Day 44 - 15/02/20

Dear Friends,

There was a slight change of plan since my last blog. I am not in Mumbai anymore. Instead, I am writing this on a train heading towards Amritsar, 28km from the Pakistan border. I have been travelling with 4 of the OSCAR staff for the last 5 days now, after I spontaneously agreed to head off on a road trip with them at a football ground last Sunday. When they initially mentioned it, my head was telling me I should 100% go, as this would be such a rare opportunity. However, I was also feeling guilty because it would mean I’d have to leave OSCAR after committing to another 10 days, but everyone was super supportive and didn’t want me to miss out. I booked my tickets the same day!

On the night of the 10^th, I met the gang at Mumbai Central Station, and we embarked on the 17hr sleeper heading to Delhi. I know its cringe but if I’m honest I just couldn’t stop smiling, I was genuinely so excited, and so happy they had invited me along for the ride. It was my 19th birthday, so at midnight I was surprised with a couple of slices of eggless chocolate cake from Celejor, which is a famous cake shop in Mumbai, and it did not disappoint. We tucked into it on the bottom tier bunk in 3AC, and they all sang happy birthday to me, and what was so sweet is they kept saying it throughout the day, and even now 4 days later occasionally they’ll say, “Happy belated birthday Phoebe.” What gorgeous friends I have made! We played some cards and listened to music but by that time the whole coach was asleep so we hit the deck. I slept on the top bunk of three, and even had sheets, blankets and a pillow for maximum comfort! The quality of the food throughout the day was actually pretty indisputable, better than most plane foods I have had. We had a couple of hours to kill in Delhi, which we all agreed we wouldn’t have wanted to stay in for much longer, before heading on an overnight bus to Manali. Tinka joined us at this point, and it was touch and go whether she would make her flight to Delhi from Kathmandu, but it seemed ti was meant to be! Even though my birthday was spent on a train and then ended on a bus, I liked the fact there was no fanciness, we were all just enjoying heading out on our little adventure, it will be one of my most memorable birthdays so far.

Manali is a Himalayan town in India’s northern Pradesh state. As soon as we arrived we realised it was a town bustling with activities, as everywhere we looked there were advertisements for paragliding, white water rafting, skiing, you name it. We had been travelling for nearly two days, so we spent a couple of hours finding the hotel, and spent the rest of the day relaxing. We explored the town and decided to go to see Malang in the cinema that evening. It was entirely in Hindi but the others explained the important bits. The movie was a thriller and filled with twists, we all loved it, I think that is my 4^th trip to the cinema now...The 13^thand the 14^th were spent exploring temples and visiting the mountains, with the highlights being white water rafting, ‘skiing’ in the Solang valley, and making a snowman! I should say that the skiing was more like pushing yourself along at the bottom of the bubble and taking a few photos, which we had paid 600 rupees at the bottom of the mountain, thinking we were getting a great deal – little did we know. The situation was actually rather funny in the end and we ended up having one of our best days mucking about in the snow.

Chandigarh was stop two, just for a day trip, it is the capital of the northern Indian states of Punjab and Haryana. We arrived at 3 in the morning with nowhere to stay, and after some back and forth shuffling we finally found a place that would put us up for the rest of the night. We spent the day visiting the key sights: the rock garden, rose garden and Sukhna lake. We had a delightful late lunch and surprisingly made it in plenty of time for our 4:50pm train to Amritsar, 28km from the border with Pakistan (where I am now writing this the next morning as I gave up on the train last night to play cards). We have two days here to explore and then we are heading back to Mumbai, which is going to be a long journey, 31 hours I believe!

bye for now,

Phoebe