near Shimla. There is a resort which has tented accommodations.. WOW perfect. The more we researched about the eco-friendly place the more we fell in love with it.
On 18th June we started early at 6.30AM by my Innova (I hate to call it a car) and by 9.30AM we had finished our breakfast at Karnal. Amazing Paranthas (aloo, pyaz and paneer etc.) with loads of white butter, washed it down with real milk chai. It was so much that we skipped our lunch..we had to.
The real bottle neck came when we left Ambala- Chandigarh highway & turned to Panchkula - Kalka road. I remember it used to be a good road with lots of green trees on both sides and cantonment area with open spaces, but now they are constructing flyovers and express ways…with so much of construction going on, the traffic movement was at a snail speed. Anyway after 7 hours we made it to Shoghi. Now from the Shimla highway we had a take a left turn to reach the campsite/resort and the drive from there on was not exactly scary but with very narrow road I was always praying “Oh God! Please don’t send anyone from opposite direction” and he listened to the prayer. The last 2 KMs before reaching the parking area was really steep.
We parked our SUV (yeah that’s better) on an inclined plane by stuffing stones below the tyres. Then started 100 meters of walk to the campsite.

The place is in middle of no-where with lush jungle around and situated in 20 acres with ample area to walk and find your own “do not disturb zone”. There was no check-in procedure and we proceeded straight to our tent, it was the highest tent in the resort with a breath taking view of sunset.

The tent was fitted with all modern facility including hot shower and clean washroom. The best area I liked was the sitting area just outside the tent, very relaxing to sit there in the morning and evenings.
Since we went on Thursday it was not a weekend yet and the resort was not full, giving us opportunity to interact with the owner and manager discussing how it came up, problems, Indian vs Foreigner tourists, what we can do here etc. It was great to see the sparkle in the eye of a dreamer whose dream was coming true.
We did nothing on the first day but when we saw that they’ve an full fledged obstacle course ( last I saw one that was so elaborate was at an Army regiment HQ), we decided to have a go at it. Next day we had Vijay and Pankaj, two certified mountaineering experts with loads of harnesses and safety equipments waiting for us. My Dotty had the first go and although she struggled in the beginning but with very vocal support and encouragement from mom and dad, she did all the obstacles but 2.

Next it was my turn. My wife betted Rs. 500 that I won’t be able to do and I took the challenge and yes I completed the entire course.

But don’t ask me…I was dead by the time I finished. After a quick shower I got so relaxed that I just crashed on the hammock outside in the cool and fresh air and just woke up for the lunch.

Post lunch we went to Tara Devi mandir and to Shimla..yuk! I hate Shimla but it was important that we take our kids for them to see Shimla. The lift to mall road was great but the mall road was packed…if you know Delhi, it was like Janpath market. Or Mumbai's Link Road, or Bangalore's Brigade Road, or Chennai's Parrys %&*$#@.
Anyway the ridge was better and kids did the usual stuff, pony ride, pop corn, ice cream, etc and we came back to paradise before dinner.
Next day came the weekend and with it came the usual weekend crowd…two major groups.. one group of families from Punjab and the other a Bengali group. While in the evening Punjabi group was very loud (being in a jungle even if you speak at normal city level it is heard 2 kms away making it very loud for people around)..there was loads of snack ordered with empty bottles of Whisky doing the disappearing act very regularly and ladies enjoying their vodka/gin with lots of Gup- Shup.
Next day morning it was the turn of Bengali group. Being nature lovers they got up at 4AM for bird watching and messages from one tent to another was being shouted and in no time the entire resort was awake including one poor honeymoon couple.
The same continued for one more day and by the time we left there was a little war brewing between the two groups.
The service was great with each tent getting its own so to say butler and food was excellent.
On the way back we picked up some great fruit wines from Minchey’s factory outlet in Shoghi and boxes of juices and kilos ‘n’ Kilos of fresh fruits, which I’m still munching on while I type now.

Few Snapshots:

1. Saw many girls working in shops including two sisters at the biggest grocery store in Shoghi ordering workers while munching Namkeen and listening to songs on iPod.
2. The Kids of the group from Punjab demanded that they should have TV in the tent and when the resort management refused, mom also joined in. Dad’s were busy with glassy.
3. I saw many forest fires this time right from Kasauli , Solan, and till the higher mountains above Shimla. Locals told me that this year has been really bad and with no rains they’ve lost almost 25 to 30% of forest/fields to fire and there is no help coming from Government to stop these. The resort also lost two of its tents in forest fire when one of the guest in peak of summers threw his still burning cigarette butt.
4. I liked the traffic police of Shimla for managing the unruly drivers from the plains and ensuring that there is no traffic jams.
5. Common people of himachal are so nice, humble and friendly its very easy to strike a conversation and get loads of insight. While shopping at Minchy’s for juices etc. there came a local lady (BTW the entire outlet o Minchy’s was run by ladies) and while my wife was confused over which chilly pickle to buy. She offered her independent advice “ Yea red chilly walla to aap ghar pe bhi bana sakte ho, is ke liye paise kuon dena”. That helped her and she bought the green chilly one.
6. Driving on hills gets scary during the tourist season with so many drivers from plains, getting very adventures and risking other’s lives. I saw at least 4 incident where due to rush to overtake the drivers from Delhi did not follow the basic overtaking rules in the hills and almost killed his own family in the car.

Anyway, it was a much need break for us and we are glad that we choose Shoghi’s tents in the wild. There isn't much to do there so take a book you wanted to read, write poems/stories, be with yourself and relax.
Thanks for reading and excuse me for the typos as I write Spontaneously whenever I get time and urge and I write (rather type) on the go.

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Comments [ 25 Comments ] [ Post your comment | Subscribe (?) ]

Vediva said:
very interesting .... will keep checking the blog more frequently:)

July 25, '09

Gutz24 said:
Very interesting travelogue.The pics are spectacular....

June 27, '09

sanju_0101 said:

June 26, '09

Itskirtiaquarian said:
its amazing........

June 26, '09

sriangood said:
Thanks for this travelogue!!

I think a visit may be fun specially the paranthas and chai!!

June 26, '09

cre8ive27 said:
interesting...

June 26, '09

eternalessencefoever said:
Yeh hui na baat!!
now the post is complete..the pics enhances it n lures one to visit this exotic destination!!

Hw abt a fropper meet there??

June 26, '09

maungoli said:
never saw a blog like this before amazing

June 25, '09

khushidey said:
lovely!!

June 25, '09

sazzyme said:
aaannd i ddint even know such places existed..!

kudos re vinay for introducing all those to me..
perhaps on my next trip to india..

luved the account of ur holidays!

tis bas given..that fropper will screw up the pix..
but thanks again...u did the separate sharing..

June 25, '09

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