auli 3

So we were off on day 3 after breakfast to Auli. Villages were stirring and waking up gradually. We left the beautiful in fact the very beautiful scenery of bageswar and baijnath to the comparatively starker terrains of gwaldum.It had rained the previous weeks and the road was a lesser trod one so in patches the road was muddy and slushy. my husband warned that if the car got stuck then i along with my niece in law (9 yr old )have to push the car.Just imagine his audacity .maybe he was kidding but I took it seriously becos if anything of this sort happened then there was no other option. there was no other sign of civilisation. Said too soon!Why we had hardly gone a few kms when we came upon a bunch of rowdy boys dancing and celebrating holi.They pounced upon us the moment they saw us and no they did not colour us if you are thinking so, but demanded bakshish or money. An altercation followed. i screamed hysterically ( ya I am quite capable of dramatics) but boys will be boys they simply did not relent. they sat on the road blocking our way. an impasse ensued.We were running late for the last ski lift to Auli. My hubby was about to give in when a military vehicle puled behind us. I went and complained to them but they indulgently asked us to pay the "cute boys". we knew we had lost the battle and meekly gave in . we paid up and proceeded onwards. from then on the pattern followed. A few km- group playing holi- pay up- move on. I started grumbling about what a bad time we had chosen to travel. After 7-8 such celebrations I think God took on some mercy on us, A magistrate's vehicle joined us somewhere along the way near Karnaprayag and followed us til near Pipalkoti .Nobody dared to stop us now and we had a respite till some distance. After Pipalkoti, it was same again but thankfully dusk had set in and there were few [people in the roads. But unthankfully we were late for the last ski lift to Auli. we had a reservation there and so my husband decided to attempt the road to Auli. till halfway he was managing fine but as we climbed higher we encountered snow over the road until we came upon completely covered road. slippery and dangerous. we had to turn back. there was now o way to reach Auli. there went the hotel rent down the drain. it was a day of loses. we again headed to the lift to request if they could bend the rules a bit and bend the lever abit. but no they gave us quite a stiff response. over and above they gave the very sad news that the ski lift will not be operated the next two days due to holi. AAARGH! I was never fond of holi and now u can understand how I was feeling. Shinu was devastated at the plans going awry. with a heavy heart and a light purse we headed to the tourism hotel run by GMVN.The accommodation was economical but not pleasing to me. I found them very gloomy. The workers warned us that the next day lunch and evening tea will not be served and breakfast will be served very early. Reason? what else? holi! we told them that we intend to leave the next day as there was nothing else to be done but another travel advisory was issued that travelling in holi near Auli was a very risky thing. we were trapped and as there was no other way out of the situation,we went out late in the evening to shop for some dry eatables like biscuits, wafers,fruits, bread, butter. My hubby bought a CD of jumanji. he had brought his laptop along which was a good thing he had done. we rang up our respective departments to extend our leaves for 2 more days. thankfully no problem from that side.

Day 4- we woke up early so as to not to miss breakfast. I was tempted to join the people outside. Who knows we too could have earned back our losses . but that was just a thought.At around 10 am I discovered that hubby dear was running a temperature and shinu started having lose motions and vomiting.Oh God if that was your idea of keeping us occupied then sorry to say , I was not amused. somehow we managed to contain both the patients by afternoon. When both of them felt better, we watched the movie Jumanji. Dinner was served early and it was a simple affair but we found it very delicious.after having a discussion with a local guy who drove an SUV, we decided to give another shot at Auli by road the next morning.

Day 5- next morning we checked out promptly at 7 am and left for Auli. the guy was good. He drove expertly over the snow and took us till about 1 km away from Auli as the snow was heavier over there. We had to walk the remaining km but finding the near impossible destination within reachable distance, every bodies spirits were high and we went happily climbing the uphill road to Auli. we spent around 3 hours over there. Unlike Manali it was a purely a skiing destination. there was no snow tubing or tobogganing . no pesky crowds. only ski enthusiasts were seen over there lugging there ski gear around. we looked quite out of place over there. we too tried our hands ..err.. feet at skiing. slided ....pushed..fell...again slided...pushed...After few rounds of these we took our leave achieving our purpose. Another destination ticked in the Map. Another happy ending. Thank you God! Finally we started on our return journey which was thankfully uneventful.

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