…Clueless

I’m back…
I was away… away… sitting in a luxurious resort in the Lesser Himalayas (I think). I was in Himachal Pradesh. If I had it my way, I would’ve gone to Kashmir. Par chalo… Himachal Pradesh ain’t that bad.

Since I reside in Chandigarh, its not much of a hassle. I packed my bags at around 1 PM last Thursday and by 1.30 PM we were off. Kalka was jam packed with traffic as usual. I wanted to eat those tasty Kulfis but the frggin traffic…

Monkeys welcomed us into HP and begged for food. But this time, the HP govt. had installed big hoardings urging people not to feed the monkeys. Initially, we had planned that we would stay at Jabli that day. But we found that KK Trams was closed. We moved on. We stopped at Dharampur.

I was like….WTF… Dharampur is no more the old Dharampur. Cafe Coffee Day… oh yes… we stopped at CCD and munched on some delicious pasteries. Just adjacent to CCD is Hot Millions and then there is Golfer’s. I was particularly surprised to see Golfer’s there: “Golfer’s – Dhaba & Inn“. They have the usual foodstuff plus rooms. And they have Khanna’s fav Sheesha’s. Yes Hookas in the mountains. We resumed our journey after filling our tummies.

Our ultimate destination was Fagu. Actually, Galleu. Galleu is a village ahead of Kufri. As I have stated before, the initial plan was to stay a day at Jabli and then move to Fagu the next day. But we didn’t stop at Jabli. We stopped at a very fancy resort called The Destination at Kandaghat. The resort looked sexy… huge lawns, cordial staff. The rooms sucked though!! So we skipped that resort too and moved further. It was already evening. But we kept moving. My cousin is very particular about the places he stays. So he did not want to stay at any sidey resort. We moved on and now there was no natural light. We were nearing Shimla and it was already around 9 PM. We were hungry and had no hotel bookings. Yes, you can call us over-adventurous. Shimla was dead. Yes dead. There was no one in sight. Cars were parked on the road. We went inside Shimla and asked a couple of cops for directions. The fuckin bastards were tunn…. I mean drunk. So we ignored them. Even the so-called sidey lodges had no vacant rooms.

Now we were forced to move on. We moved to Galleu and started the ascent towards Snow King Retreat (formerly Star Resort). This resort is is right on top of a hill and you have to drive up a dirty path to reach it. Fortunately, they had rooms. Just three and that too only for two nights. In any case, we were to come to this resort. So two days or three days didn’t matter. We booked the rooms and then ate the leftovers (it was 3 AM!!!).

Another group from Delhi comprising of some 70 people was also there and those bastards had booked all the log huts, cottages and villas. Our room was a duplex room. A double bed downstairs and two bed upstairs – all in one room!!!! The upper portion of the room had a seperate toilet too.

The next morning we woke up late. The breakfast as usual was a buffet. The delhi group (MMC – Mauj Masti Club) had some nice looking babes and all of them were ready. We were the only ones who had just brushed their teeth and had hurried down for breakfast. I was the last one to enter the dining room. I was wearing a 3/4 and a normal white shirt. As soon as I entered, everybody started staring at me. Dunno why!!! The girls, the aunties… everyone. I sat down and some girls started passing smiles. I was like…. OK… this resort is really cool (hope you guys got what I wanted to say)!!

The great thing about Galleu is that it rains there everyday. We were going towards a Temple (had to walk 400 steps!!!) when it started to drizzle. As soon as we were beginning our downward journey, it started to rain. I came down slowly, clicking some pictures on the way.

We reached our resort. The weather had suddenly turned cold. We stepped inside our car and went towards Chini Bangla in Kufri. I ate some garam garam pakodas and chhalis (bhutta) there. The combination of rain, chilly weather and hot eatables was perfect. We came back to our resort. By that time, I was down….!! I felt uncomfortable and jumped into the quilt and ordered a Tandoori Chicken (yummy!!!!!!!!!!!) for myself. After that, I went with my sister and cousin for mountain biking. We biked downhill, all alone in the evening. The only people roaming the mountains were some cows and us. It was a lot of fun…. biking downhill in the potato farms without applying brakes… awesome!!!

Another strange thing happened that night. While we were in the restaurant, there was another newly-wed couple from Punjab. The girl was a stunner. Again, like in the morning, I was the last one to enter. As soon as I entered, the girl started staring at me and she kept turning back and looking at me. Everytime she looked back, she smiled.

The next day, we had to check-out. So we packed our bags again and decided to head off to Tattapani. When I went to the car, I saw that newly-wed girl. She stopped just in front of me. She stared hard and smiled again. Tharki aunty!!! On the way, we stopped at the Naldehra Golf Course (the highest golf course in the world) and pissed on the hills!! We reached Tattapani and the weather was awesome. I had already been to Tattapani before and this time the HP govt. had constructed a massive concrete bridge over the Sutlej and we did not have to cross over to Tattapni on the old rickety steel bridge. We reached the resort which was no more a resort. Floods has destroyed the HP govt.’s resort and the other resort adjoining it housed some foreigners (hippies!!!). Tattapani is famous for its sulphur springs. The most amazing thing is that boiling hot water and icy water flow together. The Sutlej river flows with icy water. Now the interesting thing is that when you dig the river basin with your feet, within two seconds, boiling water will start flowing. Its like a layer of ice and underneath it resides fire. Even though the river water was icy cold our feet were inside boiling hot water while we stood inside the river. Remarkable, isn’t it??!!

We stayed there for 3 hours or so and then rode back to Naldehra and stayed at The Woodstock Resort for the night. The next day, we started our return journey to Chandigarh. We stopped at Dharampur again and then finally reached Chandigarh in the evening.

Some things I noticed this time :

1. A Barog by-pass has been constructed. It starts from Kumarhatti. Now you don’t need to first climb up to Barog and then go down to Solan. Solan can be reached directly.
2. Even after visiting Fagu for the fourth time, I am still not bored of the place.
3. Tattapani is more exciting without resorts… looks like a village now.
4. There were less monkeys on the highway.
5. Sexy babes make a trip all the more enjoyable.
6. The trip was fucking cool…………………

Pics coming soon.

1. Early morning getaway… : So Anjum called me up around midnight yesterday and asked me to accompany Him, Abhit and Khanna for a short trip uphills. I agreed. I slept around 2AM after texting ‘n all. I knew I could never wake up aroung 5.30AM (that’s the time Anjum wanted to leave) so I had asked them to come and [...]...
2. Abhit apologizes… : I was in demand yesterday!! Khanna messaged me and told me that he wanted to see me as soon as I got down from my college bus. A little later, Abhit messaged me and told me that he was coming over to my place, around the same Khanna wanted to see me, as he wanted [...]...
3. Another trip to the Bougainvillea Garden : This time it was Anjum, Abhit and I. Just as I was about to finish my lunch, I heard someone honk outside my house. I knew it either had to be Khanna or Anjum. I went outside and saw Anjum. I came back, finished my parantha and went outside. Abhit was with him. Anjum told [...]...
4. First Day ! : Today was my first day at college. I wasn’t that excited this morning because of something that happened in the past. So I got up in the morning… barely! I am used to getting up late… say around 11AM and even 8AM was early for me. Neverthless, I got up and went to the loo. OK… [...]...
5. Some things don’t change : When my Grandma passed away, me and my sister were given her room. At first we both used to be very scared of sleeping all alone in that room. We were not used to even entering that room and not looking at our grandma. But slowly, things changed. We changed. We were not scared anymore. We [...]...