Yippie!!!! Hum to ghoomne ja rahe hain!!!
This childish uttering is quite common coming from me, whenever I am making a plan to get out of Delhi, and if I am going towards the hills, then imagine me jumping in joy, and uttering the above mentioned every 10 minutes. In fact, my friends tease me that I get my bags packed (at least mentally), just at the mention of the word trip. So you can imagine my joy when the 4 of us in office decided to go to a hill station for a weekend… :-) Since we were all working in the same team, and couldn’t get an off on the same day (imagine the entire team absconding on the same day), we decided on Mussourie.
Anyway, we booked the train tickets to and fro from Dehradun and also booked Hotel Filligree online, about which I had some misgivings, since I don’t trust online thingies. However we did get the off season discount, which made things quite easy for us, money wise!!! Though it was to be a short trip, none of us could suppress our excitement. Everytime we would look at each other, the twinkle in the eye seemed to reaffirm the fact that finally we were going and yours truly was the one who could hardly wait for Friday to arrive.
So anyway, the D-day arrived, and we all met up at Moti Bagh, at 34 Chowrangi lane, for some well deserved rolls… from there we went to have Meetha Paan with ice (some place in South Delhi only, not too sure). And then we went to Nizamuddin station, where we again had an hour and a half to kill. Anyway, the train arrived, and we eagerly sat, almost hopping with anticipation. 11:30 pm, and the train left the station, resulting in a loud hoot from all of us. All four of us were chatting and laughing and poking fun at each other, attracting quite a few stares. Then this stern looking gentleman walked up to us, and said, "Do we have any plans to sleep?" and we sheepishly got up from his berth. We had another lower berth, which I had already claimed, so the 4 of us somehow managed to squeeze onto that.
We only realised how late it was when the lights were switched off, and we could hear several angry hushes coming from all the directions. We all looked at each other, and got up to go near the compartment door, where the two suttebaaz could smoke and the remaining two could gaze out at the stars and the moon… When we realized that it was almost 3, we decided to catch up on sleep, since we had a long day ahead of us. But therein was the catch. The gentleman who had made us vacate his berth was snoring away to glory. Imagine an eerily silent compartment revetebrating with the sound of the loudest, most horrifying snores I have ever heard in my life. (And this coming from someone who belongs to the family of snorers). We tried to sleep, but the Sten Gun (that’s what I had named him, his snores were actually like the fire from a sten gun… ratt-a-tat-a-ttat) refused to let up.
Anyway, finally Dehradun arrived, and we all got down, giving maha dirty looks to Sten Gun. (I wonder how his family tolerates him :-) ), took a taxi from the station for Mussourie (where methinks we got fleeced a bit, but what the hell). The drive from Dehradun to Mussourie was absolutely picturesque, with the sun just rising, and the sky swathed in hues of pinks, blues and crimson. I absolutely love the part when one steps from the plains to the long, winding road to the mountains. The hairpin bends, the fresh greenery peeking out from every stone, air so clean it hurts your lungs in the beginning, and the trees so bright, sparkling and green you have trouble believing your eyes.
After an hour and a half of the beautiful, scenic drive, we reached Mussourie, where the driver dropped us near the Mall Road. Now we had to look for our hotel, coz in our excitement, we had forgotten to take down the address or the phone number. So there we were, half asleep, trudging up the road, with our bags, (I don’t know why, but my bag is always the heaviest of the lot, maybe it has something to do with the books I carry? winks) Thankfully, we found the hotel, and what a welcome sight it was! The rooms were good, spacious, and the best part was the view (check out my photo gallery). We freshened up, ordered tea and biscuits, and post that we were ravenously hungry, as we say "bhookh jaag gayi thi" So we decided to go to the roof, and ordered breakfast. I must mention that the food of the hotel was damn good. Better than I have had in most of the restaurants in Delhi.
Post breakfast, and a bath, we decided to go exploring. We again came to the Mall Road while the others were finding about hiring a taxi, I went to search for Cambridge Book shop, which was supposedly visited by Ruskin Bond. I found out that he was to visit the shop between 4-6. So I left the books which I had bought with the shop owner, and joined the others. We hired a taxi, and went to Kempty Falls and Lake Mist. Lake Mist was a bit of a disappointment, with no mist to speak of, and even the lake was quite small. But the locales were quite picturesque, and the gushing water stream (which supposedly feeds the Kempty Falls) and the mountains in the far distance more than made up for it. Kempty Falls were nice too, but somehow a bit too crowded. The Maggy there was heavenly though :-)
Coming back to the hotel at around 4, we decided to sleep a bit, and when I woke up I realised it was already 7. I woke up the others, and again we went trudging up the Mall Road to the bookshop, but sighhhhhhhhhhhhh! Ruskin Bond had already left, but the shop owner was kind enough to get my books autographed. So picked them up, and just by a fluke, found a real treasure, a small eatery called Chick Chocolate, which is a combo of Choco La, and Bisque (in Gurgaon), and is right in front of the best vantage point of any hill station I have ever seen. Frankly, it made my trip worth it. The food was amazing… try out their Sausages platter, tomato soup and pasta, and their home-made chocolates are the best I have had so far. We stayed there till about 11, and then came back to the hotel, went to the roof with some drinks (read Vodka and Rum) and sat there in the cold, content to be quiet and soak up the atmosphere… trading anecdotes on and off. It was truly a magical time, the moon hanging low, as if she had come to catch our whispered secrets.
Next day was a total waste, with none of us getting up before 11. We packed our stuff again, checked out and went to Chich Chocolate again for lunch… Reached back Dehradun around 3, and whiled away time till we could catch the train back to Delhi. But that’s for another Day… Here I am back in Delhi, missing the mountains and the clouds and the gushing springs, which somehow always bolster me up till the next time they welcome me with open arms, asking me what took so long this time around!!!
Hope you guys liked this Chotu sa review cum travelogue!!!
P.S. I have written only about my own experience, vis a vis all I could do in Mussourie for a day, for I wanted to explore the Mall Road as well, and not just spend time in a taxi, trying to see as many local attractions as I could. For me, a holiday has to be lazy, languid, and refreshing.
