About the on going trip..

Peeps, remember the #BlindRide posts? If not, do read them here.
To read the first post, click here.
For second post, click here.

The last week of every year is full of joy for everyone. Similar case is with us. We, same people from #BlindRide, reached Manali after the stroke of midnight now. It’s around -3 degrees Celsius and blankets are all around me.

Today’s trip from Shimla to Manali was awesome yet interesting and had every bit of spice added to it. To just update you, we came to Delhi and stayed there in a hotel at night & then left for Shimla in the morning.

The night at Shimla was great because we roamed the streets for local food and there were couples everywhere as it’s a paradise for honeymooners 😀

I always get distracted. Let’s not talk about that. Yes, the journey from Shimla to Manali. We went to kurfi(a place 20 km from Shimla). The scenery there was heaven and the weather was chill and people were all having fun & the crowd was there too.

Our hotel in Delhi

There’s a rule, “If you come to Shimla, you gotta visit Kufri.” And the rule is written by me. You guys are the witness to it 😛

Then we resumed our journey to Manali with some obstructions and difficulties because our driver was also visiting Shimla/Manali for the first time. So, I would say, we all were on the way to serious fun. Let’s make it all fun and no seriousness 😉

On the way we came across some kids playing cricket. One thing to note is I mentioned “kids” because we didn’t wanted to play the game and wanted to just enjoy the game and be audience to that game.

We all climbed a tree and also captured some moments 😉

It was past lunch time but we couldn’t find a good place due to the less frequent hotels and only vegetarian hotels. Finally we found a good hotel and had bellyful lunch.

And sorry to take so much time of yours but the main fun began now. We decided not to make any stop and go straight 250+ km to reach the destination.

Had some topsy turvy times but all was smooth. We were almost 100 km down the road and the road got all curvy and jerky. It was okay in the beginning. Okay, we added fuel of Rs. 500 in the morning after leaving Shimla.

Unfortunately, we were low on fuel and the car was moving in reserve and we really wanted to reach a petrol pump. We couldn’t find it for the next 1 hour. The journey for that 1 hour was all uphill and topsy turvy(as mentioned above) 😉

The driver was in a hurry to reach any petrol pump & with the road not being that co-operative, he had to drive the car in the first or second gear, which was resulting in drastic decrease in the reserved fuel.

The road was also so narrow with more turns than the number of stars in our galaxy. We managed to find a petrol pump & all were relieved because if we would not had reached there then troubles would had been our friend for a long time.

We survived that patch of trip. Then as per Google maps we continued and just when we saw a more narrow bridge ahead of us than the road, shit became real.

How did Google assume that we can drive through on the bridge? It was written SUITABLE FOR LIGHT VEHICLES and we 6 people will be considered light with the car’s weight, we decided to move ahead.

Trust me, the width of the bridge was the width of the car and 4 fingers, 2 on each side. We had to pull in the side mirrors of the car. Slowly and steadily, the car moved ahead. All our hearts were literally on our mouths. No one was showing the fear.

There was a river under the bridge. We weren’t much scared of the water but the cold state of the water. The water is so cold here. Better to keep as many feet from water. The bridge was seeming to narrow down further as we moved ahead.

And we saw that the other side of the bridge was not open, when we were halfway on the bridge. Thankfully no other car was behind or in front of us. We managed to get off from the bridge and felt a sigh of relief. But..

There’s always a but. The road ahead was like 50 degrees uphill and it ain’t possible for a car with 6 people to go at one chance. 3 of us got down and tried to push the car ahead and after some consecutive failures were able to help the car go ahead and then the car moved ahead for some metres as they waited for us.

On reaching to the car we 3 realized that the car didn’t actually wait for us. It couldn’t again move uphill and hence the other 2 friends also got down and helped the driver to take the car up.

We 3 also pitched in and together we were able to move the car with 50 degrees uphill. This calls for some serious fun because we all were panting after this and sat at a roadside to relax.

Talking to the driver, he said, “Bhai ji, meri b lag gayi thi ki gadi upar jayegi ya nahi..”
*Brother I was also scared with the uphill and was not sure whether this would work or not*
And I was like, “Chalo agaye upar, ab bas aram karlo.. Ab thoda aur rasta baki hai” 😀
*Let’s not wait much here because we have still some way to cover”

The driver didn’t say much about his hunger & dinner and was dedicated on reaching Manali asap. He did that successfully. It was after the stroke of midnight that we checked in and went to have dinner outside. We had delicious food and after fun times and talking, inside blankets.

All my friends are asleep as they plan to wake @ 6 am to watch the sunrise. It’s 4:15 am and I am awake. God help me!

I assure you that I can’t write everything about the trip but I will try my best to share things with you.

Pictures will keep on coming.

Stay blessed and enjoy holidays.

The view from the hotel is fantastic. Will share the sunrise pics, if I wake up.

Goodnight.

I am sleepy. Let me add some previous images 🙂

P.S. : Today’s pick is Count on me of Bruno Mars. Our driver is a big fan of Bruno and it’s fun talking to him & knowing things about his life and people of North. Most of these pics are captured by a great friend of mine, so all the due credits to him, I don’t have any photographic skills 😀

The Blind Ride

Last night my friends(I am using friends & not colleagues) planned to go for an unplanned trip. Yesterday evening we were just talking outside office with a cup of tea in our hands & thought that some trip especially a night trip will be good to re-invent the mojo of friendship. Going to any place in the morning is not possible with Mr. Sun spitting fiery rays 😀 and the traffic also 😉

So, it was decided that yesterday night itself, we will leave to a near by Marine Drive and return back today morning and the total journey would be near about 180 km.

We were total 8 friends in 4 bikes, ready to embark a journey which we didn’t even comprehend in our minds that it was gonna be one of the most memorable & perfect trip for us.

Selfie before the beginning of the trip

It started normally with dinner at a hotel. At beginning, all bikes were scattered some going far ahead & some going at their economy speed. Then we stopped at a gas station and got the tank full.

From there onwards the magical night started. The road ahead was even with less or no traffic. It was not at all about destination for us, but the trip. We just wanted to have a great quality time and we did get that for sure.

We reached the Beach & oh boy WHAT A VIEW IT WAS!! Best view !! The waves striking the shore and the splashing sound. It was as if Angels are whispering their plans of our future to us. It was Heaven on Earth 🙂 Never have I felt such profound peace…

And I saw someone run past me shouting at the top of his voice with his shirt in his hand waving in the air 😀 That was a great scene indeed 😉 He was my friend & my partner for the ride of the trip. He was so excited that he literally ran towards the water and he was all pumped up. All others were also in high energy and we all started the sprint to reach the water. There was no one in the beach. Basically speaking we were the OWNERS of the beach 😛

Reached the waters, panting for air and all on our knees & laughing seeing the tired faces of one another. Then I shouldn’t mention this here, but we ran the whole length of the beach in the minimum clothes on us. I wont exxagerate.
Till this moment we thought that we have had all the fun of the night. But, nah-huh.

We went more ahead & this time without lighting the headlights of our bikes. All bikes going parallely in the middle of the night, dead silence, nothing visible also because it was all cloudy. Nothing visible. Just in every 3-5 seconds, one of the riders was switching on the headlight for a fraction of second to make sure, nothing dreadful was ahead.

The main fun was what we always saw when one of the rider switched the headlights for that fraction of seconds. We saw disco lights glare up for that duration when headlight was on it. It were the direction markers and road dividers with neon coatings giving us the feel of a disco. Wow!! The scene was excellent. It felt we are in a game, riding & could light up the environment at will. We were riding blind bitches is what we kept on shouting at the top of our voices.

The ride was blind all thanks to the clouds that kept on hiding the Moon behind it & its light from the Earth. It rained then. We got wet & kept on riding at a controlled speed. But had to eventually stop. There we talked & gossiped & listened to music. Rain kept on pouring hard & we were having the best moments of our life.

Moon almost behind the cloud

We went ahead more 30 km to another beach & had tea there. Went to a temple & then returned back. It was all morning,  Mr. Sun warming for spitting 😀 and the Moon was still there in the sky.

Moon still in the sky in the morning

Slept for a little time. Back to office because its Friday 😦

You must be thinking We could had gone on friday night only but some of my friends had other plans.
It was a great night. All close to the heart & cherished.
The peace, the silence, the calmness, the live-in-the-moment, the breeze, the life, the love all was there in the heart of ours.

Hope, we all get that kind of feeling once in a while.
And, if possible don’t try the Blind Ride as its dangerous also if some vehicle/animal comes all of a sudden. We ourselves faced it, but in our case it was next to nothing.

Night is nigh, wish sleep was here 😀

Cheers to Weekend & Cheers to Life, Dear Friends !!