relaxing in Mussoorie....

This weekend went to Mussoorie trip with Dipankar and Kaushik. We boarded the train Mussoorie Express from Old Delhi Railway station at about 10.10 pm on Friday evening to Dehradun. Though there is a shorter bus route also from Delhi to Dehradun but train journey and timing is more comfortable. The train coach we boarded looked like an extra one added because of high rush on the route. It was unkempt with few cockroaches doing regular rounds around the seats. Moreover when we tried to switch off the tubelight at night around 11.30 pm the switch turned out to be faulty. Finally displaced the tubelight from connection socket to get it off. Sleep was not very sound for all but decent with Dips having dreams about locked in a coffin :D ( maybe as he was sleeping on the middle berth) . The next morning after reaching Dehradun at 8 am we hired a cab to Mussorie for Rs450. The distance is roughly 30-35 Km. On the way to mussorie the entire path was scenic with greenery all around the mountain region and few settlements. Reached Mussoorie in 1.5 hrs and booked Padmini Niwas Hotel for our stay. The rent being Rs1500 per day for a Suite room ( it was off season else the rent would have been double or more) . Room was nice and clean with excellent view of the valley from the backside. We had breakfast and got ready to leave by 11.30 am. The main road along which is the entire shopping bazaar and hotels is called the Mall road. We hired a cab to look out first for famous places around Mussoorie as per our research on internet. Being driven up from home to station and then from dehradun station to Mussoorie in an Ambassador both Dips and Kaushik were against hiring it as cab again. Santro was the majority choice. We headed for Buddhist temple, Kempty falls, Devi Temple and Lakemist with agreed payment of Rs 810. Company Bagh visit would have costed Rs200 more. The rating of the 4 places as per my experience in decreasing order goes as Kempty Falls > Buddhist Temple >Devi Temple> Lakemist. Except Kempty falls all others were very less crowded ( least being the Buddhist temple). We had boat riding at Lakemist with some snacks which came as a package for Rs75. Kempty fall was a huge crowd puller being the biggest waterfall in North Indian region.......many shops around the place selling local wood and decorative items. To get to the fall area were crowd had plunged in for getting themselves soaked into cold water of mountain we used a rope way. We were back in Mussoorie by 4.00 PM. The weather kept changing frequently from sunny to cloudy...each doing its its turn for 10-15 minutes. (Kempty falls)
(Devi temple)
(Lakemist)
(Buddhisttemple)
Spent the rest of day strolling around mall road and Barista (situated right in the middle of Mall road). The evening went in preparing and chatting over drink session ( Beer and Rum) at backside of the suite room. By 12.30 pm all were in dreamland with Dips snoring at full pace.
Next day was planned for a walk along Camel's back road ( gets its name from the shape of road resembling the hump of a camel) , Gun Hill and Mussoorie lake. Had a good breakfast at hotel and checked out by 11.30 AM. The Camels road was very scenic . (at Camels back road)
We were accompanied by a bunch of kids who were shy of getting clicked on camera when asked for. The entire stretch was 5 Km or so but didn't look to be tiring because of the scenery. (...kids)

Next was Gun Hill, we had a stop over at Barista for Coffee before we headed for same. It was mentioned as 10 minutes walk but turned out to be quite more than that( ard 25 min) . When we reached the top...it was just a place of few shops around. Main attraction of the place was the view of Himalayas but unfortunately because of heavy clouds we weren't that lucky. We sat down for a while ....the entire place was covered with clouds. Before leaving the place I tried out the local Garhwal dress. We had our lunch and left around 4 PM for Dehradun in Santro again , stopping over at Mussoorie lake which was on the way. (Mussoorie lake)
After reaching Dehradun around 5.45 PM , we headed for a movie to pass some time as train was to leave at 9.30 pm only. Watched Wednesday movie, quite good. We were out of movie hall by 8 Pm , had quick bite at Mc Donalds and left for station. The train was on time. Dehradun station was way cleaner as compared to other railway stations I have been too. Also in Mussoorie saw quite many hoardings for not using plastic and preserving the nature by not minimizing plastic usage. Finally boarded the train on way back to Delhi. The coach looked to be brand new....quite in contrast to what we experienced in onward journey. NCC cadet people were in the same coach and on seeing that we too had digital camera, one of them asked to get help on getting better picture clarity on Sony camera. The pictures were not precise and looked a little blurred....I had no clue how to do it but tried helping out. Fortunately it turned out that camera was put in Smart mode for Optical zoom, changed the same to Precision mode and done. The NCC cadet was happy :). We slept quite early around 10.30 pm . The train was delayed by 20-25 min. Dips got down at Ghaziabad station where as Kaushik and myself alighted at Shahadara station ....close to our place. Good trip indeed!