In the morning of July 31, we looked southwards and set off to arguably, the best mountain viewing station this side of the Mugling Bridge, Daman. We got together at 7:30 in the morning at Deerwalk premises and headed out.

Van 1

One of the vehicles turned out to be an absolute stag party. It started with stories of Sachin’s exciting days at K.U. (Kathmandu University). We stopped briefly at Naubise for breakfast. We had chiura(beaten rice) and meat and curd, which, later on caused a lot of trouble for us. Once the road kicked upwards, we sensed it was just the beginning of all the fun we were to have later. Pretty soon all guys were in the mood to tell jokes. Sunil was the most proficient one in telling jokes in a funny way, the requests kept coming in until we got back.

Every now and then we would stop and enjoy a view of the exquisite panorama of beautiful hills and mountains. Since it was hot in Kathmandu, every one of us enjoyed the cool and fresh air of the hills. The greenery, the fresh air and tranquil surroundings made us think of heaven on earth. Nimesh and Pritesh even played basketball in the highway. We reached Daman at around 12:00pm.

Van 2

The journey started with us forming 2 teams to play the most played game while travelling, ‘Antakshari’. It was a fun way to pass time while anticipation was building up inside all of us to reach our destination. There were fun moments during Antakshari time when Saroj was making up his own lyrics. Both bhaujus who were with us in the bus sang with a sweet voice. We stopped at Naubise for breakfast which became heavy lunch for some people. The girls did not eat much though. Antakshri continued after the interval. From our windows, we could see beautiful, green hills and small rivers and streams along the way. Observing nature in all is splendor made us realize why tourists flock our country in such large numbers.

At the resort

We were all excited and once the room partners were decided, we hurriedly checked into our rooms in order to start our activities. The first activity was a game of football. We played a game where all of us stayed in a circle and passed the ball around with one person (the monkey) in the middle trying to block the pass. Ashay ended up as the monkey for over 50 passes and was punished. He had to do 5 pushups. Due to rainfall our games ended prematurely and we all hurried to the shed where barbeque was being prepared. Then the feasting and drinking began. In the midst of all this, Rudra suddenly came up with a game that would come to become one of the most memorable events of the trip. It was a squatting competition! Sagar was the winner of this competition with a total of 149 squats leaving all the competitors in the dust and rendering his legs pretty much useless for the rest of the trip. After eating and drinking quite a lot it was decided that we all needed to stretch our legs and what better way to do it than a walk to a local market at SimBhanjyang. The feeling of being with friends in a place such as Daman was truly amazing. Once we were back to the resort it was back to barbeque and drinking. Some of us got a little tipsy. We got to hear different presentations and other rants in English. Some even started to sing and dance in very innovative ways. The weirdest realization was watching all of us tipsy souls discuss process, of all things, at midnight. All in all, the trip was very interesting to say the least.
Looking forward to the next bout of insanity.