Day 2..

Day 2, May 1

Officially the first day

It was at 4.00 am that my alarm rang and I woke up with a little bit of excitement hoping that our tickets would get confirmed though I knew deep inside that it won't happen. It was a disappointment at last. We had to book a cab to Shimla for which the hotel management helped us. I think it was around 6.00 am that we started from Kalka. Later, we stopped at a point to have breakfast. It was from here that the Maggie mania started! We ordered vegetable Maggie, and like every other time I had the Maggie by taking out all the veggies from it. It was noon by the time we reached our hotel in Shimla. The way down to our hotel itself felt like a mini trek to me! We had to climb down a whole lot of steps to reach our hotel. But the rooms and the view from it was all worth it! We quickly dropped our luggage in the rooms and left for Kufri.

Kufri is a 2 kilometer drive from Shimla and is popular for its adventurous activities. On our way to Kufri, we got down for a quick photo session near a place called Green valley. Then we hopped back into our cars and reached Kufri at 1.30 pm. As soon as we got down, a person quickly came behind us explaining the activities they provide there. Siri, Chandan and I were not sure if we could really do it at the beginning. But Sandeep tried to fill some confidence in us and made us agree for it. I was still not sure if I would really do it. In order to reach that place we had to take a horse ride up the hill. It was definitely one of the craziest adventures. There were hundreds of horses climbing up the hill colliding each other. The path was not suitable for people to walk. After reaching the point, we had our lunch and then started for the activities. We were taken in an open jeep to those points. The roads were so uneven and we had to stand at the back of the jeep. We were barely able to stand and fell on each other because of the rash driving. We finally reached a place from where we were supposed to go zipping to reach an other place. The zipline was placed almost 7000m above sea level. I started trembling after getting to know how its supposed to be done. Everyone of us almost thought to quit at the starting, but Sandeep again tried his best to motivate each one of them, and then everyone were ready to do it, except for me. Sam was the first one to go, followed by Chandan and they seemed calm through out the ride. Then it was my turn, I reached the point and sat down to attach the hook of the zip line. It was then when I tried to look down that I felt I was going to fall down. The acrophobia inside me woke up immediately making me get down from there. Sandeep tried his best to let go my fear but I wasn't ready to do it. Now that I decided I wouldn't do it, an other problem arose. The zipline carried people to another place and I had to find out a way to reach there where everyone else reached. I tried to ask a few locals over there with my best hindi speaking skills and finally reached the point where they were all present. There were a lot more activities like bungee jumping, rock climbing and net climbing. But it was getting late and we were all tired. So we decided to go back. It was so cloudy when we reached the point where we were supposed to get on the horses to get down the hill. It started drizzling and we weren't able to find our horse guy. We tried calling him multiple times but we weren't able to connect to him. After struggling for about 20 minutes, we finally found that guy. We all chose our horses and climbed on their back. On our way back, it started raining hailstorms. Some of the horses started galloping because of the rain. I felt like a professional horse rider when I was able to control my horse where others were barely able to do it. I enjoyed the ride thoroughly. Siri's horse became a little violent and went uncontrollable. When I looked back at Siri, it reminded me of Milly from Enola Holmes. I was excited and a little scared at the same time, but it was a great experience overall! We got drenched in the rain while we waited for our car. It was freezing cold there as the temperature dropped to 3 degrees all of a sudden. None of us wore jackets or coats and our hands went numb. We were trembling as we waited for our car to come. When we got inside our car, we kept rubbing our hands to keep them warm. It took a while for us to get normal. On our way back to the hotel, we video called our parents and shared our experiences of the day.

After getting back to the hotel, we were awestruck by looking at the view from our window. We had a phenomenal view of the entire town. That is definitely one of the best views and I still can't take it off my mind. We changed into our pjs and decided to order food for ourselves as we were starving. We ordered a few starters, rotis, some curries and biriyani. The food was mouthwatering! Later, we spent some time chit chatting, taking pictures of the spectacular view outside the window and playing with Aarush. I fell asleep soon as I was so exhausted. Aarush later came and asked Chandan to come to his room. Siri and Sam fell asleep waiting for him to return to the room.

To be continued.....