I get in touch with this friend of a friend 2 months or so back. On 20th September 2018 we decide to go on Hampta Pass trek in Himachal Pradesh. Excited kids that we are, we book the trek, flights, bus tickets and all the works. On 24th September we see on news that Manali is completely flooded, the town is disconnected, no way of getting there by roads as the roads itself have been destroyed at many places and there's heavy snow at Hampta. WE still keep hope. On 27th Sept, a day before our flight, we realize that there's no way we can go on this trek, but as our flights and all were booked we started looking at alternatives and that's how we came across Indrahar Pass trek which starts from Mckleodganj in Himachal Pradesh. We book the trek on 27th Sept and we are off on an adventure of our lives on 28th.
We reached Delhi on 28th at around 10 am and had 12 hours to kill before we boarded our bus to Mcleodganj.
1st stop was Haldiram's at Connaught Place. To Mumbaikars the place will look appealing in terms of the food on offer, for Delhites its not a big deal. The food truly was yum and reasonable. Do try the Raj Kachori while there!!
Next on the agenda was Lal Quila/ Red Fort located in the Chandni Chowk area. 1st tip: board the rickshaw from inside the gate as it is a long 1.5 km walk till the main fort. 2nd tip check the weather in Delhi before venturing out. It was blistering hot in Sept. Carry enough water, shades, head cover, umbrella etc or you'll surely get badly sunburnt. Its a huge fort so be ready for a bit of walking. Quite serene and picturesque. You can get a local guide or audio headphones available at the ticket counter in case you are interested in knowing the history of the fort. 3rd important tip; there's a cloak room there so in case you are backpacking travelers like me and my friend were, you can keep your luggage in that room and roam around freely in the fort.
Red Fort to Jama Masjid is a 20 minute walk. WE got to Jama Masjid, rested under the dome for a while. It is a very peaceful place and again quite rich in architecture. By this time it is approaching evening and we were exhausted with lugging the backpack around and roaming in Delhi's heat.
We headed back to Connaught Place, found ourselves a CCD and decided to kill time till we had to board our bus. WE got to Majnu ka Tila at around 9 pm and were off in the bus (semi sleeper AC) to Mckleodganj. That's it for day 1, pretty uneventful but it felt nice just going about making plans for the day and living each minute as it came.
Stay tuned for Day 2 when the trek starts!!