With very little time to explore Jammu, we headed straight for Dalhousie next morning. Clad in red, the Honda City was backed up by another City, dressed in an identical colour and driven by the company’s driver. However, with Honda’s reliability tagging along, we hardly felt the need for the backup car.
Encountering innumerable diversions riddled with countless potholes, we covered a distance of 90 km to Lakhenpur, after which our mobile phone networks came to life, signalling to us our exit from J&K.
The roads showed no sign of improvement until Pathankot. Though we could not get good highway stretches to enable us to maintain constant speeds, the Honda City managed to return a fuel-efficiency of 16.5 km per litre.
From Pathankot onwards, the drive suddenly changed in character. We were now off the national highway and on narrow, but smooth roads lined on either side with tall trees until the hilly section. Driving uphill and downhill, taking in hairpin bends and sweeping curves, was a delight to the enthusiast within me. Adding to my excitement of driving through the twisties was the amazing handling of the Honda City. Never did the car leave its driver’s desired line. Brilliant chassis and well sorted out suspension assisted by steering with great feedback offered amazing handling and never disappointed me in the 80 km of hilly sections on the way to Dalhousie. 
The second day’s drive from Dalhousie to Khajjiar (also known as the ‘mini Switzerland of India’) was one of the most beautiful ones that I have done in recent times. Extremely narrow roads dipped into fog and clouds accompanied us through thedense pine forests to Khajjiar, 24 km from Dalhousie. Set amid green meadows with cattle grazing in the foreground and a typical European-style house in the background, this spot has been a favourite among Bollywood film-makers.
