Just before Corona attacked us!! #LastMinute

So this story belongs to the ear when travelling did not seem to be a crime! Taking you back you March 2020 when the covid cases in India were just 6 and not to lie, taking this trip was not less than a nightmare. My sisters and I had planned to take our annual trip ( that we take every year ) to Kasol this time. With the Covid news buzzing around we were a little skeptical if we need to take this trip now or do we push it some other time in the year when things will be under control. We had made our minds to cancel the trip with everything that was going around and while we checked for the ticket prices to Delhi from Bangalore it was cheap compared to all the other days that we were deciding to book our tickets on. So without any further delay, with no plans, no bookings and absolutely no idea of what to do, we randomly booked our tickets to Delhi and planned our trip to Kasol.

We reached Delhi and with a lot of google search we went to Kashmiri Gate bus station to book our tickets for the same night to Kasol. And looking at the crowd we knew it was the worst decision that we took of not booking tickets in advance. There was just 1 bus in the next hour and the crowd was crazy!!! Amongst all the hurry burry we 3 girls somehow rushed in between, caught hold of the bus conductor and literally begged him for 3 tickets to Kasol. And like every other person in the station, we were also asked to wait!! Now thank god my sister has a unique ,extremely curly hair that will poke anyone's face standing behind here. Why did I mention 'thank god' in the previous sentence? Because after 1 hour when the bookings were open the conductor recognized us because of my sister's hair and we could finally get the last 3 tickets on that bus to Kasol. Uffff!!! something went right that day and that's how we started our journey to Kasol.

We reached Manikaran around 8.00 am in the moring and decided to go to Tosh ( because obviously we had no plans in hand and we just went by the flow ). But there had to be obstacles in this hurdle race. The previous bus to Tosh met with an accident and there was no bus for the next 2 hours because of which there was just 1 bus parked and the crowd that was waiting for that bus was 4 times more than what the bus could hold. So obviously, we had to drop the plan.

Then we decided to take a cab to Kasol, which again, nobody was willing to take us because we negotiated a lot on the price. So keeping everything aside we went to general store to pick up some chips and just casually checked with the store owner the easiest way to reach Kasol. He guided us to the bus that was leaving to Kasol and we immediately boarded it. Lucky we took that bus because the cab charges you 400 Rupees. and the bus just charged us 15 Rupees per person. And now thats how we reached Kasol....but.....what next ??

Now came the turn to search for a place to stay. We had no clue which direction to move and where to find a good safe place to stay. And our lucky stars were so great that all 3 of us did not have networks on our phone. So we decided that whatever enters the road from any direction we would start walking that way and search for homestays/ tents / hotels to stay there. After waiting for 5 minutes we saw a Dog coming from the right side of where we were standing and all of us walked towards the right. We saw a beautiful set up of tents right next to river and went to enquire for stay. But alas, it was full with a group booking. We went to the next tent set-up, and guess what!! that was also full. By now we were ready for any kind of surprise because we knew that this decision of taking the trip without any bookings was not a good choice and there was nothing we could change about it. So we accepted it graciously and thought of doing anything and everything to make this trip right. Finally we could find a beautiful hotel with basic amenities and balconies that had stunning snow capped mountain views. Without a second thought we booked it which costed us 1500 Rupees per night and honestly that was a great deal for us after all that we went through. Comfortable big bed, a clean washroom with hot water and the balcony with stunning view.

We freshened up and went for a quick walk towards the flowing water but it was already evening and we wanted some time to sit and chill. We saw a park with some kids playing around and decided to go sit there for sometime. The park was beautiful with a lot of pine trees and from there we would see the bridge to Chalal. 

We left the park ( after being chased by the guard as it was closing time ) and we went to have some hot momos, paranthas and obviously the pahadi maggi. On the way to our hotel we grabbed some chips and snacks for our night cravings in the hotel.

The next morning was colder than we expected. The water was freezing cold and we could not even stand for 2 minutes without our sweaters. We quickly packed our luggage so that when we return back from chalal we can directly check out.

We started our day from the parantha wala right opposite to the Kasol Park and OMG how yum was it!!!

From there we estimated that going to chalal and coming back would take a lot of time and we did not want to pay for the extra day in our hotel so we checked out of the hotel and kept our luggage in the lobby to collect it later. The hotel guys were really sweet to agree to keep our luggage till evening without nay extra pay. And also, taking am minute to address that the people in Kasol are extremely good looking!! ;)

We started walking to Chalal and came across the bridge where the view will take your breathe. The flowing water touching the pine trees and the scene ends with snow capped mountains!! There were a lot of people washing clothes on the river thought and while we were getting our pics clicked we saw that there was some sort of smoke coming from the water. We assume it was because of extreme cold. But to my surprise, when I my foot accidently dipped into the water I realized that the water was smoking hot!!! Yes, the fresh flowing water is HOT!!

We clicked a lot of pictures and just sat there to admire Nature's beauty! That moment we realized that every little struggle we faced on this trip was compensated with the stunning views we found on this trip.

And that's how, this #LastMinute trip will forever be very close to our hearts because it was one of the most awesomely memorable trip of ours. Oh! also, our way back we did not have tickets to go back to Delhi, so we took a local bus from Kasol to Bhuntar ( 45 Rupees ) per person and luckily from Bhuntar we got tickets for a very nice Volvo bus to Delhi.

And that's how, the #LastMinute trip ended on a great or rather peaceful note :)