Ever since i was married, there was a guilt inside me. The GUILT: no honeymoon yet. Not that i never wished for it, but somehow it never happened.
This ended on 2nd Aug 2012. .
And it took a bet which i eventually lost, to plan a trip. Initially, it was planned taking eight people into consideration. But as things turned out finally, we were left with five and an infant.
The first question was When and the next was Where. We all were confused and it was left entirely on me to decide the When part and also the Where part. But it was tough on my part to decide it all alone, coz everyone had their reservation on the dates. So, rather on deciding on the When part, we sat down to finalize where all we can go. Everyone came up with few destination ideas.
I was interested to explore Himachal Pradesh more because one of my very dear friend Srijoy had just visited the place and i liked the scenic views in the snaps he uploaded on Facebook. No one objected but at the same time no one actually said Yes. I took it as a Yes because there were no other place discussed. And so, started working on it. Explored the web for few days to get some in-depth knowledge of the place we may visit. And finally came down with an itinerary. But somehow i was not convinced with the plan as well as the excitement within the group for the place i have finalized.
Then, from no where, my Big B suggested why not visit the Paradize on Earth (Kashmir) so that we can also cover the long awaited holy shrine of Mata Vaishnodevi. It was like a spark everyone waited for. There was altogether a different energy level within the group when this idea popped up. And immediately i understood, this is THE place we all would like to go.
Sadly, Himachal Pradesh lost 5 tourists for this season.
Now the onus was on for making a proper itinerary as there was an infant with us. My wifey was ALL IN in whatever plan i would make, but surprisingly, she made a brief appearance while i was preparing the blue print. With a very humble and soft voice, she said she wished to visit the Golden Temple in Amritsar, and i knew "Rab ne bana di Jodi" had lot to thank for this wish of her's.
So, without a fuss, i agreed. In fact, i agreed Happily because she seldom makes a wish public. Infact, i myself was excited with this addition.
So, as it turned out, it was Amritsar-VaishnoDevi-Srinagar.
With so many permutation and combinations, i came up with an itinerary in the same order as i just mentioned above. Amritsar first, then Jammu-Katra-Vaishnodevi and then Srinagar. We didnt have the liberty to take our own time to visit these places. Obviously for Economic reasons as well as for the Leaves granted by our respective employers.
Along with the itinerary, i was also looking at the calender constantly. From 3rd Aug (Friday) to 12th Aug (Sunday) suited best for everyone. As 15th Aug was round the corner, all the three places are prone to some kind of unrest and so the security beefing in these places are at their High during that time. So, it was prudent to schedule a trip which ends before the D-Day.
Leaves were applied well in advance by the people who were really interested. Two from our group were always unsure about their availability at that time but still gave their NOC for the trip with an Asterisks mark on it, indicating Terms and Conditions applied. I somehow knew, they will not make it. They never made it!!
The itinerary was like this:
Reach Amritsar on 5th. Visit all the places. Take a train midnight. Reach Jammu on 6th. From Jammu, straightaway head to Katra. After Dinner, start trekking for Vaishnodevi darshan. Return to Hotel on 7th noon. Take rest. Move to PatniTop. Half-day sight seeing on 8th. Move to Srinagar. 9th-10th-11th in Srinagar. Move back on 11th evening to Jammu from Srinagar. Take a overnight train on 12th Midnight for Delhi. From Delhi take a train by noon and reach Mumbai by late in the night.
First thing first. Train tickets was the first on the To-Do list as train reservations in India is as tough as getting more than one Olympic gold for India. I did exactly that. Booked all the train tickets for all Seven for all the destinations. Mumbai to Amritsar, Amritsar to Jammu, & Jammu to Delhi and Delhi to Mumbai. Fortunately, got all confirmed tickets for every journey.
Next on the menu was to book Hotels. Explored all the possible travel websites. Compared the prices. Read the hotel reviews. Made calls to many hotels to know the rates they are offering. After grinding my mind for almost a fortnight, selected the hotels. Booked the Amritsar hotel through the travel website but all the other hotels were booked directly by making Token advance payments in their Bank accounts, thanks to online payment gateways.
Not to forget, my Big B also managed time from his busy office schedule to explore the hotels and places and in fact the Kashmir hotel was finalized on his findings. He in fact did more research than me and it was evident from the research paper he came up with. It had minute details of places to visit in n out of Srinagar.
So, everything was falling on place as it was planned. Train bookings, Hotel Bookings, places to visit, To-Do lists etc. Only thing remained was the SUV booking which we planned to hire from Katra after MataVaishnoDevi darshan. From 7th to 11th. We were a bit skeptical in booking a SUV so early as we had ample time in Katra as per our itinerary. But then, i wanted it to be a Best Planned trip and this thought helped me decide to not leave anything "To-Be-Done". So, without a second thought, i started calling up the Katra tour operators and finalized one, made a token payment to his bank A/c and that's it...
Even after all these booking, two bookings were intentionally not done. First, the Car or SUV for Amritsar tour and Second, the Houseboat in Srinagar where we intended to stay at least for a Night during the later part of our Srinagar stay. We knew it was not required to be done before hand.
It was less than a month to go when the two members who gave their NOC with an asterisk mark had the guts to finally say NO....and we simply said Thanks...because it was a no-shocker...we knew it was on cards.
First thing i did was cancelling their Train tickets. Hotel room cancellation was not required as earlier it was planned that the 3 bachelors would share the same room and now the lone bachelor would get the entire double-bed room. It hardly affected the economies too...
One major concerned came up in our mind. The journey from Srinagar to Mumbai was looking to be very very hectic. So, we were compelled to look for some other option. Flight journey looked the best one. So, there was a change in the plan...just a bit...towards the later part of our journey.
Instead of taking train from Jammu on 11th midnight...we extended our stay in Srinagar for one more day and booked flight tickets from Srinagar to Mumbai..thankfully a direct flight within our budget was readily available. So, without wasting any time, we completed the flight bookings too.
Now we had a 4 night stay in Srinagar, two nights in the pre-booked hotel and two nights for the Housboat-to-be-booked.
This new plan looked more comfortable and more pleasing for everyone.
We waited for 3rd Aug eagerly. Everyone was busy in packing bags, which meant lots of shopping too...n with SALE everywhere, it was like a carnival. Super excited everyone.
We were ready with the luggage. Total 5 of them plus 3 hand bags. We were ready to burst....
Amritsar-VaishnoDevi-Srinagar was calling................here we come!!
*The second part of the Tripology to be posted soon!!
