A hermit's tale: finding serendipity #LockDown

The one question that I’m very often asked is “How do you do it?”. How do I travel alone and WHY? And in my head, I always wonder  why it is so difficult for people to wrap their head around that. 

It was like an epiphany (for the lack of better word) when I realised that I can do without company on my adventures. It started very small, like going to a movie alone or treating myself to a three-course Italian dinner to today where I travel internationally . 

I’m at that phase in life where every time I get on social media, I get invited to a wedding. My classmate from college  was getting married in Delhi in January and I hadn’t seen her in five years. After a lot of procrastination, I booked my tickets  from Hyderabad to Delhi just one week prior to the wedding. Turns out procrastination is a great way to score cheap tickets. . Five days in Delhi already seemed like a lot and in an impulsive minute (literally!) I booked an overnight bus to McLeod Ganj, two days before the wedding. Finding a stay was easy since I just looked for a hostel and found some popular ones. Now, my excitement was soaring because this was my first time traveling to Himachal Pradesh. Who knew that this would end up being my last trip before the pandemic! 

I reached Dharamsala at around 5 am and had to figure out a way to reach Mcleod Ganj. The taxis were charging too much and I was on a super tight budget. I was looking around to see if I could find a cheaper alternative when two Tibetan monks looked at me and smiled. Those smiles said more than a conversation ever could  have, and they pointed towards their taxi and gave me a ride till Mcleod Ganj. Just when I thought I was about to reach my hostel, I realised it was another one-hour uphill walk to upper Dharamkot. But the weather was so amazing that I started to walk instead of getting another taxi. Ten minutes in, I stopped to take a picture and a local on a bike stopped to ask me if everything was alright. Guess what, he asked if I wanted a lift to the top, and I happily hopped on. I saw my hostel perched up high and I knew it was going to be a beautiful view. Since I was so early, they didn’t check me in and I decided to go to the closest viewpoint- the sunset café. Yes, going to a sunset café at 7:30 in the morning doesn’t make the most sense, but I went for it. As I started walking up, I was joined by a beautiful fluffy Himalayan dog which led to a very animated one-sided conversation. Half way through, I heard a voice calling out “Rocky! Rocky!” followed by a whistle. I stopped to turn around and saw a little school boy come towards us and started patting the dog. I smiled, he smiled back. He was on his way to the Gallu Devi Temple. We spoke for a bit and the rest of the way was in beautiful silence. I put my phone back into my pocket since I didn’t need the map anymore. Rahul became my guide. 

We reached the temple and then I had to bid goodbye to Rahul. The café was further ahead , but Rocky came along with me. It was a long and confusing way ahead, and Google maps wasn’t helping so  I had to resort to asking locals for directions. After a while, Rocky suddenly stopped. I kept calling him and he didn’t move, so it became a solitary trek once again. It had snowed a week before and the remains of the snow was making the already narrow path quite slippery. I kept walking for a while  and almost decided to call it quits when I heard some sounds. I went a little more ahead to see what it was. And suddenly I see a big dog running towards me and I freaked out. But I stood my ground and saw two more of them coming towards me. Oh, they jumped, wagged their tails and barked. I looked ahead and saw a man staring at me, he asked what I was looking for. I told him I’m on the way to Sunset café and he replied, “you’re here”. It was a tiny, almost makeshift sort of a structure and definitely not a café. But as I inched closer, I saw the view and I had faint smile and a feeling I probably can’t put into words. The “café” owner was young lad all of 22 and he told me that he still didn’t start cooking as he didn’t expect anyone to come this early. I smiled and told him to make whatever he can. I sat down and, in a few minutes, I could smell the tea leaves brewing. My mind stopped wandering and I got lost in the breath-taking view of the mountains. And I thought, ‘This is it, I found my serendipity’.