The Story of how I backpacked with my parents..! [Part 2]

Read the first half here - The Story of how I backpacked with my parents..! [Part 1]

April 11, 2017

Cold weather. Cosy blankets. Holiday time. No tension about anything. No alarms. I opened my eyes to a view with mountains covered by snow, the sun shining brightly on one side, the sound of multiple waterfalls which was formed because of the melting snow, sound of throat-infected crows (credits to my mom for identifying it! :D ) and an apple orchard in front of our room. What more can I ask from this amazing paradise on earth? Good Morning Manali!

I was lying in my bed and dreamt if I could stay in this place forever, but my dad pulled my blankets and dragged me out of the bed. Being the early-to-rise family, my parents wanted a cup of coffee to enjoy the beautiful climate, but the entire town was asleep. Hill stations indeed have a very late-to-rise policy. We used this time to click pictures :D After multiple walks to the kitchen, I saw Vijay uncle in the corridor and had a brief conversation with him. I was surprised to find that he also belonged to my dad’s old people group (lol he was in his 50’s)! He explained how his family would move to Manali during the holiday seasons, yes, the North End Inn was their holiday home. How lucky they are! He also told how the entire place was filled with snow just weeks before we came and gave suggestions for places to visit.

Our plan for this day was to visit Snow point and we had booked the cab previous day only. Bathing became a big problem because the hot water started freezing by the time it reached our tap. Result? We skipped our showers and got ready for the snow day. The driver called by 9.30AM sharp, but we were still in the middle of our makeover sessions. Ordered poori, aloo paratha and pancakes for breakfast in the hotel only, and it felt so great in the cold weather. Mr.Dhilip, the cab driver was waiting for us outside the hotel and we flew directly to Solang valley. On our way to Solang, we tried to spot our homestay, but it was scary to look from the other end because the house looked like it was hanging at the cliff of the mountain. We saw shops all the way who rented winter clothes and skiing costumes, but it is totally useless on a sunny day. This might have come handy if we had gone to Rohtang pass, which was closed due to bad weather and high snow. We saw tourists renting costumes at every junction and wasting their money on dirty used clothes. Sometimes, it is better to think practically, rather than doing touristy things and I felt proud of myself in not becoming the prey.

It was a 14KM ride to Solang from Manali. Solang is a quiet town with few similar structured and coloured houses at the base of snowy mountains surrounded by grasslands. At the end of the town was a small junction where snow existed at the base of the mountain, and this junction was popularly known as ‘Snow Point’, identified mainly for the tourists who had never experienced snow in their lifetime. However, the so-called ‘snow-point’ would keep changing every year based on the density of snow! You could either take a horse ride to the point or trek/walk to the destination in style like us! Being a tourist place, we were surrounded by multiple vendors who charged 550 per head to torture the horses and bear our weight on them and most of them preferred this way rather than putting some effort on their God-gifted legs. If my 58 and 48-year-old parents could walk to the snow point, you could also do it! Please do not become a slave to the overcharging vendors and trouble the innocent animals.

We hired two gum boots for my parents and gloves for three of us at 100Rs. (good bargain, right? Tell YES to make me happy :D ) The gum boots were mandatory to save yourself from slipping in the snow and gloves to save your hands from getting frozen. Then we started our walk towards the much-awaited snow point. We were surprised to see old grannies walking, while the young honeymoon couples moving comfortably on top of horses. I had to motivate my mom throughout the path because she is typical ‘mom’ :D , but my dad surprised me by leading the group and walked without any hesitation. After 2 hours or so (didn’t keep track of time because I enjoyed every moment), we reached the crowded snow point with tourists dressed in their skiing suits, enjoying their time with friends and family. You could sense positive vibes around this place because everyone became a kid on seeing snow, including my mom and dad.

People were riding snow scooters on one end, skiing and sliding on the other. We also joined this group and walked slowly hand-in-hand on the slippery white ice. Neither shoes nor boots were helping us because it was difficult to balance our weight and I had my first fall. Even though it hurt my bum initially, but the fear of falling flew away and I walked around the place with confidence. Another life lesson learnt, which I am not going to explain here because this isn’t a philosophical article ! ;) Dad and mom also were not exempted from the fall at different occasions, and fortunately they haven’t broken their bones. Dad was little scared and he stayed at the base looking around the happy people, but mom gave the best company when I missed my friends. While I climbed on the snow and made it to the top only to see a group of friends enjoying their time, my super mom surprised me by crossing the slippery surface despite people’s warning. Mom threw snow and brought me back from my depressed world. We built our own scary snowman, clicked a lot of crazy pictures and had our own childhood times. We felt incomplete without my sister at that time, and missed her badly. I wish if only she was never married, yet life happened. While ascending wasn’t difficult, descending in the snow gave lot of challenges and I was responsible to safeguard my mom too. Time flew away and it was 2PM, yet we didn’t feel the hunger as we were lost in personal happiness.

Bade goodbye to the snow point and started our return walk towards Solang. I fetched fresh water from the stream which was so cold and damn sweet. The return walk wasn’t tiring because we were descending the mountain and the weather was also pleasant. After visiting snow point, we decided to skip Kothi because it was another small village on route to Rohtang Pass. The cab driver waited for us at the base and we extended our plan to visit Vashisht – the temple with hot water spring. On our way, we halted at Nehru kund, a place where Nehru used to drink water every time he was around the town and the water was supposed to have lot of healing effects. We also saw a theme park ‘HimValley’ and hurried to Vashisht as hunger started. Finished our lunch at Meena café opposite to Vashisht temple where we ate roti, paneer butter masala and coconut rice. Vashisht looked like the hippie side of Hampi with lot of spiritual foreigners.

There were two temples opposite to each other, where one of them is famous for having natural spring – the source of super-hot water even in the cold weather. One could also take a bath in this natural water if interested, or only wet the hands and legs like us. There were separate sections for male and female and hence safety wasn’t a concern here. Around 5PM, we got dropped in the hotel and my parents went to took a nap while I dreamt about my friends and wished for some magic to happen and bring them to me. Then I refreshed myself in hot water (yes, I took a shower finally! :D ) and dad & myself planned to have a walk around old Manali. 

Since mom was tired, we let her to sleep and the dad-daughter time was the best among the entire trip. The sun was about to set and it started getting cold and dark at 6PM. We found a bakery called ‘English Bakery’ and halted for some interesting conversations on life over a cup of tea and apple pie. Dad loved the little hub and I enjoyed the personal space and the memories it gave me to take for a lifetime. Not to forget mom, we parcelled carrot pie for her and walked our way back to the hotel after stopping at Manu temple.

We ordered the famous fresh water Trout fish curry and white rice for dinner, which was supposed to taste the best and you don’t get it in most of the places. But the curry wasn’t prepared in the best way and my expectations were broken into pieces. Yet, the happiness gained over the day helped us with a good sleep.

April 12, 2017.

Be a Roman in Rome! We made it a point to get out of our bed late after the previous day’s experience. Yet, dad and mom woke up and got ready, but I didn’t have the mood to get out of my blanket only. While our breakfast was getting ready, we explored our homestay and clicked lot of pictures. Then we headed out on our Manali exploration by foot J Our first halt was in Manu temple since mommy did not see it. The town got its name after this person Manu. We also met two Tamil families who also happened to come from my hometown Neyveli. World is indeed small!

Then we walked to the famous Hidimba temple – the temple shown in all the famous movies like Roja and Yeh jeewani hai deewani. We had a shortcut to visit Hidimba from Old Manali which was mostly used by the local people and found our way to the temple located inside lush green forest ‘Van Vihar’. Yeah! We weren’t tourists anymore in this town :D People who are familiar about Mahabharatha, the name Hidimba would have rang a bell and for the rest, Hidimba Devi was a strong tribal lady from the areas of Manali (kaatu vaasi - demon), who attracted and got married to Bhima, one of the five Pandavas. They had a son Gatothkach who played a major role in the Mahabharath battle and contributed to the Pandava’s success. Dhungri village in Old Manali holds the pride for being the abode of this mighty warrior Gatothkach.

Peace prevailed around this Hidimba temple mainly because of the ambience. It was located amidst dense forest and the structure of the temple only will make you admire it more. This place had always been in my bucket list to visit with my best friends (my gang of four!), but I never expected that I would be here with my parents. With lot of prayers and hopes, I walked out of the temple. Our next plan was to go to the Mall road and we had another shortcut across the vast Van Vihar. Had lunch at a restaurant called Pangi behind the mall road, who served South Indian thali and Punjabi thali. Then it was shopping time where my mom purchased shawls for everyone but I didn’t find anything interesting to get for my friends. Then we spent some time in Van Vihar talking non-sense and killed our time, which ended up being some amazing memories.

We drank badam milk and took an auto to our hotel at 6 PM as our bus to Amritsar was scheduled at 8 PM and we can’t afford to miss it. Packed dinner from a hotel which became the source for many problems on our return travel. HRTC buses were usually on time and I bade goodbye to the beautiful hillock, hoping to come back soon. I slept quickly as we were tired after the long day and woke up at 10.30 PM when the bus stopped for dinner. I didn’t feel hungry but my dad forced me to eat the parcelled veg pulao and roti.

Our initial plan was to stop at Mcleodganj, which was located on the way to Amritsar and spend a day there, but I cancelled in the last minute considering the tight schedule. The journey wasn’t as pleasing as expected, because the food and the curvy roads started to play with my Dad’s stomach and he kept vomiting multiple times throughout the travel. I became so scared on seeing his condition and luckily, he slept after some time. In the event of taking care of my Dad, I got a chance to view the vast hilly areas and the dangerous hairpin bends. Kudos to the amazing drivers who ply at higher speed and have so much control on the steering. I made it a point to take this road AGAIN during the day time on a road trip with my fantastic four. We could only hope that it will happen and the rest is left to God.

April 13, 2017

The hills disappeared and the temperature increased massively as I woke up in the morning to the vast paddy fields of Punjab. Despite travelling in an AC bus, I could feel the warmth and got super scared about the weather. Reached Amritsar at 10AM and the bus stand was super crowded. Language started to become a problem, because nobody speaks any language apart from Hindi/Punjabi/language unknown to me. We took a cycle rickshaw (man-driven) to our hotel but the check-in time was only at 12. Since time wasn’t a problem to us after dropping Mcleodganj plan, we relaxed and chilled in Amritsar’s hot weather. Luckily, the hotel guys gave a room at 10AM itself. After refreshing, we walked to the bus stand and had lunch at a small dhaba. Roti, dhal and curd rice was our only feasible options to test our stomach, because we didn’t want to risk ourselves towards the end of the trip.

Again, due to abundant availability of time, we decided to take a bus to Wagah border but the people warned us to not to do it as it will take a lot of time. We explored the bus stand from one end to another in search of cab, and unfortunately, the taxi stand was right outside the restaurant where we had lunch. They charged 800 initially, but on requesting to switch the AC on, the rate increased to 1100 and we had to pay the toll money as well. Another travel lesson learnt here to confirm on all these before getting inside the cab. It was a dry ride to the historical border, yet the place was worth it!

Wagah border, the boundary between two countries India and Pakistan, countries who will never get along well in the history of mankind and we were sitting right over there to witness another remarkable evening where the flags will be brought down after a small ceremony. Instructions before you start your journey to Wagah - First, carry an umbrella and leave all your belongings in your hotel/car because you cannot carry big bags. Second, reach very early. The ceremony starts around 4.30, but it is best to reach around 3PM to get comfortable seats, else you might miss the entire function. In the entire trip, I regretted for not knowing Hindi here, because the commentator kept talking a lot and the crowd cheered but I was unable to interpret them.

The ceremony started with a performance by the Indian soldiers who showcased their brave talents, mainly those which come with a tagline ‘DO NOT TRY AT HOME!’. They lit fire on themselves, broke bricks, did multiple things and the highlight was when a jeep ran over a soldier, yet nothing happened to him. Then songs from Chak De were played and all the women from the group were invited to dance in the middle. The actual ceremony began when a group of soldiers entered. The flags were brought down and the day came to an end. Patriotic vibes were spread across the entire group and I could still remember the loud chant ‘Inquillab zindabaadh! Vandhe Madharam!’

The ceremony got over by 6.30 PM and we got dropped at the Golden temple to kill our evening hours. But this was the best decision because we were surprised by fireworks at 8PM. The Sikhs were celebrating their Punjab new year together in the temple with fireworks lighted from all the four corners of the temple and diyas lighted around the pond. The golden temple in the middle of the water was indeed shining with the effects of the lights and spread positive effects across the city. Since the temple was crowded, we finished our dinner at Bharwan da dhaba and headed to our hotel in auto who charged 10 per head.

April 14, 2017.

It was a bright sunny morning. Thanks to the air-conditioned room, else our life would have been miserable. We woke up late and had complimentary breakfast in the hotel. Refreshed and packed our luggage to head to another hotel near the bus stand. The switch between hotels arose because of the last-minute change in plan to cancel Mcleodganj. Had lunch at the popular Kesar dhaba where we ate roti and subzi which was floating in a bowl of desi ghee. At the first sight, being a south Indian, it didn’t pull our attention, but the taste was much better than any roti curry we had outside. The desserts were outstanding and it wouldn’t be nice to finish a meal in Punjab without a cup of cold thick yummy lassi. After lunch, we walked across the streets to reach the Golden temple. The Sikhs indeed worshipped a book and this book was safeguarded inside a beautiful golden temple.

Wheat halwa was offered as we came out and we also got an opportunity to offer the same back to the temple. So, the concept of donation works here like, if you purchase the prasadh for 100Rs., you could contribute half of it to the temple and take the remaining half home. Basically, this implies the unity and equality in the society. However, I regretted forever for missing the Langar which is famous for the amazing food. I mistook the wheat halwa for free food, but late realization and researching told that there is a specific hall inside the gurudhwara where food is prepared by the volunteers and served around the clock. Let’s hope that I go back at least for the free food again! ;)

Jallianwala Bagh is right outside the temple and this place had lots and lots of terrible stories which made me to stand shocked. I went around and read every single story in the garden, which gave goose bumps. The bullet marks on the wall and the Martyr’s well where thousands of people jumped to escape from the shooting – our senior citizens had suffered a lot to gain the freedom which we have right now. Then we had early dinner at Brother’s dhaba and headed to our hotel and slept at 8PM.

April 15, 2017.

Since we had to catch an early train to Delhi, we woke up and refreshed quickly. Wanted to purchase bread for breakfast but none of the shops were opened. Hoping that we could buy something from the pantry inside the train, we started our return journey. The train slowly started getting crowded and the general passengers also occupied the reservation compartment. With the weather getting hotter as time flew and lack of food made us to go mad. Although we managed to munch on some pop corns and chat items, we missed proper food. Next travel lesson learnt! Always book AC coaches while travelling in trains in North India, especially during day travels and do not depend on rail food items. Even water wasn’t sold anywhere and somehow, we survived the entire journey and reached Delhi by 3.30 PM.

We landed in Delhi and drank as much water as possible. Then we headed to a small restaurant near McDonals inside the station where veg thali was available. Filled our tummy and headed to venture on our next mission to find the right metro and reach the airport. Delhi is well connected by metro stations, but one should be aware of the stations to utilize it properly. We took a metro from Old Delhi to New Delhi railway station and then switched to the Airport Express metro. Again, it was a different experience and a big relief came when we reached the airport. I managed to organize a trip successfully! Yayy! Moment to be proud about, right?

We checked our luggages into Vistara flight and explored the Delhi airport. Bade farewell to the capital of the country and flew back to the city of IT hub – Bengaluru. One amazing unexpected journey with my parents came to an end. Proud father! Proud daughter!! Love you Dad and Mom. You are the best. Always.

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]

Go Go Goa!

Ask a Bangalorean for a must-go place with friends – the immediate answer would be Goa! Actually it isn’t just Bangalorean, any Indian who loves to party and have fun would shout the same answer. We are a small gang of 4 people who meet very rarely in person, but spend most of our time hanging out together in Skype calls and the main reason for this is due to our long-distance friend Karttik, who is in Germany. The plan to Goa had been in our list for a long time, and the urge to implement it happened when Vj’s parents were starting to look for a prospective groom for her. Hence, the plan was ON! Meanwhile, my friends Shalini and Neha were also interested and the size of the gang increased to 6.

First step was to plan a suitable date for all of us, since we were in different regions of the world and finalized the date during the week of Christmas. Booked our train tickets way ahead in October, and yet we had WL tickets for our return journey. But we were confident that it would be confirmed eventually as we had a long buffer time in the middle. Next would be to book the accommodation. There are two parts of Goa – North and South. South Goa is a peaceful place and not frequented by visitors, but if you want to have some real fun, you should pick a spot in North. As you might have already guessed, the rates are much cheaper in South than North due to the tourist demand.  Since it was around Christmas time, we were running out of hotels and trusted Goibibo for a decent place. Finally we ended up booking in Aishwarya Guest Inn in Calangute Beach. Two major things – travel and stay done and yes, the plan was happening!! Unfortunately, we had to wait for another two months for the reality.

Time flew so quickly and it was December already. As always, there were last minute dropouts – Shalini and Neha, who ditched us. Yet, the plan was still happening. In the meantime, Vj was also engaged to Vardhu and we wanted her fiancé also to join us, but he couldn’t join due to some important interviews. Still he was kind enough to lend his water-proof cameras to capture the important moments. 

The most awaited day Dec 18th, Friday was here. After an extensive search around Bangalore for sky lanterns which we planned as a secret surprise for Vj, a shop in VV Puram offered us what we wanted. Hurried back to home, picked our luggage and headed to KR Puram where we boarded our train. The enthusiasm level didn’t go down even a bit, as conversations never stopped. Meanwhile, Vj also joined us in Yeshvantpur. Her dad came to drop her and gave us lot of suggestions for the trip. Bidding goodbye to Bengaluru, our minds travelled to the fantasy world. Karttik and myself planned a surprise cake as well for our bday babes – Vj and Sriram. Thanks again Amma’s Pastries for the amazing cake. 

After finishing our dinner, we shifted to the top berth and played cards. Vj taught us a new game as well, which became crazy in the very first round due to Sriram’s mad game tactics. Karttik – As usual, you proved to be the perfect partner! ;) Yes, we cheated a lot against the other innocent group – Sriram and Vj. It was getting late and we went to sleep.

Dec 19th, Saturday

I woke up and found Karttik still awake. Poor thing did not sleep the whole night for our safety as the teenagers in our coach were having some typical Goa fun in the train. I had prepared bread and jam the day before and we had it for breakfast. We ordered the train food as well, which was pathetic. Please, never do it! Get your packed food from home or bread would do the magic. Next, we were geared up for the most awaited Dudhsagar route. That’s the main reason for most of the tourists to choose train journey over flight or bus. We crossed tunnels after tunnels to reach the majestic falls. The train moved slowly across the bridge, but the view wasn’t something as we expected. 

Maybe we didn’t go at the right time, the water level was too less. But the teenagers added fun to the train journey as they made all the weird noises while crossing the tunnels. That took us to our college days. The sun was shining brightly and we were very scared to step out of the train. Finally, we reached Vasco da Gama and placed our legs in the party town. 

Took a cab to our hotel stay in Calangute beach, which costed around 1000Rs. The cabs in Goa have fixed rates where they would show you a sheet with the cost. Also do not look out for Ola or Zoom Car in Goa. Initially we opted for non-AC to cut-down our expense, but we ended up shifting to AC as the heat waves were unimaginable. In an hour, we reached our hotel and rested for a while. We booked two rooms, but the rooms were too spacious which could accommodate lot many people easily. Refreshed quickly and stepped out as our stomachs were shouting for food. Luckily, we found a restaurant nearby which was totally decorated in red ahead of Christmas. We ordered egg fried rice and chicken starter which was really yum as we were starving. The veg guys also tried a new option – Fiery Babycorn where the food was fried and dipped in groundnut paste.

There were lot of super markets as well around the place. Went back to our rooms and rested for a while. The sun started to set and we started our exploratory walk. We did not know where we were going, but it was so much fun to walk with this bunch of people. On the way, we purchased a cute hat as well. Ended up in Calangute beach and were hunting for a place to have dinner. But Karttik and I were actually searching for an open space to leave the lanterns in the beach without affecting the shore-side restaurant huts. On this process, we walked along the beach and reached Baga beach. Baga was completely crowded as opposed to Calangute. We had dinner at a small place, and yeah! We had plain rice and fish gravy which was really yum. 

  

Back to the beach and we got a sight of few people leaving lanterns. We were excited and started experimenting our lanterns. Brave Karttik took the initiative to follow the procedure, but I directed him in the wrong way and the first one was burnt to death. Yet, we dedicated the second one to Vj and it was the best among the lot which was in the sky for a long time. Meanwhile people started gathering around us and one photographer asked our permission if he could capture the lanterns as well. Yes, we were becoming famous around the place. We left the other 3 also into the sky dedicating it to each one of us, but it didn’t withstand as much as Vj’s. After all the fun, we came back walking in the empty paths and wished good night to Goa.

Dec 20th, Sunday

It was a bright Sunday morning and who would want to wake up to it instead of lying in the bed for an extra 30 minutes, but we were on a holiday and cannot afford to waste our time. BOOM! I got up from the bed and woke my partner Vj, which became an unsuccessful mission as usual. Called Sriram’s number and woke him up as I knew that it is even more difficult to wake up Karttik – the night watchman. After our continuous torture, Vj and Karttik too stepped out to see the sunrise and we got ready for the day’s mission. Hired two bikes and headed straight to Anjuna beach after our breakfast in Sagar. While Vj and Sriram were in one bike, me and Karttik were in another. Thank you Karrtik for taking the risk and letting me ride the bike, but the police was suspicious if I am eligible to ride. And the worst part was that Vj was having our mobile and ID card and they went way ahead of us. We were stuck in the middle and just waited until these guys noticed that we were missing. Finally they returned and the police asked me to wear my helmet while riding. Everything was set and I accelerated my bike to the beautiful silent Anjuna beach which had visible rocks and small fishes and crabs. 

After wandering around for some time in the beach, we planned to head to the next beach. Meanwhile we wanted to finish our lunch as well and ended up in a small place in Anjuna beach. Filled our stomach and headed straight to Baga beach. On our way to the Baga, we got a glimpse of paragliding in Anjuna but it didn’t fascinate us though!

After quite a few struggles to find our route to Baga beach, we ended up in the most crowded beach of Goa. It was literally filled with lot of people and surrounded with shacks and shops everywhere. Of course, it had a huge range of water activities to try too. Our main goal was to do parasailing, but we also opted for Banana ride. Initially, we thought that we had to bargain for the rides, but there was a fixed rate counter (1200 for parasailing with dip and 800 without dip, around 1000 for 5 people in banana ride) Main rule to remember before coming for the ride is to leave all the luggage and the personal belongings at the hotel or in the bike as they would charge you extra bucks for the cloak room. As all the parasailing boats were busy, we headed to enjoy our banana ride, but it wasn’t as fun when compared to Gokarna. It wasn’t worth the money and I would never do it again in Goa. Since the first mission was a failure, we hoped that the parasailing wouldn’t do the same to us. Boarded into our speed boat and took our positions. They might sue you extra bucks to have waterproof covers for your camera, but don’t fall for it! We took the risk and headed to our boat which had our balloon. Despite the fun, there was fear at heart since it was my first attempt. I was asked to sit on the small rope and they tightened the belts and off I went into the waters dashing the Arabian Sea. ZOOM! I was lifted into the air and all I could witness was only silence and the sunset in front of me. The beauty that I saw at that moment cannot be expressed in words.

I was flying like a bird all alone, away from the human’s land and the thoughts didn’t exist long enough that the boatman pulled me down and I could see my friends shouting and taking my picture. Even though the overall ride time was only around 5 minutes, the happiness was timeless and priceless. 

Then we came back to the beach and played for enough amount of time in the beach and headed back to our hotel. Refreshed and had dinner at a nearby restaurant and bid goodbye to the awesome day as we were tired after the rides.

Dec 21st, Monday

As usual, I was the first one to wake up and disturbed the rest of the group. We managed to hire a car from the same hotel and used it for the entire day. Before taking the car, ensure that the diesel is filled to full and note down the readings. Bargain the rates and make a deal clearly at the beginning as they might cheat you easily. Meanwhile, we had our breakfast at Shri Sagar – Yummy Dosas and Puri and filled our stomach. Our day started in Dzire and we thought we could use this day to visit places that were far away. Fuelled the car and sped to Old Goa, which was famous for churches. Our first halt was at Basilica of Bom Jesus, a UNESCO world heritage site that had the body of Francis Xavier. It was very silent and peaceful as we entered the church, apart from the tourist crowd and the church was well decorated for Christmas. 

As we moved around, we glanced at the history of the church and there is a museum inside the church as well if you want to get the complete picture. Took a lot of photographs and we were deciding for the next destination. It was already around 3 PM and hunger panic started. Struggled a lot to find a good restaurant on our way to Dona Paula beach, and finally ended up in the usual Dominos. Yet, the pizzas also tasted good since our taste buds were dead and thanks to Vj and Karttik for that additional choco lava cake which made my day! After a good lunch, we headed to the famous beach where many shootings have taken place. 

It was truly an amazing spot and the sunset view was out of the box! Undecided about the next destination, we were wandering around the roads of Goa shouting to loud music in the car and dancing crazily. We did not bother about the past or the future, we were living in the present. Then someone got a weird thought to accelerate the car to Arambol beach, which is at the northern tip of Goa at 7PM. Being the sceptical me, my mind started to think of all the probabilities and possibilities and the risks associated with my crazy friend’s plans, yet my voice had no sound. We were driving across villages and invisible roads with Sriram’s dying phone’s GPS. 

The phone was about to die and we had a wedding girl in our car! Thank God, people realized it finally and my voice was heard. I know it would have been fun and mad to ride with these people, but I wasn’t ready to take the risk (Well, that is me and my friends know it very well :D) Took a U-turn and traversed back the same path and reached our hotel little early. Googled a lot to find a really nice place to have food and nailed the list to ‘Zuperb’. It had a simple open ambience with small number of tables. While we were playing the battery-operated candle, the hosts walked to us and started a nice conversation. Oh ya.. You could ask for anything and they will get it ready for you. If you were looking for what to order, the owner would get your interests and serve you the food in your mind. That place became a memorable one for all four of us, because of the conversations and the laughter that we had! Clock was ticking and the roads were empty, yet we were having the best times, because we knew that this time wouldn’t come again as Vj would be married the next time when all of us meet. I can’t describe that moment, it was a mix of all the emotions – fun, laughter, tears, happiness, satisfaction, crazy, sad and name everything. We were discussing about all our moments together and how we wished that this trip could persist forever. Bidding goodbye to the superb Zuperb and the amazing hosts, we drove our car back to the hotel and bid good night to Goa.

Dec 22nd, Tuesday

Wishing for another extra day in Goa, I woke up and packed my luggages. Booked a cab and headed to the airport as Vj had to catch a flight to Mumbai. The other 3 musketeers wandered around Vasco da Gama and did some shopping and boarded our train at 3 PM. Since our minds were full of memories, we did not talk much but went to sleep thinking about all the good times which soon became good old times. And thus, a wonderful trip with my mad people ended crazily.