Day 38 and 39 – Dharamshala to Kalka
Day 38 – Tuesday, 3rd Dec 2013 and Day 39 – Wednesday, 4th Dec 2013
It’s 6:30 am, the alarm buzzes off and I have a sneak peek from the corner of my eye. The curtains are nicely draped and not a single ray of sunlight can pierce the room. I shut off the alarm and go back to sleep only to wake up 2 and half hours late. It’s 9 am and we are now in a hurry to get ready as the check out time is 10 am. It’s 9:55 am and Khyati calls up the reception to send a helper to carry our luggage to the reception area. The hotel manager queries our plan for the day – we were just planning to hang out in the hotel lobby after check out and take the afternoon bus to Pathankot. The manager was like you can have the room till 12 pm, check out time wasn’t for another 2 hours. duh! what a folly on our part.
We have some hot breakfast in our room and catch up on our writing and some bookings for our onward journey. It’s 11:30 am and we still have some time for our bus to Pathankot. The hotel staff is quite helpful and suggests us a nearby picturesque spot of the valley. We hike down half a km and there were some beautiful views of the valley. We could see adventure enthusiasts paragliding in the distance.
It’s 1:30 pm and we are back in our hotel and call for a taxi to Dharamshala bus stand. Frequent buses ply this route and no pre booking is required. We hop on a private 2 x 3 bus and the journey takes 3 hours to get to Pathankot.
Dharamshala to Pathankot
During the bus journey, Khyati and I were catching up on emails on our cell phone and I suddenly noticed Khyati’s face get tense. Had to be something in her emails. I asked if her exam results were out? Well, their professor had emailed that their exams had been graded and results will be emailed out in a few hours. Sometimes I wonder that universities and professors do it on purpose so as to increase the anticipation and heart beats of students. Khyati was counting every minute and frequently checking her emails. I could see myself in her shoes when I used to eagerly await my engineering results the day they were given out in Kalina university. Exam stress!
It’s 6 pm and Khyati has a new unread email in her inbox. This is it! she says and hands me the phone to have a first look! I gaze through the PDF of marks and look for Khyati’s student number. My eyes stop as I read – 500320972 and I scroll to the right hand side. My joy knew no bounds as I read – “Merit”. Khyati doesn’t believe it, she snatches the phone to confirm for herself. She did it! Khyati and I immediately break into a jig and celebrate the success. We are hungry and look for a fine restaurant to dine but all hotels and restaurants near us are Dhabas. We celebrate it desi style by having a sumptuous Punjabi meal in a Dhaba sitting on a cot in moon light. These small moments of happiness are the ones you cherish the most.
We call it a night around 11 pm. We have an early morning train to catch for Ambala.
It’s Wednesday morning 5 am and Khyati and I are up excitedly. Blazing hot water is flowing through the tap and we have a refreshing bath that early. It’s 6:15 am and we check out of the hotel and walk towards Pathankot station. The station was a mere 5 minute walk from our hotel and we enjoy the short walk. Pathankot – Dilli Express is stationed on Platform 2 and we settle ourselves in our AC chair car coach. The coach is entirely empty as we board, we wonder did the Indian railway throw a surprise by reserving the entire coach for us?
AC chair car coach
Apparently not, the train is half full as it leaves Pathankot station sharp at 7 am. The journey takes 6 hours but apparently there are some delays along the way.
One interesting thing is that as soon as the train reaches a halt, people get down to inspect, we consider ourselves as experts and can provide valuable opinions and get the matter resolved. Look how many people are down along the tracks including myself as the train is stranded here for an hour.
Stranded train
We reach Ambala station at 4 pm instead of 1:45 pm. In a way, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as we had an onward journey from Ambala to Kalka for 8 pm and the delay caused us a short layover.
at Ambala Cantt rly stn
We stuff our luggage in the cloak room at Ambala railway station and take a stroll along the station area. Unfortunately, the roads near the station were crowded due to the evening rush and we head back to the waiting rooms at the station by 5 pm. We still have 3 hours and we catch up on our writing and grab some snacks from the food stall.
Pathankot to Kalka
It’s 8 pm and New Delhi – Kalka Shatabdi is dot on time at Ambala station. The journey is a mere one hour and we reach Kalka station by 9:15 pm. We check into our hotel which is again a 5 minute walk from the station. The hotel manager was nice to offer us a bike pickup. It has been a day of traveling for us and we retire for the night by 10 pm.
Tomorrow morning, we have a 6 am train to Kalka so again an early start. Stay tuned for our next post – Shimla.
Thank you all for your comments, please continue to drop a line and connect.
Best wishes,
Paras