Day 9: To Amritsar and getting mugged (almost)

It was cold like every other day had been, but we were ready to shift to warmth: Amritsar. Or so I thought... Because after rushing to get ready, and being the first to reach the breakfast spot (we reached even before the breakfast did!), Nikesh came and told us that since the skies had cleared, a bunch of people wanted to visit Chamba. Honestly? I wanted to visit Chamba too. But it was 10 am and by the time we would leave it would be 11 am. Night driving and driving for 10-12 hours was not something I thought was practical at all, so I was against the idea. Like me, so were a bus full of others. Admittedly, I was mildly irritated by how people did not get my point of view, but as long as one bus was ready to leave directly, I did not mind.

A bus would leave if there was a bus in the first place though! We got the news that we had to drag our luggage down with us the same distance we did while reaching the hotel. It didn’t feel like that big of a deal anymore though, since it was mostly downhill. And our journey began.

A lot of ice. Slippery steps.
At getting a grip we were becoming adept.
People filling up roads, cars super slow,
There was nothing more beautiful than the snow.

And then Chetan Ji broke his arm.
(Now I don’t think that was beautiful but a few people thought it was. I still want the promised refund!!!!)

One kilometre down and there was no sign of our bus.
Two more and a few of my friends had slipped.
Some people found a shortcut and joined from the middle. Adesh had paid a coolie to carry his luggage as I found out later, I guess the coolie got them through it.
Put some music in the middle to make the walk more fun.
I kept taking videos because I wanted to document the journey. Unfortunately, it didn’t occur to me that my hand should have been steady while taking them.

When we finally reached after a 5-6 km walk it was pretty funny because my friends were cracking multiple jokes on Chamba and following the itenery to the letter. They did overdo it though, so I hope no one who wanted to go got offended.

This journey was the first one that I almost entirely slept. So I don’t remember much apart from music in the middle and finally reaching Amritsar. Oh, what a hotel! It had a shoe polishing and cleaning machine to greet us. There was a gate. There were people to take our bags up to the floor. There was a lift. We had a geyser in the room OH MY GOD that was the best thing ever. You know, the basic amenities that we generally always take for granted? They felt like luxury. And the temperature had also risen which meant we were back to sweater weather from layer-weather.

x

Fun fact: We had booked the hotel for 5 less people than the total number and got away with it.

After checking in, we rushed to eat dinner to Bade Bhai ka Dhaba 5 mins walking from our hotel. The food was delicious. Yummy kulcha, yummy lassi, and yummy paneer capsicum. My friends liked the mixed freshlime soda a lot too. By the time we were done with dinner I think it was about 10 pm. We still decided to visit the Golden temple another 10 mins away to see the lights.

Cleaning our feet with warm water at the entrance, we were entranced by the view. It was literally shining in the night. We weren’t allowed to go inside though, so planned to come back the next day. We did take a walk along the water bank and read whatever information there was to read. There were posters everywhere that said that photograhy is prohibited, yet volunteers had to consistently request people to not take pictures. I am also guilty of having clicked one. But it was SO PRETTY!

If you do not have anything to cover your head with when you go to the golden temple, do not worry. They have a large bunch of bandana-ish things that you can borrow!

We began our way back sometime between 11-11:30 pm. Us going out at night was a bad idea in the first place, but we had not realised that before. We took another bad decision and unintentionally split the 10 of us into two groups. Suddenly Jay gets a call from Shanay that Saumya’s phone almost got snatched, and that they are all safe but we must be alert, take care, and come back asap. Suddenly we were worried. Jay took off his belt. Adesh belted out “Jhund me chalo, jhund me chalo.” Niti and I were walking in the centre.

We saw a man in front of us. Walk away, walk away, I mentally chanted. And we reached the hotel. It was just 3 minutes away.

Saumya was not okay. Turns out a man almost snatched her phone, she pushed him back as a reflex. And then so did Vinchhi since he was closest to her. They both ran, but she ran into the parking lot by mistake. And she was just lucky that the man didn’t come run behind her, as Vinchhi got her back to the hotel. To top this, she was talking to her parents while all of this happened. They heard the whole thing.

I am not going to go into more detail but really, what were we thinking?

North India.
Drug and alcohol problems.
11 pm in an unknown area.
Equal girls and boys.
Boys that do not look scary but warm and friendly.
NORTH INDIA.
UNKNOWN AREA.

I am just glad everyone is safe.

But this was probably the most irresponsible thing we did on this trip. In hindsight, I cannot believe it occured to none of us.

All’s well that ends well. But this is something I think none of us will forget.

After a few games of connect to lighten up the mood, and deciding to go see the golden temple only after sunrise, we called it a day and slept.

Two days to go,
Kanksha