The Beginning

Life is strange, sometimes it feels like limping and lingering on, and other times it moves faster than anything we know. My life was moving relatively slowly until the road trip to Dalhousie happened to me.

The Internet is a strange place too, people more often than not, seem always to have a different online personality than their true ones.  

While cruising through the ‘yellow’ online ocean, I met this relatively simple person who seemed new to the ocean, and her online personality seemed to be no different than her offline one. The timing was just right; the second wave was over, things were opening up, and every atom in my body was aching to get out of home and travel somewhere.

Without much thought, the thought blurted from my mind into a message asking her to consider just getting out of town instead of going through the whole small talk routine of talking to strangers online. My phone instantly vibrated, as if it could feel my joy when the affirmative message popped on the cold gorilla glass.

Before I could respond with my excitement, she had already started making plans with places we could go. 

Our Plan

She did, almost formally, ask me for my suggestions, though she seemed to have already made up her mind. She casually mentioned Dalhousie, Himachal Pradesh as an option, and my sixth sense told me she wanted to go there. She did not have to do much as I was already sold on Himachal, a place I have visited so often and never been disappointed. 

Dalhousie was a place I had never visited and seemed very interesting indeed.

I love travelling by comfortable bus, and Himachal Tourism buses mostly do not disappoint. We agreed on an overnight volvo bus journey to Dalhousie (about 12 hours) from Delhi ISBT. We did not plan much post that, as I like to keep my travels open-ended.

I think she agreed to the idea and that committing to a week-long trip with a stranger wasn’t prudent. Who knows, the stranger might turn out to be a creep, a junkie or even worse, a bore.

We set the plan to meet at ISBT around 7:30 pm, I should add, for the first time.

Bus Terminus

I did not prepare much for the trip except dumping my essentials in a rucksack, slipping on adventure shoes, reluctantly tossing my mum’s special namkeen and buying a few miniature red labels to beat the cold.

From the moment I stepped into the cab I hailed for ISBT, the spirit of adventure I was to embark on started to sink in. This journey was a true blue adventure, going to a place I had not even googled about, let alone about the person I was going with.

The Tintin in me stepped forward, and I was ready, LFG! 

I immediately knew this was her when I spotted the only person with a new Decathlon rucksack, shining shoes and bright outfit in the ISBT common waiting place. I waved at my brand new friend, shook hands, exchanged pleasantries and lurched towards the Himachal bus terminal only to realise that the bus was running late..

How late? Nobody seemed to have a clue. HRTC officials were pleasant and also adept at avoiding specific questions. They finally told us the bus was not coming before 9ish (another bus was scheduled at that time from HRTC with reviews not as good as the 8.15 pm one).

We decided to eat dinner at McDonald’s near ISBT, and we were glad we did that as the bus was indefinitely delayed. Our conversations finally began to flow along with some humour. As she educated me later, both of us seemed to be high from the ‘adrenaline of adventure‘. After wrapping up dinner, we came to the terminal to find status quo.

There was still no definite answer from the officials. Finally at about 9:30 pm, the second HRTC bus arrived.. It seemed HRTC had merged to 8:15 and 9:30 buses, probably due to fewer passengers. Within 5-10 minutes, HRTC officials swiftly  accommodated everyone waiting for both the buses.  Almost seemed like a daily occurrence; probably part of their job aide by now.

The bus wheels and our adventure started to spin in no time.

ISBT to Pathankot

A few minutes after exiting ISBT, our bus got stuck in a long traffic jam. It took us nearly two hours to leave Delhi and come on to the national highway. The bus now started to move quickly and smoothly towards our destinations.

Our conversations and our bus on that highway were both flowing smoothly.

Somewhere, both of us were already glad to have met each other and found an exciting company, and we were indeed looking forward to the rest of the journey.

The bus made a slightly extended stop at Chandigarh. She had lived in the city, and I could see nostalgia running all over her face as the bus moved past the well-organised city.

Stop at Pathankot

When I woke up in the morning, we had reached Pathankot. The hills were almost visible now, and the air had turned nippy. The sun perched through the windows and settled on her closed eyes, almost trying to blanket her with warmth.

I was also admiring the view outside as the bus moved slowly across the well-kept landscape of the Indian Army and Indian Air Force. The bus stopped at Pathankot bus station, and the driver announced that this was going to be a long stop as the staff would refuel the bus. 

Without wasting much time, we started finding a place to eat as she was almost getting ‘hangry’ and could have created a world war if she did not get her chai and something to eat in the next two minutes.

We found a tidy Dhaba near the bus station who had just what the doctor ordered, Parathas!

We chatted with a friendly person at the counter who said he would make a fresh batch of parathas for us. It was already cold, and having hot food seemed like the proper fix. He served us chai and told us about what we could do at Dalhousie and how Covid had impacted small businesses like his across Himachal. 

It was almost time, and we shared our anxiety about possibly missing our bus. The friendly Dhaba owner smiled reassuringly and told us that he wouldn’t let our bus go anywhere without us. We did not want to take our chances, so we insisted on having our food packed and headed back to the bus. 

When I entered the bus, I noticed something different. Our bus staff had changed (driver and conductor). It seemed HRTC swapped bus staff at Pathankot, perhaps because it was a long journey or needed a specialised team to drive on hills.

Journey into the Hills

Armed with hot parathas, we started the final leg of our journey towards Dalhousie. Almost immediately after crossing Pathankot, we found ourselves climbing up hills. It was a good thing that none of us had any motion sickness issues or we would have definitely regretted the greasy parathas.

The bus moved ever so smoothly around every curve and turn, almost as if we were riding a snake slithering on the soft grass. As we ascended further, the new bus conductor asked if anyone needed vomiting bags as the bus would not stop and the journey would take a few hours. 

Soon we were surrounded by hills, and the sun was basking in full glory over the beautiful unexplored valleys. The skies were clear, and the views were stunning. 

Both of us had been to hills before, and we started exchanging our stories involving them.

As the bus gained more altitude, so did our friendship as we understood more and more about each other.

Since our plan was pretty spontaneous, all we had was a one-way ticket and nothing more. We neither had an itinerary nor a hotel booking nor a return ticket. We checked out a few places on google but felt it would be a better bet to actually visit these places before making a longer booking. It eventually turned out that finding a good hotel was another adventure altogether.

We arrived at Dalhousie at around breakfast time. Our bodies were exhausted by the long road journey, but our minds were still fresh, awaiting an adventure that would hopefully not end with Dalhousie.

It is not every day that one gets invited to write on a blog as exciting as this one, and I sincerely would like to thank That Road Trip Lady for the opportunity. I hope this exciting blog succeeds as it covers more destinations, distances, and passengers on its ride.

Until next time… 

Author: Namit Nagar