Warning : Highly imaginative and exaggerated. My travel just provides the background :P

Well! The TAS submissions have been made and my popularity stint is over. So I should find some other topic to write. I have decided to share my travel experiences with all those who would care to read. Today I am going to narrate a story of three drunken souls in Kaza. To facilitate your understanding, Kaza is a town in Spiti valley of Himachal Pradesh.
Reaching Kaza was a long journey of 12 hours undertaken in a green box with four wheels, of which these souls sat on one. This green box is called “Himachal Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation”. The experience was an out of the world one, as they gradually entered into dry and barren lands of spiti valley from an amazingly green Kinnaur valley. However the bus facilitate a 4 directional movement in east west, north south fashion owing to its continuous up and down movement in addition to a forward one.

They reached ‘safely’ and started hunting for the hotel. They made their way straight for the state tourism hotel, which was just 5 minutes walk from where ever consulted and after 5 such short walks they reached our destination. The place was not any way a dream hill station of their dreams but was pleasantly different. None of them had seen such a vast expanse of barren land which is cut only by the freezing spiti river. The snow capped dry mountains were magnanimous in view and they felt pitifully small in comparison. Approaching evening reminded them of arranging for the stay before light failed. With the hope of “Govt. is cheap”, they approached the reception, where the destroyer of their hopes sat, “Rent is 1500” he said calmly. They picked up their luggage and made their way to where they came from. “See the room atleast. We can arrange the payment”, smile lit up their faces. “Govt. is cheap. One way or the other”. They got the room for 800 and that too a room with the view (don’t get any fancy ideas, it was the river).
You must be wondering, when do these three souls get drunk? Well! Let’s skip the planning part that these people did. Now they left the safe haven of the hotel and ventured in the cold and dry realities of Kaza. These souls were wandering for food; the hotel they had chosen refused to subsidize food. A suitable Israeli place was chosen to eat ‘variety’ of food. One of these souls is a fan of beer and would drink nothing else. So this soul looked for beer, let’s call this soul Carlsberg however poor Carlsberg got some local brand of beer, which he drank like a true Carlsberg. The peculiarities of the eatery should also be appreciated here, Carlsberg was asked to hide his beer or close the curtain. On enquiry it was revealed that our heros could have alcohol with curtains drawn. Decision was taken and the other two souls decided on Old Monk, lets call them Old and Monk. Old went to fetch Old Monk and rest two ordered matching food. Curtains were drawn, drinks were served and the pack of cards was brought out by Monk. The game progressed, so did the drinks and curtains were duly checked from time to time. Food was ordered in batches and hints of the order were taken from the adjacent table where a group of Israeli hippies sat and ate, Old Monk confirmed a 75% success rate at these food orders.

Once full of food and alcohol, our heroes were served with bill and information of “we are closing”. They paid and came out satisfied, but the satisfaction did not last very long as the cold air entered their nostrils and made way to their inebriated soul. Our heroes resisted the attack to bring them back to real world and they succeeded in being where they were. Lets see where were they? We can only guess that through their actions that night. Monk was certainly on the moon as it kept on trying to capture moon in his shutter and ended up with a blurred spot in a black background (suspicion : I do know if it was still the moon for Monk or if he was on moon and he wanted to capture Earth). Monk sat in the middle of the road and took up the challenge of counting the stars while humming the tune of “aaj main uppar, aasman neeche” (that’s why the suspicion above). Old was busy noticing the mountains in the moonlight, he appeared to guessing their heights and time required to reach the top. I do not question the calculation of Old, as after a while I think he was already at the top. He was staring in the ground hard and mumbled, “Gosh, its too high.” And a tune followed, “main bahut door bahut door chala”.
Of these three souls the most practical thought was of Carlsberg who wanted to reach Spiti River. Water glowed like silver in the moonlight and the sound of it crashing against the rocks was pleasant. Carlsberg suggested and Old Monk followed. I do not and will not ever doubt the courage of any drunken soul. The fear disappears and is replaced by “adventure”. As they walked, they sang along “Chalo chalein Mitwa….inn unchi nichi rahon par”. Well! Old did his calculations, Carlsberg decided on the approach and Monk stood there randomly clicking. Phone torches were switched on, thanks to two of these souls who still carried primitive mobile phones. Carlsberg entered the area which was covered with thorn bushes and close inspection revealed they were allergic as well. Our heroes did not give up. Next they were faced by a wall, Carlsberg took a step forward and jumped, and so did Old Monk. The distance to the river had not reduced and Old was confused, his calculations were going wrong. Carlsberg was still moving ahead and Monk followed wondering how all these bushes did grow on moon, “there is no oxygen right?” (I discovered drunken souls do not breathe oxygen). Just then Carlsberg halted, staring in the valley below. The river was at least 20 feet below where they stood and the horizontal distance remained the same. Carlsberg still took a step forward and monk turned to leave, Old was still doing some calculations. Well! In the end they decided to go back. I guess the eyes overcame the brain and courage disappeared in the moonlight of deep valley.

Epilogue
Our heroes woke up in the morning to discover a few rashes here and there. Masses of thorn clung to their clothes and a few cuts needed attention. The first aid kit was readily brought out and few items like boroline, band aid, moov and pain killers were used. This was followed by a heated discussion over an apple pie, apple crumble and apple strudel over getting to the river. Two hours later, our heroes stood by the river, testing its freezing waters. It was broad day light and three drunken souls were Cappuccino, Latte and Masala Chai!