(For Part 1 of this travelogue, click here).

On Day 3 of our Himachal trip, we left Kasauli and drove up (with an abortive detour at Arki, as described in Part 1) to Shimla. At Shimla, we were booked to stay at The Oberoi Cecil, a hotel with a history to it. The spot where the Cecil now stands was once a home (Tendril Cottage) where Rudyard Kipling stayed while visiting Shimla in 1885. Three years later that home was torn down and another building came up in its stead. In 1902, this building was expanded, refurbished, and turned into a hotel: The Cecil, which—in 1944—was acquired by the hotelier MS Oberoi.