This weekend I visited Shoghi in Himachal Pradesh is a cheap alternative to Shimla which is just 25 minutes away and is an idea place to get away from it all. I turned off my mobile and listed to the sounds of the forest with my friends. There are ample trekking grounds and clear streams.

One of the significant temples of the area is the Tara Devi temple which we visited on our first day; it stood higher at 6,073ft. It is on the right side of the Shoghi, at the end of the town across from the Minchy’s fruit products stand. The road was thankfully new. The temple was beautiful and the view from the top was awesome. The upkeep of the temple is a personal project of one of the rains. In two main festival months .i.e. October and November the temple is overcrowded. I couldn’t take the pics here as photography was not allowed, however I could take the 360 degrees views from the top.

The landscape around Shoghi is dotted with temples. Virtually every village in the region has one. Approx 6km southwest of Shoghi nestling in a valley of green trees and fields is the village of Anji. And I visited the recently renovated Hanuman temple.

We stayed at Sunrise Villa which is owned by Mr. Romesh C. Aggarwal and his wife who offer the ambience of a private home at reasonable prices on the road of the Tara Devi temple. We chose the room with balcony.

Our motto was to relax this weekend so we chose Shoghi as our weekend destination from Delhi, it was a quiet place and the town is at most a 2km stretch of road whose highlights are the people their hospitality and the natural beauty they are surrounded by. The only problem which we faced were the roads, which are not made to withstand the rains, they are in constant danger of being washed away. We enjoyed our nature walks and especially the bird watching. There were many trekkers in the morning who were going to start their treks while we enjoyed our walks.