A Ride without Destination

S

Sangam Mishra

Member

Please excuse any errors in English Writing.


In Mar16, I was sitting in my office and thinking about visit somewhere. As usual, I am always traveling over the weekend because my employer does not approve my leave every time. So we decided to travel on vacation of Holi and Good Friday.


We were going to Mathura for celebrating Holi but before a day, my travel partner has received a call from one of his childhood friend who living in Ambala. So our plan has been changed and we decided to go Ambala then chose to our Destination.



My partner informed his friend about our plan and decided that we will leave our office early evening and take dinner at his friend house who prepares to cook Chicken Curry with Rice and Roti.

On 23 Mar’16, we started our journey on Pulsar 150 with my colleague Vinod Gupta as pillion from my office Mohan Estate Mathura Road by 7PM. It took more than 1 hour to reach Delhi Bypass (Mukarba Chowk) due the traffic jam.

We stopped for 10 minutes at their then resumed our journey again.

On the Delhi - Haryana border, there are so many petrol pumps, so we filled bike tank and resumed our journey towards Ambala.



We again stopped after Panipat Toll for a short break. We had some snacks and tea then moved to Ambala. From Delhi to Chandigarh, the road condition is very good so we easily managed to ride 70-80kmph.



Vinod’s friend already shared his location on the map so we directly reached his place at 11:45pm where he has waiting on the road side.



We refreshed at his home then had spicy dinners & chatting with each other.



It was 2AM in the night when we went to sleep without any destination for the next day.



We wake up at 7AM and start to think about our destination can be Shimla. His friend was not going to join us due to his personal work so we left his home and moving towards Shimla.

I have not experienced to driving in Hilly terrain except till Rishikesh but I believed that it should not be an issue and it will take some time to comfortably driving that road.


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Way to Shimla

Our next stop was Solan, it was a short break for some photos and had snacks/tea then resumed our journey. We have not much knowledge about Shimla and surrounding areas so we stopped few more places in between journey but can't remember the name.



Before Few KM from Shimla, we again stopped for lunch. We took Parantha and Sabzi with Curd. After finished our yummy lunch, we came out from Dhaba and saw that there was a group of local girls playing Holi with each other. We passed them slowly when one of the girls asked us to join.



We played fractional Holi with them then continue our journey towards Shimla.


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Holi with Local
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Toward Shimla
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Toward Shimla
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Toward Shimla
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Toward Shimla
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Toward Shimla
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Toward Shimla
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Road Toward Shimla
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Toward Shimla

When we reached Shimla, peoples were playing Holi with colors and eggs on the road. We sacred if someone throws on us but Thank God they did not.


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Shimla City



In the morning, when we fixed our destination to Shimla, we booked Hotel online which cast 800Rs. So we directly went to Hotel.



Hotel situated on the upper part of Shimla and way was going through Jakhu Mandir. Road till hotel was narrow and somewhere steep ascending/descending but we were on the bike so easily reached there.


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Hotel Room
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Shimla City
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Shimla
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Shimla
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Meri Shaan Tiranga Hai


The room was clean and comfortable. After refreshment, we went to roam around there.

We started from Jakhu Mandir; Way to Mandir was a narrow and steep road, however, peoples were going to Jakhu Mandir by their owned Car/Taxi but we have no idea on that type of hilly riding so we parked the bike in front of Road and start walking. Climbing on Jakhu Mandir is not so difficult but it has taken 1Hour to reach there.


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Jakhu Mandir




There was so many Monkeys’ frisking around Mandir, and sometimes they snatched Mobile, Camera or Purse from visitors hand so we put everything inside our bags. We enjoyed around an hour at Mandir then came back to see another place in Shimla.

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Jakhu Mandir

Our some other attraction was Shimla Railway Station, Summer Hill, A Historical Building which was built by the British government (Can't remembered the complete name), then came back to the hotel.


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IIAS
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Shimla

In the evening, we went Mall Road and spend some good time. Newly married Couples were walking all around there & weather was pleasant.


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Ye Dosti Hum Nahi Chodenge-------Mall Road

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View from Hotel Room

We interacted with few local peoples at Mall Road and know about Hatu Peak Narkanda. Later inquired about Taxi drivers and amazed that there was still snow present on the top.



We never see the Snow in our life so our destination was fixed to Hatu Peak. We had dinner at Mall Road then came back to Hotel.

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Way to Narkanda



Next day we started our journey at 7AM towards Hatu Peak Narkanda, which situated 70km onwards from Shimla to Rampur Route.



Our first stoppage was Kufri where we had breakfast then moving towards Narkanda. Road is on very good except few patches and driving was amazing, we were taking the stoppage on every 5-8 km for Photos & enjoying the nature closely.

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Way to Narkanda
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Let me go first----Way to Narkanda

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Way to Narkanda
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Way to Narkanda
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Way to Narkanda
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Way to Narkanda
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Way to Narkanda


We reached Narkanda at 10:30 in the morning, had some light snacks then moving towards Hatu Peak.


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Yeh Wadiyan--Way to Hatu Peak


Hatu Peak is situated 8Km above from Narkanda. Road was steep and narrow with lots of Path holes, Mud & melting snow with the deep trench on another side.


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Way to Hatu Peak

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Bike has skidded here

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Way to Hatu Peak
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Way to Hatu Peak



Before 2KM to Hatu Peak, the road was melting with snow and bike started to skidding so we parked our bike at there and moving ahead by walking. The way from our bike to Hatu Peak was full of snow so we were throwing, skidding and playing together a lot.

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Way to Hatu Peak
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Snow Capped Mountain

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Way to Hatu Peak
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Way to Hatu Peak
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Snow Capped Mountain

We reached the top at 1PM and views were amazing. We spent some time at their then started to our return slowly.

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Hatu Peak

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Deep Trench

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Deep Trench


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Deep Trench

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Mountain

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View from Hatu Peak
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Feeling Nature

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View from Top


In the way, we met a local guy and started to chat with him about their life. Suddenly we heard that someone screaming so we were moving fast to see that what happened.



When we reached there and saw some women and children were moved down the road to play in the snow, but they were not coming out. When they try to come up were slipping & On the other hand, had a deep Ditch





There were many peoples standing on the way but not going to help them, so we looked around for options to help. We arranged few scarf (Dupattas) and knot it to use like the rope. It took half an hour to get them out.


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Returning from top

Time was passing slowly & we need to reach Delhi to join the office on next day.



It was 3Pm when we came back to Shimla, took a short break then resumed our return journey. We managed to reach Zirakpur before sunset as I have not any experience the driving in the hilly area in a night.



We had dinner near Panipat & reached Badarpur at 1AM

 
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