Jiffy Reminiscence of Travel Stories #MemoryLane

Tripoto
Photo of Jiffy Reminiscence of Travel Stories #MemoryLane 1/4 by Durva Shastri
Sunset at White Rann of Kutch
Photo of Jiffy Reminiscence of Travel Stories #MemoryLane 2/4 by Durva Shastri
Sam Sand Dunes
Photo of Jiffy Reminiscence of Travel Stories #MemoryLane 3/4 by Durva Shastri
Photo of Jiffy Reminiscence of Travel Stories #MemoryLane 4/4 by Durva Shastri

1. Ladakh

My cousin & I were on our way from Srinagar to Leh, we had opted for a local bus. In middle of our journey, the bus broke down. That was a one way route to Leh. Apart from the fellow bus passengers, there seem no humans visible around. But the view was insane. The Sun rays were piercing through snow-capped mountains & pine trees. The bus took few hours to get repaired & still it was not done completely so we had to wait for another bus to come from Srinagar. We sat on the raw roads with almost zero supply of food & water for the whole day. It was almost evening when the new bus came & we could finally start the journey further. But we didn't have it any easier further. Somewhere around 11.00 pm, the entire Zozilla pass road was blocked with trucks & buses because of the snow, which only meant we had to spend the entire night in the bus as it would only get cleared in the morning. The twist of fate had it, our bus was stuck at dangerous point. All of us were obviously restless, trying to look out the window, chitchat internally and sort of things. And suddenly the conductor shouts, "jyada hulchal mat karo, bus ek patthar par tiki hui hain! Hulchal karne se hum khaai mein gir sakte hain!" There was pin drop silence. It was freezing in the night but we couldn't move a bit & sleep was no where to come. There was complete stillness. The only option felt was to look outside at the Starry spread of darkness & pray. That night at my second chance to Life, I promised myself - I will live my Life the way I want, as per my aspirations, my dreams & my happiness. The fight is worth it, because if it is gone it is gone in a fraction.

2. Jaisalmer

In the last week of December last year, my girl gang & I took up a weekend trip to Jaisalmer. Apart from Havellis & Palatial beauty, one striking part of this trip is Sam Sand Dunes . We didn't have just any other "night under the sky" to be spent in a tent. Notably, that Saturday night had witnessed the highest amount of "Meteor Falls". We saw hundreds of meteors travelling in the spectrum of White Milky Way with our naked eyes. We were gawking at it with child like curiosity & freezing too. It was a clear reminder of how minutest speck of dust are we in this cosmic play of Universe.

3. Kutch

Impulsively planned trips are the most memorable one. With this one, we had no hotels booked, no itinerary planned, nothing done, just took off the last bus from Ahmedabad to Kutch. My cousin & I reached there at 4ish in the morning, having chai & wondering what to do next & where to start from. Then we met Sameer Bhaiya, chhagda (auto) driver. He dropped us to a hotel in Bhuj city & handed few numbers of taxi drivers to visit White Rann & Mandavi beach & other places. But we decided to opt for Sameer Bhaiya's chhagda. For the next two days, we travelled the entire spread of 500 kms covering all the places from Bhuj city to Mandvi Beach to White Rann of Kutch to Vijay Vilas Palace - everything in that auto. It was a topsy-turvy ride. It was so much fun. The stories we heard from bhaiya, the delicacies we had that only a Kutchi local would know. And the gentleman he was, it was almost like he was our official host for Kutch.

4. Goa

This was trip with work friends. We had stayed at a secluded South Goa Resort. After having a leisure day, 7 - 8 of us decided to take a stroll around the nearby beach. It was one of those evenings where the Moon was in its waning phase and it was getting darker. We had wandered far away alongside the beach & coconut trees. After few minutes, we saw a dog struggling from coming out of a cocoon near a coconut tree. We helped it come out of it & decided to walk back to Resort. But by then we had lost the track of our route. And to our rescue, came the dog with its wagging tail. Surprisingly enough, it was leading our route back to Resort & we somehow instinctively followed. That tiny thing made sure we reached to our place safely & we did it. We couldn't figure out who turned out to whose knight in shining armour.

5. Bhutan

Out of the many touristy places, the one that we had to visit that day was . Parliamentary offices in the capital city. All the tourists visiting these offices had to watch Flag hosting event & then wait till the employees called their day off. There was a large gathering of tourist waiting outside. Because of few children around, there were noises made. One of the guards standing suddenly shouted at the top of his tongue - yeh tumhare India ka fish market nai hain - in the worst possible accent & the most derogatory manner. & these kids were not even Indians. It was just his preconceived experience. It had upset us so much that we decided to storm off to the office of Tourism Minister & we complained about that guard. We were in such a state of anger that the Minister had to pace us down by sharing India-Bhutan bhai bhai stories. He offered us some souvenirs. But of all things we made sure the Guard apologized to each Indian present there, for he would never call out any other country with that tone in the future.