Uttarakhand Experience

It was a long standing wish of mine to trek in the Himalayas. Although, I had done the initial read up and collected info from Uttarkhand tourism site/various friends who had visited, i was unable to implement it due to many reasons (such as valley of flowers trek opens when school term is on and also I did not feel fit enough to undertake the high altitude trek)

So, one day when i got a call from PD cousin Hemanth that he was planning a trek with family in Lower Himalayas in May 2018 and was extending the invite to all cousins, we immediately agreed on joining them with kids. In next couple of days, we booked the IndiGo flight to Dehradun. Finally, my 10 year wish was going to realize :-)

Why Himalayas - In Indian mythology Himalayas are traditionally the mountains where pilgrims go to seek peace. Had also heard a lot about its beauty, might and vastness. After visiting several overseas holiday destinations and resort style relaxed holidays - it was time to explore a unseen State in India and have an active holiday.

Itinerary Planning

Hemanth was in touch with the local guide Chain Singh and based on his inputs the trek trail was decided for Deoriatal - Chopta - Chandrashila trek. Hemanth also nicely planned the visits to other places of interest in the same region of Uttarakhand, namely Haridwar, and hill-station Mussoorie. The itinerary was finalized as follows:

Uttarakhand Itinerary (April 28 - May 5)

Day 1 -

- Fly to Dehradun

- Settle at Rishikesh,

- Walkaround Rishikesh - Laxman Jhula, Ram Jhula, Ganga Darshan

Day 2 (Trek Day 1 starts)

- Start from Rishikesh to Trek Start Point

- Travel by TT for 6-7 hours through Ganga Valley to Sari Village

- quick lunch at Sari village and started trek at 4:00 PM to Deoriatal

- Ascended from 6601 feet to 7841 feet

- relax and settle at Deoriatal lake Base camp

Day 3 (Trek Day 2)

Begin Trek to Chopta - this is almost 11 km - 5km ascending and 5.5 km descent. Trek is through pine cone tree forests, step fields, streams and of course mountainous terrain and views of Garhwal village life.

Day 4 (Trek Day 3)

Early morning - trek from Chopta to Tungnath and Chandrashila summit @13000 feet

Day 5 (return to Haridwar)

- Drive 6-8 hours from Chopta to Haridwar

- walk around haridwar

- eat yummy street food

Day 6

- Walk around ganga ghats, see the morning arathi, visit small temples, take a dip to wash away your sins!

fill, and seal ganga for homes

Drive to Mussoorie

Day 7

Full day Mussoorie sight seeing by hired bike)

Day 8

Drive from Mussoorie to Dehradun

Fly back to Bangalore

Preparation

Fitness Preparation

We were advised by our guide to physically prepare for the high-altitude trek by walking 5 kms everyday. While it is not possible to walk 5 km everyday, all of us made the walking schedule that worked best for our office/work timings. I did brisk wall / run for about 20 km every week diligently in the run up to the trek.

Shopping for Trekking Gear

As most of us are not used to very cold temperatures, (always below 15 degrees and night temperature dropping to sub zero), and we have not traveled earlier to such cold area, also we were going to pitch tents and camp, we had to be well equipped. We did all trekking gear shopping at Decathlon, Mysore Road. Our list included:

Warm clothes (Down Jackets, Woollen socks, thermals, gloves); All of us had beanie caps thanks to our frequent travels to Coorg/Chikmagalur etc
Trekking shoes for me and kids. (Running shoes are not ok for trekking/PD had a fairly new spiked shoe that he used for the trek)

Note: We were strictly instructed to bring only backpack bags (trolley suitcases not allowed). As we had adequate backpacks already and are fans of this luggage type - we did not have to buy backpack bags.

An evening in Rishikesh

As soon as we came out of Dehradun airport, our cheerful and experienced guide Chain Singh was there to receive us along with Surinder (who would be responsible for cooking/kitchen) and TT driver Brijesh. The TT top deck was loaded with all the camping/hiking gear and neatly packed with the blue plastic cover to protect from wind/rains.

Green Hills, Rishikesh

Rishikesh is mere 15 km drive from Dehradun and after a 30 minute drive from airport, we checked into the Green Hills Hotel, Rishikesh. The ambience, is done up very nicely with lot of vintage collectibles. The rooms had the largest balcony ever we have seen. See the pic below of the largest balcony every :-)

We were impressed to see the menu items in the restaurant called out Vegan and Gluten-free stuff.

Evening we went for a long walk around Rishikesh to the famous Laxman Jhula and Ram Jhula - the bridge built across River Ganga in 1930. We went down to the banks of River Ganga to pray to the holy river that we Hindus regard as life giver and capable of washing all our sins. We walked across Ram Jhula and crossed back the river towards our hotel, we walked about 4 kms in all that hour following googlemaps instruction. Rishikesh town is pretty crowded with full of bustle of the holy men, yoga gurus, international and national tourists. There are several small shops selling handicrafts, spices, items of hindu worship. As it was the first day of the trip, we did not venture out for any shopping at this time.

We boarded a eight-seater auto to reach back Green Hills hotel for the night. The auto ride itself was fun.

Ramaa Impression " Rishikesh has metamorphosed to an International adventure sports and yoga retreat hub. Every 10 steps we see schools for Yoga Instructor training/ Ganga River Rafting booking offices/ Ayurveda spa/ Bungee, and cliff jumping billboards. Would love to come back here for Yoga retreat and spend more time here"

Driving Through the Ganga Valley

This was another first for me!! We might have left Rishikesh by 9:00 or 9:30 am - As we drove outside Rishikesh towards Sari village, we could see miles and miles of Ganga river meandering through the mountainous and picturesque valley. We marveled a the expertise of the driver who navigates these tricky routes so well. While the entire drive experience was unforgettable, we were totally awestruck at the DevPrayaag - the confluence of rivers brilliant blue Bhagirathi and pale brownish Alaknanda rivers to form Ganga river. Definitely a superb place to click some awesome pics.

The DevPrayag stop was also made memorable by the lemon soda and spicy cucumber vendors too.

Next stop was Srinagar town the old capital of Garhwal, where our chef Surinder did the shopping for the campsites - vegetables, eggs, and other stuff and loaded them in the TT.

As we neared the beautiful Sari village at around 2:30/3:00 pm that is surrounded by the snow capped mountains the visual spectacle was spellbinding.. Add to it that It was raining and temperatures had dropped tremendously We could sense why Uttarakhand is called Devlok -. Our TT halted at a small homestay that had prepared hot lunch for our group - menu included methi-aloo, hot phulkas, dal chawal and salad for us. After a quick lunch, we had few minutes to separate our trek belongings bags for next two days and retain the stuff that we did not want to carry in the TT vehicle. It was so cold that we reached out immediately for our down jackets, gloves, and even thermals.

Beginning Trek at Sari Village -L-R- Chain Singh, Hemanth, Sathish, Samyak, Saara, Shamaa, Ramaa, Sowmya and Eeksha

Chain Singh handed us our hiking staff. Our luggage and kitchen supplies were loaded on to the ponies and we started on the much planned trek.

Trek Experience (Sari village - Deoriatal - Chopta valley - Tungnath - Chandrashila)

Day 1 - Sari Village - Deoriataal

Although the distance is just 3 or 3.5 kms, the altitude change is high in this stretch. It is just climb, climb and climb. But how beautiful the climb with lofty Himalayas in the background and small tea shops dotting the climb was!

Saara joined Hemanth and family and went ahead - Sathish, Chain Singh, Shamaa and I were the second batch and we climbed gradually enjoying the scenery. There was black Himalyan sheep dog to give us a company. Samyak named the dog Juliet. The track was not lonely, we met several climbers, mules loaded our luggage and their respective porters/guides, shopkeepers making the regular trips - they were all so friendly and shared information. We had only one question - how far is deoriatal base camp - and all replied just a few yards away! Bye the time we reached little ahead of the camp, Sathish and I decided to stop at a tea shop for hot tea. We had requested Chain Singh to go ahead as he had to go and set up the tents, kitchen, dining hall tent and the most important - toilet tent.

So as we descended down to the charming base camp of Deoriatal, it was dukstime and we could only faintly see the pond and few snow capped mountain - nevertheless we were so ecstatic, relieved to have reached before dark and happy to see Saara well settled.

As soon as we reached, we were served hot soup - (the kitchen tent had been set up and was functional).

Saara showed me the tent where we had to sleepover that night. We had a hearty dinner of phulkas, dal, rice, bhindi sabji and kheer also ! Chain gave us a demo of using the sleeping bags. Satish recorded as we knew he would do it professionally.

Saara slipped into the sleeping bags giggling hysterically as it reminded of a poem on wriggly worm she had learnt in Grade 3.

Deoriatal on the full moon night of April 29th 2018, was just so beautiful. Samyak had his own stories about the pink moon and had a whale of a time scaring Saara about the Hell Hound that emerge on the full moon night and land in the tent.

Next morning, we woke up in our tents - it was very very very cold through the night. We had a quick wash, breakfast. We were given packed of Burger, five star bar, banana and Mango drink.

Few pics of the Deoriatal Base Camp

Day 2 - Deoriatal to Chopta Base Camp

We started the 10km trek walking past the Deoriatal base camp by about 7:00 am - and only a few steps away there was a viewpoint. Some of us decided to climb the viewpoint/watch tower and click pictures. Chain Singh informed us that the trek was ascending a mountain and descending the same - the last few parts of the ascent, it was slippery because of tiny pebbles and everyone was feeling hot and thirsty…When we viewed the flag post marking the summit so high above - we felt we could never reach that. However, gradually with great help of the trekking poles - we reached the top and then we had to descend. Descent was much more easier than the ascending part…

As we were descending, there were tricky patches of small pebbles too that had to be cleverly navigated. At one scenic spot, we all sat down and had the best picnic packed lunch ever. From about this point, Chain Singh started collecting some particular greens growing around- which he said would make for a very tasty palya.

There were pretty viewpoints through the trek - rhododendron trees were aplenty.

Chain Singh was with Sathish and I this time around also. We had interesting chats with him about his hometown in Uttarkashi district, life at his parents home, the agriculture and how he became a professional guide for Himalayan treks. He shared about the hunting parties of Kasturi Deers that was rampant during his childhood and how the laws were strict now and these hunting parties were almost unheard of now.

It was just a great experience to walk through the forest, where we also encountered couple of deers and white monkeys (lemurs). As we descended through the pine tree forest and moved closer to villages - it was spectacular to view the terrace farming in the villages. Closer to the end of the trek, we were all out of water and Chain Singh had to knock the doors of one of the villagers to get our water bottles filled - the villagers were all too obliging and gave us the water that seemed to be the most refreshing and tasty water we had ever drunk.

When we started seeing the village houses in the Chopta district (last seen at Sari village), we realized that for the last 24 hours, we just had been in the forest area of Rudraprayag - away from all civilization. As we were all very exhausted, our guide had kindly arranged the TT to pick us up from the village where we emerged after the trek to taxi us to the base camp 15 minutes away by drive. From the small petty shop there - that pretty much sells everything - we bought toothbrush for Saara, had refreshing tea before setting off to our second base camp - that was Chopta Base camp.

We had actually done 10.5 kms of trek overall that day! Few Pics

Day 3 Tungnath - Chandrashila Summit

As at Deoriatal, even at Chopta, by the time we reached, the kitchen was set up. Surinder had made Maggi on kids’ demand - we also got popcorn later! For dinner there were perfect jamuns along with dal chawal, roti and palya made from the greens that Chain Singh had plucked during the trek.

Chopta meadows are known as mini-Switzerland of India - it is very scenic and lush green all over. Our campsite was amidst such greenery, quiet and tall trees! On Sathish request, we had an additional tent at this site :-0 . As we finished our dinner, there was a terrific thunder and gusts of winds- we thought it was a forecast for heavy rain and we rain to our tents, just wishing that it did not rain, and our tents did not fly off with the fast wind. We just zipped up the tents and fell asleep in just two minutes flat owing to the long day we had.

The third and final day of the trek was here. We were so excited to get dropped off by TT early by 6:30 am with a packed breakfast this time. We were to trek up 3 hours to the Tungnath temple - said to be the highest known Shiva temple in the world - and then trek up to the Chandrashila peak.

The path was well laid out with stoned roads throughout. There were several mules carrying goods, pilgrims to the temple, photographers, and trekkers to the peak as well. We stopped several times to catch our breath and deal with the curvy twists and turns and also for the rhododendron drink and another time for breakfast. Throughout the climb to Tungnath snowcapped mountains felt just at our arms distance - I felt as though walking at the edge of the world!!

Tungnath Temple

Tungnath Temple at 12000 feet

It was a wonderful feeling to be able to visit the Tungnath shrine - with Chaukhamba in the backdrop We clicked several pics quickly and then made our way to the Chandrashila peak summit.

There is a narrow natural bridge kind of connection from Tungnath to Chandrashila followed by a steep incline. We quickly climbed the incline and were on Chandrashila mountain - there were two ways of reaching the summit - by the shortcut that was steep and then the well laid out path. The mountain itself was full of yellow and purple tiny flowers.

Chandrashila Peak Summit and Descent

After a steep climb of 1.5 km from Tungnath, we reached Chandrashila summit and all the troubles, aches and pains that we had been through felt well worth it.

It really feels great to be on be on the summit of any small mountain and on reaching Summit Chandrashila - the 360 view of Himalayas is something that cannot be described in words.

Now at almost 13,000 feet, all of us had different forms of altitude sickness - most common being slight headache due to less oxygen. After quick clicking of pics, enjoying the views and cherishing every sight for a lifetime, we quickly began the descent.

The descent was not as easy as we thought it would be - took us two hours to reach down.

Our summit Chandrashila trek was a success and when we trekked down to the TT it was almost 2:00 PM. We reached our campsite and had a celebration lunch with the dining table set out in the open so that we enjoy the beauty of Chopta meadows by the daylight. As night fell, we had a warm campfire too and reminisced the day’s highs and lows and laughing all about it. We also discussed the song that we were going to perform for empathy video next day and practised some silly steps.

Next morning after an early breakfast, we did our customary empathy video to Las Ketchup song that was suggested by Eeksha. Chain Singh and team brought down our tents, and we too did our bit in taking out the tents. It was time to bid adieu to the Chopta meadows and though we know it is really rare to come to this place again - we did make plans to visit it when Chopta was all white with snow in winter.

Overall Experience of Trek in the Lower Himalayas

I have lots to note here - so separate section:

You can never be too fit for Himalayan trek - even if lower Himalayan one as we had been to. It is good to practice on elevated tracks for several weeks ahead of the trek and take the smaller treks around Bangalore as preparatory to build up stamina climbing on the ascending tracks.
Regarding toilet - If you are uncomfortable with the idea of dry toilet/ pit toilet, you should think twice before embarking on this type of trek. In our team all were fine and the western style chair commode was also comfortable and had adequate privacy too.
The camping experience is unbeatable. The kind of help and support our guide and team provided us exceeded our expectations.
As considerable journeying by TT might not be comfortable for peope who have nausea on ghat section - carry the right medicines.
Take care not to overload the backpack - every gram counts - i overloaded my bag with so many extraneous stuff and ended up with neck muscle pain.
Carry all medicines

Chain Singh - Expert Trek Planner and Guide in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh

Chain Singh our guide and team are highly recommended for all aspects of trekking and camping - excellent guidance on trek tracks, patience with the slower/faster members, super tasty food, care in setting up camping site. Thorough knowledge and 20 years of hands on experience and expertise on all tracks of Uttarakhand and Himachal ensure that he provides a great trekking and camping experience.

Heritage Town Haridwar

We had left our base camp Chopta after an early breakfast by 8:am and we again drove back through the enchanting Ganga valley and were headed to Haridwar. We did consider river rafting at Rishikesh but as we had not planned earlier - it was not possible. We wanted to make the most of the single evening we had at Haridwar. We stopped for a ok lunch at a place called Kaudiyala. Lunch was not that great. As we passed Rishikesh by 4 or so and were on schedule to reach Haridwar to catch the 6:30 pm evening arathi, there was a massive dust storm due to the cloud burst and sudden dark clouds surrounded. Our TT driver parked the vehicle to a side as he mentioned that the TT seemed to wobble. Further ahead the road was blocked due to large trees that had fallen across the road. Soon it started to rain. Although the road block was cleared in 20-30 minutes, we could not reach as per schedule for the evening Arathi. Only later when we spoke to our folks at Blore, we understood that cloud burst in Uttarakhand (and other Northern states) was in national news and all were concerned about our safety.

Patnimal Guesthouse

As we reached the Haridwar Post Office, it was time to say goodbye to our dedicated team of Chain Singh and co. We do wish we can do more treks with him in future. We thanked him and the team heartily and proceeded to Patnimal House located in the narrow gully of Haridwar. We found it a bit difficult to locate the Patnimal House on cycle rickshaws, primarily because of the rains. We loaded all our luggage and eight members in the three cycle rickshaws and navigated to the Patnimal House. Once we reached there we were simply amazed to see the 250 year old property retained as a ground floor structure only with an open courtyard and Ganga for the backyard. The distance to Har Ki Paudi is a mere 600 meters from Patnimal House.

Haridwar by evening

We quickly freshened up and headed towards the Har Ki Paudi - although we knew we had missed the arathi, we went to the Ganga, and offered traditional prayer. We also visited the small temples there and walked around soaking in the crowded lanes, shops selling different colored sweets, the hundreds of faithfuls completing different religious ritulas by the banks of river considered holiest by Hindus. On return, we had yummy street food such as Kachori, Poori, Malai lassi and so on. We had dinner at “Chotiwale”

Haridwar by Morning

After having missed the evening Arathi, Sowyma and I had decided not to miss the morning arathi so despite having woken up at 5:00 am all three days of the trek, we again planned to wake up early so that we can attend the morning arathi. The security guards had told us that to view the arathi we should be present at Har Ki Paudi by 5:00 am- others said that it happens whenever sunrises and google said it was at 5:30 am. So anyway, we took a chance and woke up early by 5:00 am (and we heard the conch being blown) , also the gates were locked we had to spend 5-7 minutes waking up the house members so that we could go the arathi! - due to all this delays we thought we missed the arathi and anyway we went and bu the time we walked to the Har Ki Paudi ghat and deposited our footwear in the chappal stand, we were just in the nick of the time to view the arathi that begain exactly at 5:35 am!

Ganga Arathi

Definitely, attending the morning arathi was a highlight of the trip for Sowmya and me. We felt very much peaceful and glad to attend the six minute prayer to the Ganga river along with hundred others.

Video of the morning arathi

We went on to visit several temples around Har Ki Paudi and later on Hemanth also joined us and we went to a shop that encouraged us to carry Ganga water that in a welded small container. He mentioned that the water available in most shops might not be reliable, hence, we must fill water ourselves from the river in a container and then he helped seal it by welding it.

Once we reached by Patnimal House, Sathish and kids offered prayers to Ganga flowing in the backyard of the Patnimal House. We had a yummy tasty homecooked breakfast and left to Mussorie by 11:00 am. We had used local taxi services identified by google search to make our taxi bookings.

Please see the pic of Patnimal House below - the Red House - the Ganga river is in the backyard of the house

PD Impression of Haridwar” I just loved the stay at the 250 year old Patnimal House” The tulsi plant in the central courtyard, the vast Ganga river flowing in the backyard of the home, the tasty and homely breakfast were all memorable. Regarding the town itself, it embraces one and all coming to take solace in it but also is such a place that makes you feel insignificant”

Ramaa Impression of Haridwar “ This was the first time I was seeing the mighty River Ganga. I just loved soaking in the sights and smell of the place. The Har ki Paudi ghat where the Ganga arathi is conducted every evening and morning, is well secure place. The women’s ghat section seemed pretty clean and one could easily take a dip in the river if you wished to. The private security there was efficient in regulating the crowd.

Mesmerizing Mussoorie

Early in planning phase itself, we had booked Hotel Vishnu Palace because of it proximity to the main Mall Road and Gandhi Chowk of Mussoorie. The hotel rooms were well appointed and luxurious and this was also the first time that we had to use the -3 option of the elevator to our rooms in the hill station. Saara loved the place and remarked that it felt like checking-in to a five star hotel!

After a lunch in the colonial style restaurant Imperial Court, it was time to do all things touristy :-)

Mall Road

The busiest and most bustling road of Mussorie. Has all possible shops and restaurants like any tourist space - but the charm is added by cycle rickshaws. All forms of vehicles are banned on this road from 4 - 9 in the evening - making it easy to walk. There are colorful murals depicting the colonial history and Garwal culture all along the mall road. As we had less time, we decided to take cycle rickshaws to reach the Cable car station.

Jhula Ghar - Cable Car - Gun Hill

There are only a dozen or so places in India serviced by Cable cars as against plenty cable car tourist attractions we have seen in South East Asia. So we did not want to miss out the one in Mussoorie. We headed out to the Jhula ghar (Cable Car station) that takes us to Gun hill - the fun station with a fabulous Himalayan view. This reminded us of the Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car attraction of Hong Kong. After a five minute ride on the cable car, we reached gun hill. The gun hill has the fun stalls that one finds in a typical carnival - balloon shooting, knick knack shopping, magic stall, pop corn/cotton candy and the one that I was looking for - the Garhwal dress/costume photography shop. The photographer has all bright and colorful Garhwal costumes/jewellery for girls and boys to drape on - and also does a quick outdoor shoot! We had fun with the costume photoshoot.

We had some really bad tea in one of the tea shops - and did not have the motivation to try the local Shakarkand/Sweet Potato chat. We took lot of photos here. The place was not much crowded that was remarkable as we have hardly come across tourist spaces in India where we can send kids to walk around by themselves to buy some things they wanted.

Overall the experience of visiting this tourist attraction by cable car in the heart of the city was memorable and we rate it as “must not miss:”

Cambridge Book Depot

We had learnt from Social media contact by now that the famous author resident of Mussoorie, Ruskin Bond is available to meet his audience, every saturday at certain time. However, we had our tickets booked for the same time and had no chance of meeting him. As all of us are readers and love bookshops, we made a trip to this very interesting bookstore by walking through the Landour Bazaar street - the shops were laden with fashionable woollens and reminiscent of the Tibetan sweater market outside Majestic in Bangalore in the 80s.

At the bookstore, Saara, Shamaa and Eeskha wrote their notes to Mr. Ruskin Bond requesting his autographed book. We bought books authored by him and the bookshop owners kindly agreed to courier them to us after getting them autographed.

Even though we did not meet Mr. Bond here, our visit was memorable because of the friendly owners and staff of Cambridge book depot.

Overall experience - Do not miss visiting this bookstore if you love bookshops - and do check on availability of Mr. Bond in the shop in case you are planning a visit to Mussoorie.

By this time it was late evening and was very very cold for our comfort - say 6 degrees and we had not carried coats and warm clothing in the afternoon, we were literally shivering. We took cycle rickshaws and rushed back our hotel Vishnu Palace. After some discussion on what to do for dinner, we decided to avail room service.

Exploring Mussoorie - Day 2

After a delicious breakfast buffet at Hotel Vishnu Palace, we decided to hire bikes to visit the other places of interest. So after getting the contacts from Hotel Reception, we approached the bike rental space. We were issued Access 125 after retaining our original id cards (Aadhar) and security deposits. I was not happy or appreciative of this plan of renting bikes as i had stopped riding 9-10 years ago due to various reasons and was wondering how i would manage in the hilly area.

Kempty Falls

We took charge of the bikes but were told that we had to take care of petrol. We checked in the hotel reception about the nearest petrol bunk on the way to Kempty falls - , the friendly person there laughed and remarked that one does not need petrol to reach Kempty falls, 13 km from the place where we were coz it was all the way down - i was so skeptical and thought how could one 1ride 3 km downhill with engine off - However, in reality it was exactly the same. In fact we did no see any biker going there with ignition on :-)

The ride was very scenic, less crowded and the himalayas we saw from the ride was quite different from the white snow capped one at Chopta. The color was more slate color. Once we reached Dhanaulti - we could sense the tourist traffic pile up. Our guide Chain Singh had shared earlier that if the kids have already visited big water falls, there is no need to go down to Kempty falls - Seeing the crowds - we were in no mood to climb down 200 steps down there to enter the water. Hence, we just stopped at the highway from where we got a good view of the falls, tooks some pics and set off to the next stop - the company bagh.

Overall experience - “ Go with Chain Singh Guidance - if you have already been to waterfalls you do not need to enter the water falls - a far view is good. The downhill ride in the winding roads is definitely recommended.”

Company Bagh

Mussoorie’s cool climate is definitely conducive to growing several pretty flowers. The company bagh or garden did not disappoint. There were rows and rows of flower beds, an artificial water fall, fountain and all the works - I loved walking around in this garden and clicked lot of pics. It is also said that the famous Johnny Walker song “ sar jo tera charaaye” is picturized in this garden.

Overall experience - Go if you love gardens, landscaping and flowers.

LBSNAA Premises

It was lunch hour by this time and we found a quaint book cafe in the premises of Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) to have lunch. We can order from a simple and limited menu while we browse books. We were so impressed by the book culture of Mussoorie. We also saw the LBSNAA premises that is the training school for those selected for the Indian civil services.

St Paul’s Church, Char Dukan

Post- lunch, it was time to visit the highest point in Mussoorie 7500 feet ASL. We rode through many monuments of Mussoorie such as Picture Palace, Clock Tower and headed to the Char Dukaan area after a steep ascent. The path was similar to the Chandrashila mountain that we had trekked - only this time we had two-wheeler - we ascended from 6000 feet to 7500 feet. After a ride past scenic mountains and valley colorful with different colored home roofs, we reached this quaint place called Char Dukaan. I felt i had reached 1980s - we took a tour of the St. Paul’s Church - that was consecrated in 1840 and was church for the serving British army officers. The stained glass paintings in the church depicted various scenes from Jesus life - I hear the church was refurbished by the students of woodstock some years ago. Photography inside the church was not allowed.

Overall experience - Fantastic - dont’ miss

Landour Cantonment,Lal Tibba

From Char Dukaan, we continued ascending to Lal Tibba. This is said to be the highest point in Mussoorie. There was fireplace and hot chocolate to enjoy this viewpoint. Japanese telescopes are there to view the Himalayas from this tourist spot. One can view the tallest Pine Cone trees forest from this point and i think it is impossible to get the complete height of the trees in one frame. My thoughts were that this is so beautiful place, is this really India, is this Uttrakhand state? The owners son gave us very good good pointers on how the sunset colors are viewed from this point - he mentioned specific seasons’ when the sunrise/sunset view is blood red and sometimes golden. Britishers seem to have really picked the very best of hill stations for their army cantonments and Mussoorie cantonment is really by far most beautiful station i have seen.

We also stopped briefly at Kellogg’s church for a picture.

Overall experience - Cannot describe, must be experienced and visited.

Ruskin Bond Home

The Lal Tibba restaurant owner’s son had informed us about the homes of famous’ personalities in Landour Cantonment - Ruskin Bond, Tom Alter, Sachin Tendulkar…. We thought of just seeing them from outside. We saw Tom Alter home from outside - that was fantastic. We stopped by Ruskin Bond home and contemplated ringing the bell when a passer by prompted us that he is a friendly person - you should just ring the bell and he will be happy to meet you - but then we respect his privacy - so were happy that we would get Ruskin Home autographed books soon at Blore. We clicked few pics for our memorable visit to this famous house of Mussoorie.

Sunset at Mussoorie

Our final stop for the day before we decided to handoff the bikes and go back to our hotel room was to watch the Sunset at Landour Cantonment as no hill station visit is complete without a sunset view point and pic. Mussoorie did not disappoint.

With that our riding day at Mussoorie ended. After we handed back the bikes at Mall road and collected our id cards and security deposits, we did some knick knack shopping and settled back to the comfort of Vishnu Palace with the visions of Mussoorie in British times.

Overall Experience of Mussoorie: It is the best hill station i have visited. Not too much crowded as we see at Ooty or Kodaikanal. Very visible touches of British colonial style life even today. Wish to come back here someday!

Back to Bangalore

Next day was all about getting packed up and leaving Mussoorie by noon to take the 4:00 pm flight back home. We booked a taxi for the same and boarded our flight on time to reach home by 9:30 pm! Appreciate that we had a direct flight to Bangalore from Uttarakhand - Dehradun.

Overall Impression of Uttarakhand Experience - Once in a lifetime, memorable, adventurous, marvellous, truly called Deva loka. Simple, hard working and friendly people and much more! We will definitely come back soon!

PD Ponders