Land of Gods | Uttarakhand’18 | Day 23 | Haridwar – Delhi

Today was the last day of my trip. I woke up with great excitement knowing that I was finally going home. At the same time, I was equally sad as I was leaving such a place behind. Uttrakhand is truly beautiful and somehow I was happy and relieved that I had covered most of the places in this one mega trip of mine. This state should be visited at least once in a lifetime. If you leave the pilgrimage sites (most of them are closed in winters), there are a plethora of places you can enjoy during winters.

The distance for today was not much. I was heading back to Delhi, the very same place the trip had begun 23 days back. I had a flight to catch the next morning to Mumbai. But before I could catch a flight, I had to ship my bike via road in a safe and secure manner.

After having a cup of hot tea, I left the place. It was pretty cold in the morning and so I had prepared accordingly. Upon exiting Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh greeted me with Fog. There was fog everywhere which really made the visibility poor. Luckily, there wasn’t much traffic on the highway. The fog made the Sun look like a Moon and with no heat penetrating the atmosphere, temperatures remained low and this affected my driving. The intense cold was biting my fingers on both the hands and making the riding unbearable. I had to stop immediately and look for shops selling tea.

It was still early morning and the shops were not yet opened fully. At the same time, I could not go ahead as my fingers were completely numb and in pain. I had to request the owner to make a hot cup of tea for myself. As soon as the fingers touched the hot surface of the glass, it was an instant relief. Instead of immediately drinking it, I held the cup with my hands for quite some time till the fingers and my nervous system responded that I should let go of it. Tea was accompanied with some biscuits!

The weather pretty much remained the same till noon. I was nearing Delhi and with that, I started coordinating with my friend for arranging to ship my bike via truck to Delhi. He ran a transport company, the very same guy who had shipped my bike from Mumbai to Delhi in the first. I was supposed to go to Mahipalpur area where the shipping company was located. I reached the place around 3pm after going through a lot of trouble. The place was difficult to find with google maps. This whole fuss was created because the friend whom I’d supposed to meet was in another city.

I met with another guy at the place who noted down all the details of the bike and me and after filling the transportation form, I and my bike parted ways. The bike supposedly would leave the next morning just like me. I re-shuffled my luggage and took only the necessary things along with me as I was going by flight. The guy also lent his washroom so that I could get fresh.

I had to spend a night here in Delhi and with that, I phoned my closest friends there. Initially, I had planned to book a hotel for me but later came to know that I could use some help with my friends living here. Help came immediately. Dr. Mohan Charan to my rescue. He stays not far away from the place I was in currently. After a brief call, we met at a pre-decided place near some mall after which we all went to his cousin’s place where I would be staying.

Later in the evening, we went outside for a dinner. I thanked Mohan for the warm hospitality and bid him good night. My flight was early morning around 5 am and so I wanted to crash on the bed and get as much sleep as possible.

The time was 23:30 hrs by the time I went to sleep after placing an alarm.