As the sunlight streamed in from the curtains, I woke up with a start. At first, I could not remember why I had felt so alert, then, I remembered — today I was going to Murree with my family. My father had even allowed me to take my cat, Sprinkles, along for the trip.

“It’s time to go,” my father called out once we had finished breakfast.

I had packed my things the night before in a backpack and now grabbed some extra hand sanitisers and face masks, and rushed towards the car.

“I’m going to miss home,” I whispered in Sprinkles’ ear.

As we neared Salt Range, I asked dad, “When are we going to reach Murree?”

“One more hour to go, sweetie,” replied Dad.

“Ugh”, I grumbled quietly.

After an hour, we were finally in Murree. The roads were so winding that I felt dizzy. Sprinkles seemed to be scared while looking down at the mountains. When we reached the hotel, Sprinkles finally stopped meowing. I read out the signboard hanging in front of the tall, red-brick building.

“Punjab Huts ... is this where we are staying for three nights?” I asked mum.

“Yes, dear. Now get your things and let’s go inside the hotel,” she replied.

I picked up Sprinkles and got my bag out. I followed mum and dad to the hotel. The hotel looked much better inside than it looked from the outside. The hotel manager gave dad the keys to our room.

On the key ring, written in gold letters, was the number 105. The room had a mini microwave and a mini fridge. From the windows, I saw steep hills covered with tall, green trees. The greenery all around was so beautiful and peaceful. Suddenly, something caught my eye.

“Mum, I think I spotted a brown cow!” I exclaimed.

When mum took a look out of the window, she said, “Honey, that is not a cow! It’s a wild boar.”

When I looked again, I could see the wild boar clearly this time. And there were some crows surrounding the boar as well. I decided to take a nap and continue my animal watching later. I lay down on the bed and Sprinkles snuggled in with me. Mum and dad also decided to rest a bit, and before we knew it, all four of us were sleeping.

When we woke up, it was almost 7:00 p.m. I went to look out of the window again, and to my surprise, I saw two boars and six baby boars. I called out to my parents, so they could see the boar family as well.

We were all hungry as it had been a long time since our last meal, so we headed to the hotel’s restaurant for some dinner. Mum ordered sandwiches, dad ordered pasta and I ordered fish and chips. When our order arrived, we munched on our food hungrily. When we were done, we went back to our room and slept. At 6:00am, Sprinkles’ meowing woke everyone. She was feeling a bit uneasy, or maybe excited, in a new place. Once we were all up, she seemed excited to go out. I took a shower and got ready since we had planned to go to Sozo Adventure Park. The park turned out to be great. There were lots of exciting rides and I tried them all.

After an hour, we went back to our car, looking for more adventures. Our next stop was a hotel in Bhurban. I was super excited, as I wanted to do horse-riding! The hotel was huge, with many restaurants and souvenir shops. We were hungry after the long ride, so we had a lunch buffet in the restaurant there. After having lunch, we went outside in the hotel lawns for a stroll.

Near the tall bushes, I spotted two white ears. I raced towards the mystery animal and came to a halt on seeing two blue majestic eyes staring right back at me. It was a white horse and it was tied up near a tree. A man was sitting next to the horse. I asked about the horse’s gender and name. The man told me that it was a female and her name was Neelum. I asked mum if I could ride Neelum and she gave me the permission.

The man helped me get on top of the horse and I gently stroked her soft neck. After two rounds, I got off the horse. We decided to take some pictures, but, out of nowhere, it started to rain. By the time we reached the hotel parking, we were soaking wet.

As soon as we reached our hotel, we changed our clothes. Sprinkles curled up against me on the bed and I went to sleep. When I woke up, it was dark outside. I went to open the windows, and to my amazement, I saw beautiful monkeys. They didn’t look like ordinary monkeys, so I quickly looked them up on my mum’s mobile phone. They were actually red-faced spider monkeys! We had had a long day, so we ordered food inside our room and then went to bed.

The next day was the last day of our short holiday. We were going to a resort in Nathiagali. We took a shower and headed towards our car. On our way, we saw many shops along the road. I asked my dad if I could buy bananas to feed the monkeys on the roadside. Dad stopped the car at the next fruit shop, and I got two bunches of bananas.

After feeding the monkeys, we continued our journey to the hotel. First, we had lunch there and then we visited the pet zoo. I saw different kinds of parrots, chickens, turkeys, rabbits, quails and even ducks! There were also several activities for children to indulge in. I tried my luck at archery and even did zip-lining. The next day, we went back to Lahore. I had a lot of fun and I can’t wait to go back again. I like to call this experience as ‘the summer escape’.

Published in Dawn, Young World, December 4th, 2021