It was group travel to India we were 90 persons hence hired 3 coaches – everything was going perfect and we were on our last leg of journey. We were supposed to travel from Shimla to Chandigarh. After spending one night, to New Delhi back home. After the two coaches left for Chandigarh, we see that our coach had a breakdown. It was some local festival and all the work shop was closed. With great difficulty, we caught hold of a mechanic’s home address. When we reached the mechanic, he was leaving for the temple and since it was a festival, initially he refused to help. However, after our pleading, he agreed but agreed to attend to us after visiting the temple etc which means another 2-3 hours. Since we had checked out from the hotel already We spoke to the hotel to tell them that we will have lunch there. Unfortunate for us, they had hired a temporary staff who were leaved after the breakfast for our group was finishes. Finally what…. We used the hotel’s kitchen and prepared our own food. Finally the coach was put in order by the mechanic and we left for Chandigarh around 1700hours instead of 0700hours in the morning. The best thing was, this event became the highlight of our tour. We reached Chandigarh and the other members were happy to see us fit and fine. The members on the other two coach which left early were feeling bad that they did not have a breakdown. They really missed something adventurous / interesting. Assuming, we are finished with the problem and had some nice drinks followed by dinner and signed off for this day. As some of the group members were connecting the International flight from Delhi the next day, we asked the hotel to keep the breakfast ready by 0630 as we wanted to leave the hotel by 0900. At 0615-0630, when we reached the coffee shop, it was pitch dark and there were no lights. The reception did not inform the coffee shop about our breakfast and there were no staff to attend to us. We were informed that generally the breakfast starts at 0800hours. We definitely did not want to miss the flight. During the lunch yesterday, we were only 30 but now we are 90 persons and ready for another adventure. About 7 of us took charge of the kitchen and started with preparation of breakfast. While we were not cook by profession, we managed to make some quick omelets, boiled eggs and cutlets. Fortunately the hotel had fruits and juices enough for our group.
Now I do not know if I should call this a “The worst journey of my life” or the “The best journey of my life”
V Jayaraman
