Back to the past

Trip to Himachal

It was a Friday evening. I had just gotten up from bed. Yes evening! I work at night. I picked my Iphone and called Ashutosh whom I call adam.

He picked the call and as usual said "uthge bhaji"(so you got up). I said yes I got up. Next thing I said, "what are you doing".

Adam, "nothing, just in sector 30"

Me, "let's go to Himachal, I have packed my bag"

Adam, "give me 5 minutes, I will call you back"

I knew he will say yes in 5 minutes and I packed couple of things and put them in my suv. That is how we usually make plans. All our plans and last trips were sudden. Sometimes he will call me and ask me to go to some place and after few hours were there at the destination. So getting back to the story.As expected he called me back in 2 minutes.

Adam. "Let's go, are you coming to 30 sector or should I come"

Me, "hmm where are we going, towards Manali or Shimla?"

Adam, " it's your call"

Me, " come over here let's go to Manali"

Adam, " ok I will be there in an hour"

I live in Kharar the road to Manali goes from my side and he lives in sector 30 and the road to Shimla goes from his side.

After few hours we were halfway to Manali.
Adam, " bhaji book a hotel,"

Me " Adam this time I want to stay away from the crowd alone in nature"

Adam, " do as you like but make sure read the reviews first, especially about food"

Adam is a foody and loves food. We had a few bad experiences in hotels where the food was very bad. We are very certain about food taste and quality when we travel.

Me, "I see this camp hotel , it is far from crowd, there are no reviews about food but the pictures really look good, this is exactly the kind of thing I want, I want to live close to nature"

Adam, " bhaji even last time you made us live in stupid tents in lahol, the toilets are so bad at these tents, book a hotel at least!"

Me, "let's stay for a night and if we don't like we will move to a hotel"

Adam, "bhaji!"

He could not say no and there we go, I booked on tent camp.

Adam doesn't drink alcohol. I was the only one who drank. I brought a 'Jack Daniels' I thought that was enough for me for the trip. When I am the only one to drink I drink less but in a group the story is different. We reached the place at 10 am. It was totally a remote place. Even with GPS it was hardly accessible. We had to drive a coupe of miles on a dirt road to get there.

It was exactly what I wanted. It was in middle on nowhere. Trees all around, surrounded by huge mountains from all sides. There was a waterfall a mile before the place which we saw while reaching that place. Adam was quite upset as he did not expect such lone place, but he wasn't showing that to me.

We parked the suv and went to the tent that looked like their office. This place had few cars parked there which made us a little excited that at least there are some people here. I thought I will find a drink partner.

Adam, " excuse me is someone there!"

An old man may be in his 70's wearing a Himachali cap came out and asked if we had a booking . I said yes, then he made a call to someone after getting our details. He looked computer illiterate and he confirmed the booking over the phone from someone.