Bike trip from Delhi to Shimla

I have been planning to go on a bike trip since last 2 years, but due to a very busy life, and sometimes due to lack of a peer I had to hold back the plan.
Last year in 2010 my friend and I decided to have a trip on bike, although it was very difficult task for me to convince him for a trip on ‘Bike’ but for him to convince his parents was Mission Impossible. But we decided to tell his parents a lie that we are going on a bus. And then the shopping began. As it was the month of July that time, so the monsoon rains were expected, so we brought raincoats also with simple and handy things like ropes to tie our luggage on bike, knee and elbow guards and some tools. As I am a software Engineer, So here in IT industry we just get two days a week Saturday and Sunday to explore and take 2 leaves and there you go. I feel IT industry provides best time to have short vacations if a person plans well. We planned to leave on Friday evening after office, and excitement was on peak when I was packing my bags on Thursday night. Suddenly my friend called me on my phone. I picked it thinking we’ll discuss the trip but.. Shatter..boom.. you remember the floods in Ambala. He said no to the trip. And then trip got cancelled and I was there.. sitting with full bag packed, a serviced bike and nobody to go with. And then the Long wait started again.
In 2011 I again planned the trip on bike to Shimla with my cousin. We decided to take only one bike Pulsar 200. Now again I took Monday as a leave and we decided to go on Friday 17 June’s evening. So Friday came I was in office wrapping up my work and till 1 p.m it was a nice sunny day..and then Boom Shatter.. It started raining heavily and It rained till 6 p.m in Noida. So, Again the plan was on the verge of death, but this time my partner was firm and we decided to leave on early Saturday morning and I slept at his place to wake up early to leave early at 5-6 in the morning and in Excitement we were late in sleeping and consequently we woke up late at 7 in the morning. I looked outside and no sign of rain so all thumbs were up this time.
So at 8 in the morning the trip began, a journey which I will remember and cherish for rest of my life, started. At start I was on pillion seat and my cousin was driving. We took a pic at start and there we go.
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Now we Started from Rani Bagh(Pitampura) at 8 am and it took us 30 minutes to reach Karnal bypass as traffic was bit tight at Madhuban chowk. After Karnal bypass the road was smooth and in another 40 minutes we reached Murthal which is 50 kms from our starting point and there at Sukhdev Dhaba we took our first halt. We had nice Aaloo paranthas(Stuffed potato breads) with lot of white butter and tea.
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Now I forgot to do a little showoff, as I brought a new and expensive Samsung Galaxy S2 which had a nice camera and GPS application system, So we did not bring digital camera with us to take photographs. We took some photographs on Sukhdev dhaba, and again we started, this time I was riding and my cousin got pillion seat. Now my cousin’s height is 2-3 inches more than me, and thus he was not comfortable at carrying the bag on his back as the whole weight got transferred on his shoulders. We tied a small pillow on rear end of the bike seat to transfer the weight of bag on pillow but that Idea worked for me only. Still we continued as we were fresh and we decided to take another halt at Karnal Haweli. In between we took some roadside photographs also.
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The weather was great on that day with no rains and no sun. I was riding smoothly in between 80-90s kmph. The road is very good till we pass Panipat flyover. Panipat flyover is a big relief now, because people bypass the whole busy city without even knowing what is going on under the flyover. After Panipat there is construction work happening. So the road is bit difficult to drive for another 50-60 kms. After PaniPat we saw a goup of royal enfield bikers. They were 15-20 in number and we passed them all one by one. After 125 kms appx. we reached Haveli in Karnal. Now we were feeling a little bit tired. We didn’t eat much at Haveli, just had fresh lime Soda there and called up our home to broadcast our well being.
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At haveli we heard of heavy rains in Ambala, but still we started again and till the time we reached Ambala there was water on the roads but no rain. But as a precautionary measure we decided to wear raincoats and took 15 min. Halt at roadside and then we started again, now thanks to Samsung Galaxy S2’s GPS system we just managed to get on the right way. It was 2-2:30 when we crossed Zirakpur and took the right under the flyover for Shimla.

I was very hungry at that time and my cousin was driving, I asked him to stop for lunch but once we entered Punchkula the flyovers started one by one and then no sign of roadside dhaba was there and just after crossing Punchkula we stopped at one tea stall. There we also did the arrangement for keeping the bag as now the weight of bag was starting to hurt my cousin’s shoulders. We tied some egg trays on the rear of bike to increase the height to keep the bag.
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We started again and I was driving again. At main Pinjaur crossing a local Policeman stopped us. He checked out our Bike’s RC, DL, Pollution, Insurance and we were free to go again once he made sure that every thing was available with us. So my advice is to keep all four documents with you always. Now after Pinjaur we reached Kalka, Here a big traffic jam started as if every body is going to Shimla but since we were on Bike we didn’t lose much time there in jam but if we would have been in a car it would have easily cost us 1-1.5 hrs there in jam. I am very much amazed by the fact that a very thin lane in Kalka which also crosses through a main market is national highway and how it is managing all the traffic burdon. But once we crossed Kalka we got first glimpse of Hills and we finally reached Dev Bhoomi Himachal Pradesh border. I don’t know how they divided the states but Himachal Pradesh got all the hills because with border, Hill driving starts. I suddenly started to enjoy riding the bike in the hills , all my tiredness lost and I was riding a bike with great pleasure. It was dream come true for me. I drove for 25-30 kms in hills and then we stopped at Mc Donalds. I don’t remember the place. There we stopped for 30 to 45 minutes. We started again and it was a pleasurable experience. We stopped in between at one or two places to take photographs as scenes were now very beautiful.
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At a restaurant in Kandaghat we stopped for a Maggie break. It was 6 in the evening and view was very beautiful.
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Now near about 7 in the evening we were just 10 kms away from Shimla and the huge traffic jam started , remember what I said in Kalka as if every body has come to enjoy last weekend of summer holidays to Shimla.
Finally at 7:30 pm we reached Shimla, we crossed the main tunnel intersection of Shimla and straight away started to look for a Hotel. I had been to Shimla twice and was bit familiar with tariff rates of Hotels. Near Bus Stand we asked to 2-3 people about rooms but every body told us of every hotel is full and then funny thing happened. We asked some locals to guide us getting a room and they told us as this is seasons last weekend so it will be very difficult to get a room and if by chance we get a room the price they mentioned was quite out of the world. They told us we could get a room in Shimla for about 15000 a night.. yes you read it right 15000(thousand).. hahaha and if we go to Sanjauli that is 5-7 kms from Shimla we could get a room for 5-6000. Now I decided to get down from bike and look for proper hotel by walking . We had a look at 2-3 hotels but they were quoting quite a high price of 3-4000. Now by god’s grace we met a Taxi driver he gave me some local guide’s number. He arranged a room for us for a very affordable price in a very decent hotel near tunnel in Shimla. Hotel manager was asking Rs1200 but I negotiated well to get the price down to Rs900. And finally we reached our room and as we were very tired we straightaway took the bed and got laid down for half an hour.
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Next morning we were in no hurry to get up and we got up at 10 in the morning as the checkout time was 12 .We had 2 hours to get ready to leave the room. As I knew we can still get a cheaper room than this we started to go for room hunt and we finally got the room in Rs500. After getting the room we left for Kufri. It was again very nice way to reach Kufri on Bike. We enjoyed every bit of Biking there on that road to Kufri .
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After Coming back from Kufri we went to mall road and one thing which I love about Shimla is mall road. Being a Delhite I am very much used to very nice crowd but still in Shimla the crowd is great. Mall road and The Ridge is always a great place to spare the time. We had an Icecream there and then with nice dinner we ended our day.
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Now on Monday we started the return journey. At 12 we started from Shimla. Again the weather was very nice for Biking. We followed the same route by which we came. On the way near Dharampur I specially want to mention of Chole Kulche we had there. They were awesome.
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Now once we left Zirakpur we noticed some noise coming from engine It was coming from Timing belt in the engine and thus we stopped at Bajaj center . They told us that engine oil is also very low So we topped up the engine oil also. And we started again the boring journey of plains and we reached Karnal Haveli again. There we again noticed the noise of timing belt has increased but still we decided to carry on and we continued at speed of 80 kmph and then near Sonipat a very great thing happened. The Clutch wire broke and now there was no service station opened ata that time as it was 8 in the evening now. We decided to continue without Clutch..ahahaha. That was the stupidest thing we did. And after 30 kms near Madhuban chowk which is 5 kms from our home the engine was off and it didn’t start again. So my cousin called his friend, He came on his scooter and with the support of his leg and scooter we covered last 5 kms of our journey. And at 10 pm in the night we finally reached our home.

I have also uploaded some videos on youtube :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUK4sXKHnRQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__NmWZdiZ6Q