It takes around 2 hours of scenic sights , plush hills , lil kids waving at you - kind of road journey before you hit the army cantt area , traversing through which you land at the city. Our hotel - the oldest and right next to where the action is ( The bus stand) - was everything we had imagined and a little more. 
Old woodwork , vintage looking paintings , quaint little corners lit with lamps. The reception is right out of an old english movie and so were the Foggy views of Himalayas that you could see from the aptly named place.No wonder its rated as high as it was on tripadvisor and well , no wonder D chose this one over all others for our stay.
What's amazing about this tiny little town is , how it just starts and ends in a couple of miles. One can walk around and explore the entire city . so by the end of the day we arrived , we had cracked all possible ways to reach the MG Road from Shankar Chowk and window shopped at the old and newly revived janpath-like Tibetan markets. The obvious next thing to do was explore the 'around'.
All it took was a hilly drive and one was in The switzerland.. alrite alrite of east... supposedly, called Khaijjiar. A picnic spot of sorts - with a lot of greenary and a lake in the middle . I wasnt too impressed , but then every one who heads to dalhousie , does check this place out if one considers the number of people who were flocking the place. 
We headed to Chamba from there , another hilly journey peppered with breathtaking sights right out of some travel and living show and in some cases - the popular bollywood movies of our times . We were told 'Taal' The movie was shot here .. and as evidence we got to see the place where supposedly Ash , stayed as the village dame.Yay!
As we toured across the city , looking through our car window and taking quick breaks for some pics listening to stories behind the breathtaking monuments , the french architecture and history. Isabella our tour guide took us through the old city routes and the new ones to really show how the architecture of the city has been a mirror of the times the city had lived through! Old buildings clearly depicted the class system followed in the earlier times - where in the top most floor used to be of the king with more elaborate windows and arcs , while the lower floors clearly had demarcation of the "the hands and legs - i.e. the people who provided services" . And as one moved to the newer city across the Seine river , multi storeyed - glass windowed sky scrappers depicting a very Urban and modern face of one of the leading economies of the world.
True to what's always said about the city , its 
been home to people and trends from various parts of the world - it did come across as a fusion of old and new . Where else would you find an age old museum , the Louvre, showcasing years and years of historic references with history meeting contemporary right at its entrance ( different gates as a tribute to architectural nuances of different times - the grand gate at one end and the pyramid like glass structure at the other?)
in a couple of hours , we had already seen - superficially though , but we did see them , 
more than what we could possibly handle. Their was The opera and Notredam , the Eiffel tower and the Hotel Ritz , The Louvre from a distance and the prison where the likes of Mary Antoinette were kept during the french revolution. The city really had a lot to offer and very slowly it was sinking in that we don't really have all the time in the world - or did we? By the time it was the lunch hour and our lunch was pre-booked at the Seine river cruise as a buffet , over looking the Eiffel tower on a cold December after noon , we were making plans of which places to see during our exploration of the city the next day.
Wow! Now that's what we call food for thought !
rom agra . Believers from across the world come down here to pay tribute to the mazaar of chishti , whose blessings made Akbar a father.There is a short cut from Agra that bye - passes the main high way to delhi , and takes one to fatehpur sikri- a well preserved town in itself of a mazzar and some palaces.
Once a full fledged city , it is believed that it was abandoned some years post it was built , due to shortage of water and supplies. Now a World Heritage site this compact township is up on a hill connected only through local transport - one has to park one's own vehicle downhill at a particular point. The Panch Mahal and the Buland Darwaza that enclose with in them the famous mazaar of saint chishti show case Mughal architecture brilliantly.The ever enthusiastic guide showed us the exact location from where anarkali escaped , instead of being buried alive in a wall - as the legend goes. phew!
