I will not use the cliché – “I love travelling because it fulfills my soul,” rather I would say that I belong to the current generation who is more enthusiastic about posting pictures online of their endeavors than the endeavor itself. Basically to make people jealous and maintain a certain class in the society.
I won’t lie, I fall in that category a little bit because I envy people who are ‘holidaying’ away to glory. The jealous part of my brain wakes up and bellows that they just have the money to do so or are jobless! I am a Journalist and I have to really plan my holiday months in advance, which involves a lot of wailing and melodrama so that my leaves are approved and thanks to my relentless badgering which always comes to the final euphoria! Picture bombing time.
Moving on to my recent Trip to Himachal Pradesh with the hashtag #5TakeAHike.
I was ‘tripping on’ the vibe of nature, the bond of friendship and new discoveries. The only question on everyone’s mind was how to get me on top of the hill. But just like in Kungfu Panda, I discovered that food was my propeller!
Our trip started in McLeodganj moving to Dharamsala and at last covering Kasol, Manikaran and Tosh. 5 people and 5 places covering 5 basic emotions on this trip – Appreciation, Wonder, Contentment, Freedom and Exhilaration.
The USP of this journey was – Food and Nature for sure. And I would do anything to go back there with my gang. We were high on spiciness of Chicken Momos, traditionalism of Thukpa, yumminess of Hummus and Pita Bread, freshness of German Bakery and the exciting game Taboo.
We ate like maniacs – even the locals started to recognize us from the next day as we were eating every few hours. We played Taboo at every place (so much that even the restaurant owner asked us what we were playing). Sheer relaxation peppered with an insane amount of walking.
What trip is it if you don’t face any glitches? While one had a back problem and couldn’t enjoy the hike, another faced Motion Sickness in the car, and yet another one was constantly up as he was the co-driver and the other had a little camera falling accident and I was sleeping in the car (at the backseat) throughout (Lol).
Our to-do-lists were ready. While I had the ‘To-do-restaurants’ list, one had ‘to-do-food’ list, and the other had the ‘to-pickup-souvenir’ list.
Everyone talks about the good stuff about their trip, I will share some of the bad or rather funny experiences.
My Encounter with the cow – where he/she (I don’t know the gender) hit me with the horn. T’s encounter with the worst ‘Chicken Laafa’ dish. C’s encounter with the world’s worst Chicken Lollypop (he swore he won’t eat Lollypop ever again because they looked like crow’s legs). N’s encounter with motion sickness — we all learnt our lessons.
Be that as it may, it was another trip to remember where we brought back memories that will serve as good souvenirs and enough photos to keep it etched not only in our heads, but all those we could relay it to too.
Until next time!
