The Story of how I backpacked with my parents..! [Part 1]

Solo backpacking had always been in my checklist. While the year 2016 gave lot of opportunities to trek, I also wanted to travel to the famous and not-so-famous places. Even though I always had a desire to do solo trip, our wonderful society had its constraints and limitations. As always, I kept waiting for someone to accompany me. My best friend VJ got married and now, I am left alone. After a silent phase of four months, the plan of taking my parents on a trip struck me. Fortunately, the selfish-me started thinking outside myself and the initial plan was a trip to Malaysia. As rightly said by a Tamizh proverb “Perasai perunashtam”, I forgot the fact that you need a passport to go anywhere outside India and my mom didn’t own one. Mission Malaysia dropped, but my dad saw my enthusiasm and asked me to plan for a trip to North India. While my parents had always been only through tour packages, I wanted to give them a different experience – a trip in my style, which ended up as a pseudo-backpack trip!

After thorough research about the places in the North and drafting multiple itineraries, I finally concluded to cover Chandigarh-Manali-Mcleodganj-Amritsar on a 6-day trip. On consulting few tour operators for a similar plan, they charged a mountain considering the reduced strength of 3 persons. Packages work best if you go in big groups, unlike our case. One fine morning, I booked the flight tickets without informing anyone and then told everyone that the trip is going to happen between 8-April and 16-April. This is how the trip in analysis phase moved to reality. Our next step was to sort out the local travel and accommodation, since I was travelling with my family and hence this became a pseudo-backpackers trip. While Airbnb and OYO rooms helped in identifying decent rooms, IRCTC and HP State transport buses for transportation. Everything was set for the big week, including my new baby – Rucksack from Wildcraft!

Preparations for the trip started just a day before we started, as there were lot of obstacles on our way. Yet, my Dad supported me and made my dream come true. While my parents had to come from Neyveli, they started on Friday night and reached Bangalore. The travel officially began on Saturday evening when the OLA Airport taxi waited for us outside the apartment at 6.30PM. I was geared up with happiness and tension, however I made my mind to calm down and enjoyed the moment. It gave a different feeling when you take the responsibility, and a moment to be proud of yourself. It was 7.30 PM when we reached the airport. Thousands of memories ran through my mind on seeing the huge airport watch tower in front of me and the open parking lot. Burying all the thoughts inside myself, I clicked selfies with my super enthusiastic parents and finished our mom-made idly with onion chutney for dinner.

Since our flight was scheduled at 9.30PM, we went inside the airport by 8PM. Despite the warning message to not to leave power banks in check-in luggage, I still took the risk just for fun. I don’t want to set wrong examples here, but I ensured that I will not repeat it again. We got into the flight by 9PM and struggled to put our seat belts (typical first-timer scenes *wink*), although we have travelled in a flight thrice on different trips. As the flight started to take off, my Dad became so scared and I was mocking at him. Once the flight reached an altitude, the lights of Bangalore started fading away and it was a beautiful scene to watch. I had some interesting conversations with my dad, which I will never forget in my lifetime. At that moment, I felt that I had my best friend in my same family all these years. Dad also gave me surprise advises to take travel as my part-time occupation and start a career out of it. Since I was already flying high, this statement made me to fall from that height! :D

As the conversations went, food was served. Since I ordered fruit diet and 2 veg meals during my web check-in, I got a plate with 2 pieces of watermelon, muskmelon and pineapple. Dad and mom got rice and subzi. We ate well and managed to get some sleep as the next one week was going to be tiring. Never take the last seat or last-but-one seat in a flight, because you can’t adjust the backrest! This is a lesson which I learnt through this trip, however, we managed to have quick nap in the straight seats. After a lot of turbulence warning, we were flying on top of Delhi by 11.35PM, but got the clearance to land only by 12. As the pilot announced the temperature outside to be 30 degree Celsius at midnight, the heat waves were already attacking my body. Good morning Delhi! Finally, I had my legs on the national capital.

As our train to Chandigarh was scheduled at 4.30AM, we were supposed to reach Old Delhi railway station. The communication problem started the very moment I stepped on Delhi, as people rarely spoke English. I booked Ola cab to go to the airport, but the driver spoke some nonsense in Hindi and I finally ended up cancelling the taxi, as he was moving away from the airport. Since we had no other option, we took the airport prepaid taxi which costed 620Rs., which included the night service charges. A shady omni was waiting for us to drop us in the railway station and my parents were equally scared while we travelled in that van. Although I tried to track the navigation through google maps, the fear persisted because I was in DELHI!

Finally, we reached the shady station at 2AM, and the next shock of my life waited there. Our train number was not getting displayed in the screen! On checking the train running status, I realized that our train was running late by 2 hours. If only I had known this earlier, we could have stayed in the airport and started late. Else we could have planned an alternate way to reach Chandigarh by bus. Since my mind was shocked and sleep was running across our eyes, we managed to bribe the cruel lady who took care of the AC reservation halls and got a place in one corner of the room. My dad stayed awake and asked us to sleep. I felt so bad for putting my parents through such a situation and learnt the next lesson of my life – ALWAYS check the running status of the train and try to book the trains which start at the boarding point. Since I couldn’t sleep, I made my dad to rest since his eyes were reddened due to lack of sleep and I stayed awake to take care of our luggage. Although none of us could sleep completely, we took turns to lie flat and give some rest to our body. As time flew away, our train was getting delayed drastically.

While I was sitting in front of my tired parents, I decided to change our plan to skip Dharamashala, so that we could free up some time in the busy schedule! Although McLeodGanj was a must-visit place in my list, I cancelled it considering my parent’s state. I cancelled the accommodation and bus tickets, without thinking about anything. Although my dad asked me to wait and cancel it later, I didn’t want to make my parents suffer more. Keeping my fingers crossed, I prayed God to give us positive moments in the rest of the trip. I went with mom and had some local tea outside the railway station. After a 5-hour delay, our train was scheduled to reach at 8.45AM. As we waited in the allotted platform and chit-chatting, there was another train in the next platform which was also flying from/to Chandigarh. I sent my Dad to check the status of our train and he came running to ask us to board that train. Panic moment began as neither the passengers in the train nor the station board displayed our train number.

My dad checked with a TTE and confirmed that this was our train and we boarded the train FINALLY! If only we hadn’t boarded this train, things could have been worse and I could only thank God for warning us at the right moment. We ate bread for breakfast, travelled in the hot weather and finally reached Chandigarh around 2PM, which we were supposed to reach by 9AM. The auto and rickshaw waalas surrounded us to take their vehicle, despite telling them that our rooms were close to the station. Since the sun was scorching hot, we took two cycle rickshaws which were driven by human beings. It was an experience and admired these people who balanced our weight so comfortably. Yet, they charged only 10 per person. On seeing the Golden Inn restaurant which was booked through OYO, I was super impressed. It was worth the cost, although it was outside the city.

We refreshed quickly and stepped out on our first sight-seeing day. Finished lunch at New Mitran da Dhaba outside our hotel. We shared 2 veg thali which consisted of 4 parathas, subzi, dhal and rice only at 50 per plate. Then we booked OLA cab to reach Bougainville garden at Sector 3. A Singh drove us through the streets of Chandigarh and acted us a local guide. The Bougainville garden was filled with colourful everywhere with limited number of people. It also had a war memorial in the middle of the garden. After clicking number of pictures, we walked towards rock garden at sector 1. My mom grumbled as we made her walk all the way, and Dad was having fun looking at it. We also saw the double decker tourist bus, which we were supposed to take if only the train hadn’t played a tragic role in our plan. The double decker bus will take you to all the major tourist places around the city in a span of 4 hours at 50 per head, although you are responsible to cover the entry ticket and other charges.

The Rock garden was super crowded with the entire Chandigarh tourists and the locals at a single location, since it was a Sunday. They charged 30 per head as entry ticket, but the place was much more worth it. It was basically a dream garden of a crazy guy who assembled all the useless pieces into a beautiful garden. The place was filled with statues made of broken glasses, bangles, pots, and lot more. There was an artificial waterfall with trees and branches across the park, a fancy building constructed by sacks filled with sand, monkey images which looked like nature came into reality and the list goes on. We were exhausted at one point and the garden never ended. My dad insisted that we should have brought Jithu (my sister’s daughter) and she would have loved this place. At one point, my dad took a break and I went with mom to explore the other places. They had a huge open space where shows were taking place and aquariums with variety of fishes. It was a place worth visiting if you visit Chandigarh.

Then we walked to Sukhna lake – the man-made lake in the city, which was even more crowded mainly due to the evening hours. The sun was setting and the lake was filled with colourful boats with cheerful people pedalling around and having gala time with friends and family. I sat with my parents and watched the scenes with lot of thoughts running in my head. I wished my friends were there at that moment with me. Around 7PM, we planned to leave the place and decided to take the bus to the hotel. However, things didn’t turn in our favour as most of the people blindly rejected us as we started speaking in English or responded in hindi which we didn’t understand. I ate a different variety of bun over there, where the baiya kept the sabzi under a closed lid and stuffed the bun with this subzi. While I expected the bun to be fanzy, the taste made me to take back my words. Even the pani puri was too bland with just potatoes offered as stuffings, but my mom wanted to have it and I satisfied her wish. After multiple struggle, we took an auto to Sector 17 where the main bus stand was located. We got to visit the main bazaar area of Chandigarh where the streets were filled with hi-fi branded shops. Finished our dinner at a small restaurant where one dosa costed us 150 Rupees.

We walked to the main bus stand which was in the dark due to a power cut, and thanked God for making us to visit this place for one major reason. We enquired about the Manali bus and they told us the volvo buses ply from Sector 43 only. If only we hadn’t received this detail, chaos would have happened on our Manali trip too. Then we went to the local bus stand to catch a bus to the railway station, however, there was some confusion. Since it was 9PM, I booked a cab and we reached the hotel safe and sound. Took hot shower and bid good night to Chandigarh. Pulled my blankets as the AC made the entire room very cold.

April 10, 2017.

I opened my eyes at 6 AM to my Dad’s loud voice, which he was doing on purpose to wake me. Since our bus to Manali was scheduled at 8AM, we planned to start at 7AM from the hotel. Unfortunately, we couldn’t utilize OYO’s complimentary breakfast, but had aloo paratha in a restaurant – Chef 43 inside Sector 43 ISBT. Our big green Volvo to Manali was standing in front of us, which was going to be our home for the rest of the day. The bus was very comfortable but sun was scorching hot as we drove across the curvy roads. We halted at a dhaba around 10AM for breakfast, where we drank salty orange juice which tasted good surprisingly.

As the bus moved across villages and mountains, the view kept changing and eventually boredom started with time. I started reading my book and slept now and then. It was lunch time and we had paratha with cauliflower subzi and vegetable pulao at a highway restaurant - Sundharnagar dhaba. Yes, we were getting used to the North Indian style of food as idly and dosa was never an option in those menu cards. After 3PM, we started getting closer to the beautiful snow-clad mountains, which increased the curiosity. River Beas was flowing on one side and mountain was on the other. The driver drove very carefully, but he had a complete control over the vehicle despite driving at a faster pace. A surprise awaited us at a place called Aut, when the bus turned inside a long 3KM tunnel carved between the mountains. Well... It was a scary ride as there were very few lights and vehicles were moving continuously.

It was 6PM when we reached Kulu. We had to switch buses to go to Manali as our bus were very tired after the long journey :D The cold waves started and our jackets were back on action. The snow- clad mountains attracted our views, with rafting and paragliding pulling our attention on the other hand. We were stuck in a bad traffic jam for some time, and our bus flew to Manali at a rapid speed once the road was cleared. 

Finally, we stepped onto the Mall road of Manali by 7PM. The place was super crowded with tourists and shops everywhere. Went to the Manali taxi centre and booked our cab for the next day to go to Solang valley, who charged 1000 rupees. We found an auto to reach our homestay – North end Inn in Old Manali, who charged 150 for a 2KM ride. But the ride was equally scary as our hotel was located uphill and the road was very narrow. Vijay uncle was waiting for us and welcomed us with a big smile as we entered the hotel. I was so excited looking at our room as we had the perfect view to snowy mountains. As it was a full moon night, the view couldn’t get any better. The temperature was 2 degree Celsius and we were freezing. Finished our dinner and quickly went to sleep. I fought with Dad to take the place closer to the window, so that I could have the best view of the snowy mountains when I wake up.

To be continued..! Read here. The Story of how I backpacked with my parents..! [Part 2]