Yet another day of the trip..

Finally I am back again. Remember where we left off? Let’s rewind 😉

If you haven’t read the previous post, you can find them About the on going trip 🙂

This post was written when I was on trip to Manali and Amritsar 🙂 [During New year’s trip and don’t judge me on my level of procrastination] 😀

This post is about the good, the bad & the ugly memories of Solang valley, where we went next.

The morning started as usual with good breakfast. We had decided to go to Rohtang pass.

Solang valley was on the way to it & we decided to pay a visit there first. The place looked good when we saw ice & we all were eager to have our first encounter with ice, which was the next true reason for going on this trip, and SNOW being the first(No! Not Jon snow, silly :D). A bad news was that on talking to local people, we learned that it didn’t snow since some days 😦 But there was ice everywhere and we all played with it.

 

Panorama of the way to Solang valley

 

By we, I mean, my friends & I. There’s this photographer guy, Pandey Ji(our cameraman for most of the videos), Mr. Silent(Suku, his nickname) and an unknown guy. This post is the dedication to the braveness of this unknown guy. And then there’s me and I don’t have to mention how awesome I am 😛

 

#thugLife

 

Solang valley

We got TREKKING shoes on rent, similar to what we wore during our school time NCC days. We hoped that it will help us not skid on the ice & also our shoes will not be muddy from the melting ice. Thorough thinking is an art and we’re the MASTERS because in the end we’re engineers 😀

We were talking among ourselves and also clicking some pics. We also interacted with people who were walking opposite to our direction. They said there is a Shiva temple at the peak of the hill.

We decided to go up to the peak. We were also told that we will cross zero point. It’s a place where there is no sun rays and the temperature is negative for 8 months a year. It was indeed a great scenery.

After walking for 3-4 km, we reached the peak, opened our ARMY shoes because we were to enter into the Shiva temple. The floor of the temple was chill cold. We worshipped the idols and on asking came to know that Shiva linga is more 300 metres ahead and this distance is the even colder and located on a steep side.

The unknown guy was injured from a fall on the ice. Minor injuries, no need to worry much. Some of us weren’t that eager for that 300m, which was full of thick, slippery ice. We could see others going ahead & trying to keep their hold on ice & walk at snail’s pace.

Pandey Ji & I started for that 300m & after walking just a few metres, we saw that the remaining gang was behind us & that was good to see & and made all of us more determined for that 300m. “We may fail but failing together has its charm”. We survived that 300m walk and I don’t want to re-live that dangerous & slippery walk. I would rather do The famous moon walk at home instead of this slippery ice walk 😛 While returning from that top after worshipping the Shiv ling, we made the below video.

My sincere request to ignore the swearing & in the coming videos I have controlled my swearings but to tell the truth, I love swearing 😀

As we said in the video, we would return in the car or the horses, that was not the case. We returned by walking. Long walk. Great walk! Nothing like Walk of shame(GOT fans can relate and I am so much usiong GOT reference) 😛

It was almost evening when we reached near the parking lot. We returned the worn out shoes and it was a great day indeed. We returned to our hotel and after dinner, we all slept like babies.

Next day was all upon us far early than ever. Pandey Ji is the early riser. He has not allowed me to sleep peacefully. I am going to make him look so bad & ugly here *evil laugh* 😀

So, did you recognise this Unknown guy? He’s awesome & helpful & hence his name, The Jugaad guy.

That stick is what made the life of The Unknown guy easier and hence, it has importance too.

No thotorugh thinking helps, even when you’re engineer because Life is bigger than everything 😀

“Life is a classroom outside of classroom.”

Rest story coming soon. Stay tuned.

Pardon my procrastination 😀

Fog everywhere

The most difficult thing
To do is hard work
Because it is optional
And totally under our control
Luck changes sides
Just as a chameleon
Changes color
But the amount of
Hard work depends
On the individual
We gotta give something
To have everything
We gotta give everything
To have something
We are like the travelers
Inside a car
Journeying in cold weather
The window panes
Becomes foggy
Everything becomes blur
This is life
Trying to cut us from happiness
And to reconnect to it
To have a clear view
We gotta clean those
Window panes from inside
We gotta put in the
Required work
And happiness will be ours
Choice is ours
Whether to clean the panes
And rejuvenate happiness
Or stay mum inside the car
Cursing the blurred vision
But not realizing
The absence of hard work

P.S.: Drag me down of One direction. We’re on a trip and usually the panes get foggy and hence this post 😉 Happy new year 🙂

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 😀