Manali

View of Manali from the cottage.

Finally, we were standing on the taxi stand of Manali, exhausted and clueless, but above all, excited that finally our dream ride was about to start. Dhyani had made arrangements for 2 Royal Enfields. There were 2 Lamba Brothers, who had a cottage in Manali and they were providing us with bykes and other small accessories, like gumboots, jerry cans, byke carrier, etc. They came to pick us, and within half an hour, we were in their cottage, which was on top side of Manali. The view from the balcony was amazing. Frankly speaking, I didn’t want to go anywhere after coming to that place. But this was just a start. We were damn sure that the rest of the journey would be mind blowing.

Early morning coffee with bike's paperwork.

We were following a very tight schedule. Well, as per Col. Vijay Aswal (my cousin who was posted in Leh), we didn’t had cushion. Exact 9 days we had to go and come back to Manali. My flight tickets were booked. This was our first trip, and as we were proceeding, we were realizing that we didn’t plan our trip. We just packed our bags and started our journey. There was still a lot of shopping to be done. Everyone was exhausted. Seeing this, one of the Lamba Brothers offered us to stay back one day in their cottage, and start our journey early in the morning. Ujjwal was still high, so he agreed. Dhyani and I were in doubt. We wanted to leave Manali, as planned, on the same day. But logically speaking, we needed that rest time. This was proved on the next day. Anyways, we had our breakfast, and went to bed.

 After an hour or so, Dhyani woke me up. There was a problem. Just one byke was arranged. The second one was facing some problems. Now what!! It was a peak season, so byke demands were already high. The moment we decided to go on this trip, we were facing some problem or the other. The Lamba Brothers were trying their best to arrange another byke. Without that, there was no point coming to Manali. We were a bit disappointed, but didn’t lose hope. In the evening, we went for shopping, and trust me, Manali is AMAZING. The crowd was amazing, the weather was amazing and the food was amazing. Dhyani and I was together, enjoying the view, and Ujjwal and Sid was busy buying the rest of the trip product. Then suddenly Sid came to me and took me to the other side of the road.

Sid: “abbe jaldi chal, ek mast chinki dikhi”

Me: “haan bhai, but tu saale saman lene gaya tha ya item dekhne”

Sid: “abbe yaar negi,ab dikh gai to dikh gai. Vo dekh, side me baithi hai. Cute lagri na”

Me: “abbe chinki zada tarr cute hi hoti hai, mann to karta hai unko chhoti si doll bana ke ghar pe showcase pe sajao”

Sid: “hehe!! Haan, jab mann kare bada karr do, aur khelo unke saatha, ooo kuchi kuchi kuchi!! Olle olle. Kya mast lagegi na, hasti rahegi”

And we burst into laughter. The shopping was almost finished and then came a call to Dhyani, saying that an Enfield is been arranged, but it will cost more, as it was Royal Enfield 500. Listening this, I got excited, and started dreaming of Ladakh road, and a thundering Royal Enfield 500. Dhyani negotiated about the rate and a final deal was done. After exploring the Mall Road, we went for dinner.

Everything was going smooth, as planned, but as soon as I got this thought, walla!! It started raining. Yes, raining. By the time we reached our cottage, we were completely drenched, and were shivering. Our main fear was if it started raining in the middle of our journey, it would be like nature raping all of us, in different positions. Anyways, we went to bed with a little hope that it would be bright sunny day. Everyone was lying on their beds, but no one was sleeping. The excitement was too high to get any sleep. Then suddenly, don’t know what got into Sid, he stood up, wore goggles, gloves and started to look into mirror. Then Ujjwal joined him, following me and Dhyani. We were all over excited, and started acting as 4 years old kids. Sid even wore a helmet, muffler, gloves and goggles while riding his imaginary bykes, and the best part was when Ujjwal joined him, on his imaginary back seat. Dhyani recorded this epic moment on his cell phone. But it all ended soon, and again we were back in our bed, trying to sleep.