We drove toward the mountains on the Himalayan Expressway for about 40 minutes to Timber Trail. There is a hotel and restaurant just off the highway but we boarded the tram to travel to the top of the mountain.
The ride was eight minutes long and took us to an elevation of 5000 feet.
We did bundle up expecting it to be cold. It was!
Maybe this was Gurneet's way of preparing us for our return to Canada.
Mushtaq was enjoying the scenery and planning which photos he would take.
This is the Shivalik Range of mountains--the outer Himalayas.
Homes and terraced farms dotted the mountainside.
You could see for miles around. Beyond the mountains lie the plains on which Chandigarh sits.
Lunch at the top was in the restaurant of the more modest of the two hotels that are on the mountain. Of course we had more delicious Indian food and the view was incredible.
Adi's family has a hotel in Shimla and his father is a very prominent businessman. His good friend owns the Timber Trail complex so we were given this special tour.
Jeevika tried out the sofa in the warm and comfortable lobby.
The girls posed in the breezeway leading to the spa. The skies were cloudy but the vista was still quite awesome.
Adi posed by the hot tub in the spa. There were two hot tubs and a swimming pool outside on the deck overlooking the valley.
Nobody posed in the spacious bathroom of the suite we were shown!
We thought we could hold a meeting in this huge space.
Gurneet has promised us a weekend at the elegant Moksha if we come back to Chandigarh for another term!! (Please put that in writing, Gurneet.)
We rode in golf carts up to the higher level and around the large area of this complex. No, Gurneet did not drive but he obviously would have loved to.
On the way back down to the tram, Mushtaq was busy taking pictures of me taking pictures of him.
Interesting that one of the carts is righthand drive and the other is left.
What a special treat to finish our time in India! We had seen this hotel high atop the mountain when we were on our way to Shimla early in our stay but didn't expect to have an opportunity to visit it.
As it has turned quite cold, we followed some good advice and presented the drivers and cleaning staff with warm blankets. Borrowing from our First Nations people, we had a blanket ceremony. Hopefully Anil, Radhe, Suresh and Harbans (and Brojinder) will remember us when they and their families are warm this winter.
We did present them each with a pen to remind them that there was life before computers!
 |
| Our gift from them was a beautiful replica of the Golden Temple. So, our packing is just about done and tomorrow afternoon we will start our long journey home. Final farewells will not be easy! |
