The trip almost didn't happen. While I had planned to be out by 4 am , I woke up only by about 5. By the time, I packed and loaded the bag on the bike, it had started drizzling. Since neither of us (me and my girl) had a raincoat, so we kinda decided to call it off or contemplated taking the car instead.

However, by about 7:45 odd, the drizzle which had turned to a pour, reduced itself back to an occasional drop here and there.

Having lost out to rains once before on my trip to Shivpuri , where I had under similar circumstances, abandoned the bike and taken the car (not one drop of rain throughout the trip, and I lived to cuss at it ), I was determined to not pussy outta this one. So off we left regardless of the clouds at 8 am, aiming at Murthal as the short term goal to go have Parathas' at. We decided , that if the weather worsens at Murthal , we'll have breakfast and turn back.

The Parathas' were awesome and the weather even better. The drive was on.

Having had to give in to the lady's wishes, I was the designated pillion rider for two hours to and two hours fro. So as I sat behind her , nervously wearing out my nails, which threatened to boycott residing on my fingers anymore. I must add here that , I am a pathetic pillion rider. For me, this is the stuff nightmares are made of. Given her 2nd ride ever on an Enfield (the first being a day earlier for 10 minutes. Her regular bike is a Suzuki Shogun), my nervousness bordered on hysteria. Needless to say, I got all the tounge-lashing back in the same tone and method.

Note to Self: Do NOT question a woman's ability to drive in front of her EVER.

Wiser by the kilometer, I decided to keep my mouth shut and make the best out of the deal by enjoying the ride. It was only 2 hours after all, one way. M u s t n o t p a n i c.

Now , here's the beauty of the Enfield. This lady , who usually would never rev the Shogun beyond 60-65kmph was going all out at 80 and then 90kmph. I was all - "whoa girl .. ! take it easy , pull her back a bit.I'm shitting bricks here." But a couple of minutes into it, and I realized, the stability that this puppy offered even at 100+ was quite incredible. It doesn't for a second feel like you are running down the highway at speeds on an uncontrollably shaky machine. The tempo of the thumps picks up a bit and that's about all there is to it. The sound is not as sweet as the Bullet, but hey , I was graduating to it from the shogun and pulsar 'noise'.

A minor irritant on the Delhi-Chandigarh highway is the stretch you put in through Punjab. They actually have the cheek to put up a toll gate, which as soon as you cross it gives in to the chaos of a regular city road. Saving grace - bikes never have to pay toll.

The route to Kasauli from Parwanoo , instead of the usual diversion from Dharampur, further down the Delhi -Shimla highway is a much better option. The road is steeper, less crowded and better views. Why is that a plus? Dunno. But that's what rocks my boat :) .

Reached Kasauli by about lunch. The peace of this place, inspite of the proximity to delhi is to be seen to be believed. Much , I'm told, is attributed to the Army's will to keep this place as much not-as-Shimla as possible. The villas , the space, the peace, the old world - treat to the eyes.

Being the peak tourist season, we didnt' have any hope of getting accommodation, so had gotten our tent along. But we didn't find a place to pitch the tent. The semi-good sites were not acceptable to us and the good sites didn't have the owners around to take permission from for pitching the tent. We instead had lunch at the Ros Common and decided to head to Barog, where we had spoken to the owner of a private Hill in advance as Plan B. The place is incredible, gorgeous and it's steep to get to. It's called the King's Milan Centre. This is hill, a couple of kilometers before Hotel Pinewood. It's a privately held area , which rents out an occasional tent or room, but is mostly privately held villas. We asked for 6x6 piece of flat land to pitch our own and got a great deal on it too - Free :) . I was expecting to pay atleast a token amount, but all we had pay for was for the food at the club there.

A night full of booze and catching up on the week's talk later, we woke up to an incredible view of bored haze lazily rolling down the hills in front of us.

The weekend trip that never was, turned into a gorgeous Sunday morning mocking at us city dwellers. *sigh to be able to spend a lifetime in the hills* .

By the time we packed the tent up a slight drizzle took over, which just as quickly gave way to a gorgeous sunny morning.

We left Barog at 12 and reached back home by 8:30. A slight miscalculation on the reserve capacity of the fuel tank, had us walk for about 10 minutes to the next petrol pump, but in all, the Thunderbird did justice to the Enfield Clan by being the best available road hogger in India.

Distance covered - 660 kms.