Travelling without a Plan, Yes or No?

I remember sitting at the Railway station at 4 am in the morning, having my morning tea, googling what that place was after having travelled for about 600km to reach there!!

Little backstory. A day before this, my roommate told me that she was set out to Nainital the next day with her friend and asked me if I wanted to join her. And I obviously had to say yes, not just that I called in two more of my friends and all 5 of us took half day to the office next day and reached at Delhi railway station at 10 pm when our train to Haldwani (nearest train station from Nainital) was to depart. That was the time when my roommate told us that tickets were not confirmed and she hid it from us because we would have cancelled the plan on knowing it. We had to travel 6 hours shifting from seat to seat. Being my first experience to travel with unconfirmed ticket and searching for T.C to get it confirmed, I was already loving this trip.

As we were sitting on Haldwani railway station, sipping our tea, the only information we knew was that  Haldwani is the nearest Railway station to Nainital and that Nainital is known for its Lakes.

We then searched online for stay options in Nainital and places to visit there, but there were so many options that we decided to reach Nainital first and then decide about it and we took a local taxi from Haldwani to reach Nainital city centre.

On reaching Nainital city centre we were approached by many taxi drivers to take us to their partnered hotels and resorts. Standing there confused, we met a Cab owner who also owned a campsite on a riverside and he showed us the photos and information leaflet for same. And looking at the photos and online reviews, we immediately agreed to stay there. He also rented us a cab which took us to all the places for the next 2 days.

The camp we stayed at, was nothing as I ever would have imagined! Right in the valley, surrounded by mountains, the camp was set by a riverside and it had an amazing walking bridge connecting the road to the camp area.

We saw every beautiful place we could in 2 days. River, waterfall, clouds, caves, everything. I remember sitting beside the campfire at night asking myself would I be feeling these cold winds if I hadn’t said yes to joining my roommate because there was no time to prepare for and plan the trip? Would I be seeing these stars shining bright in the sky if we had dropped the plan because the train tickets were not confirmed? Would I be hearing to this calming sound of the river gushing through rocks if I had booked some resort online, back when I was sitting on my couch at home? Would I have this amazing experience if I hadn’t been spontaneous?

Being spontaneous is something we are born with. When a kid sees anything for the first time, it tries to hold it, feel it, make sense of what it is. No matter if it is a balloon or a wire, they just go for it. As we grow, society starts to curb the spontaneity. We are taught to stay safe by fearing the unknown. Of course, fear is necessary and is one of the survival instincts which every animal has, but as we grow we make boundaries around ourselves dominated by our fears and within the boundary lies what we call our comfort zones.

I, being a rigorous planner my entire life, always had to know everything about whatever I was doing or about to do and it was this trip which taught me that it is okay not to have a plan. It is okay to go with the flow at times. It is okay to step out of your comfort zone. Beautiful things are waiting for you on the other end. Be spontaneous, take that first step and give it a chance!!