Sep 01, 2009 01:06 PM
23292 Views
(Updated Feb 11, 2010 04:20 PM)
Today, I am trying to share my experience of my visit to Narkanda. Mybase location is Gurgaon (Delhi NCR).
So lets start this journey.We two family decided to go to a hill station when one of our close friend suggested this place Narkanda. Booked the hotel from HP-Tourism site (Harsh Villa). And on the said date (aug-09), started our journey by Car.
About Narkanda :
Beautiful Location - 65 Kms off shimla towards himalayan ranges. very famous for Apples. Located on NH-xx and very few inhabitants.
This place is not so commercial, and very few tourists.So coming back to our journey, we started from Gurgaon at around 5 AM, reached Chandigarh(Zirakpur) around 9:30 am and from there we moved towards Simla. Pls note that stopover at chandigarh is not a necessity. After 20-25 kms we touched the foothills of Himalayas. From foothills to Narkarna it was a hilly journey of approx 200 Kms, which we had covered, after couple of stopovers for food/rest, in 5:30 hours. reached Narkanda around 3PM.
There we had searched for the great Harsh Villa, its somebodys home-convert-hotel with only 4-rooms. Its 100m off from main-road. After checkin only, we were surprised to know that this hotel (GH) doesn't provide food, everything to be ordered. This is the only major issue we have faced apart from parking. There is no specific parking for this hotel, one needs to park his car on the very narrow lane.
The view from Harsh Villa was marvellous, as its balcony was opening towards the hills. What a great view? On the clear day, you will be able to see some mountains with Snow on top whereas if its foggy, your car will also be invisible to you. Weather is excellent where I myself enjoyed sleevless-sweater but for kid, I think full is must. The temp during day was around 7-8 degrees where as at night, I guess touched 1-2 degrees.
On the next day, after having our breakfast in nearby hotel, we decided to go to HATU-Peak (a small temple of Hatu-devi alias Durgaji), that is the most adventurous drive (6-KM) of my life so far. At some places on the route, one will wonder even a maruti-800 will be able to pass or not but the road can take upto Innova. However if two cars has pass each other, that is really difficult task. Any novice should not try to drive on that streach. Anyway on Hatu peak, to our surprise, only a small temple is situated and no food items. So if you want to enjoy there, carry something with you.
Booze lovers - A small shop is available there where you will find all medium range products. Naturally chilled Beer is also available .
retrun journcy, much more exiting as we stopped at Apple farms and had fresh apples (first time ever).
Pls note : Dont try to go Narkanda without confirmed resv in hotel. Very few hotels are there and on-spot accomodation is a challange.
Thats all folks.
