Magnificient Mussoorie and The Road Not Taken.

Itwas a good two hour sleep.The passengers were lazily collecting their luggage from beneath the seats and I don't know how it happened but we all got up on our own as soon as the Nanda Devi Express reached Dehradun Station.

Since time immemorial, 'Last End Sem Exam' has been the most cherished occasion for college students to chalk out an outing.Working on similar lines,we had also planned a Trekking Trip to Nag Tibba .Our plan included a night's stay in Mussoorie.It had almost been a decade since I last visited this place.Thus I had all the more reasons to be excited for the trip.

We call our gang of 5 M.I.T.R.O.N (I will be there for you..,if it rings any bell).
We were done with our first year finals on 28th May,2016(Saturday) and were supposed to catch our train scheduled for midnight from New Delhi Railway Station.

On our way to NDLS

We faced our first hiccup on our way to the railway station when the Metro halted for around 15 minutes,but even then we managed to make it there in time(read 5 minutes late).Well that's a story for another day.Anyway,the engine pumped up soon and the wheels were set in motion.Thus began M.I.T.R.O.N's Weekend Getaway. 

The train was supposed to reach its destination at six in the morning.Param was swift enough to drift to sleep as soon as we got our seats.Just like him,even we would have spent the whole night asleep if it were not our uneasy RAC seats.But every thing can be dealt with craziness when with friends.We came up with one such crazy idea to gain some benefit out of our sleeplessness.We got down at every station on the way and took a selfie out there.So now you can add one more option in your list  of "Things to do on a train journey"

It was at Roorkee Station where most of the berths got free and we finally got a chance to take a small nap.At sharp 6 a.m we found ourselves at the Dehradun station.

Though we slept only for two hours,but Dehra's cool and calm morning refreshed us of our tiredness as soon as we stepped out of the train.We were welcomed by the sight of lush green mountains surrounding the valley and a calm breeze(and a few coolie's as well).

Dehradun railway station had a nice waiting room with proper toilet and bathroom facilities.You can freshen up here.Another option would be to use the paid toilets which are present just outside the station by the side of second class waiting room.We had tea ,biscuits and some snacks here.At around 9 we left for Mussoorie after hiring a taxi(ambassador) for Rs.1050.You can also take bus at Rs.50 per ticket.Both the taxi stand and bus depot are at the door step of Dehradun Railway Station.You can hire a taxi at any point of time through out the day whereas Buses to Mussoorie ply on an hourly basis.

In less than 20 minutes we were outside the city area and were already ascending the mountain road.A little chit-chat,a few jokes and humming a few songs proved to be a better time pass than any social networking site could ever be.Green trees on the side of our pathway seemed to have conspired with the soothing mountain breeze to teach us how to breathe again.Mehul at once started searching for 'Behti hawa sa ' song from the movie 3Idiots. Soon we found ourselves riding along the steep slopes and sharp turns.To be honest I found them ridiculously dangerous.But it was all worth for the scenic beauty our way had to offer us.It took us some 50 minutes to reach Picture Palace Taxi Stand ,Mussoorie  from Dehradun.

Now we had to find our way to the hotel which we had booked in advance fearing that the hotels here would be all packed on 29th,a Sunday.Well we were wrong.There were many rooms vacant and we found various agents on our way offering us various options to stay.I would suggest that you must ditch the online hotel booking websites(unless you get a really good offer)and bargain your way to a decent hotel after reaching Mussoorie.Mussoorie seemed to have more hotel rooms then trees,so you won't have any trouble in finding one here,even during the peak season.You can easily find a good hotel under Rs.1800 a night and even cheaper if you look for it.

We faced a bunch of other problems with our hotel and hence were late for breakfast.Thus we directly had lunch at our hotel and after that we retired to our comfy beds to take a much needed sleep.We got up at around 5 and  rushed out to explore the Mall Road.It surely was the most fun thing that happened to us in the trip .There were quite a many food joints,stalls and shacks selling all sort of food ranging from exquisite Italian Lasagna to roadside Maggi. Moreover the weather was astoundingly pleasant.Enjoying a Bhutta with Imli Sauce added to the joy.


Jatin had already informed us of the Famous Lovely Omelette Centre.That's where we headed first for having some evening snacks.It was a surprise to us that such a small food shop,with just one dining table , had us waiting for one hour to have an incredibly delicious cheese omelette.

Do try the cheese omelette they offer here.

In that one hour we just roamed around the Mall Road and kept felling head over heels for ,like some million times ,whenever we witnessed the breathtaking view of the vast expanse of Doon Valley from the top of the hills(not exaggerating).It was as if we were examining earth from the heavens.There were many selfie and picture sessions at different locations accompanied by some silent moments at the railing while we devoured that beautiful scenery with a sense of gratification.

Doon Valley from Gandhi Chowk

We were also looking for some souvenir to take back our homes and hence decided to explore the shops.The  U.P Cottage and Village Industries Shop amused me. Don't go by it's name,this shop had an incredibly large variety of fancy stuff-fancy air fresheners,fancy paper soaps, fancy lighters and more.Another shop that caught my eye was the well renowned Cambridge Book Shop having huge banners and flexes proclaiming that you can meet Ruskin Bond every Saturday there. 

SOURCE:Google Images

We then went ahead to visit the Mussoorie Library at Gandhi Chowk.

Good lord!! Did I just read JEE?

By this time it was night already and we got the biggest gift.

Doon Valley At night from Gandhi Chowk
(SOURCE:Google Images)

A view of Doon Valley all lit up under the dark night sky.If the previous views of the Doon valley were breathtaking then the same sight at night simply took my soul away.All the worries that occupied my head got dispersed like some puffy cloud and my already captured soul felt relieved and light enough to  float over the valley and absorb every single bit of its beauty(again,not exaggerating).It was truly ecstatic to feel the unrestricted chilly winds caress your forehead and numb your senses down for good as they made their way gushing through the open doon valley to crash onto the mountains.

It was all windy by now and we were expecting rainfall anytime soon.To our help we found  a small Gurudwara near Library Bus Stand which was some 30-40 steps downhill from Gandhi Chowk.It was all quiet and housed a positive and benign ambience.We spent a few minutes there and left with the Kadha Prasad Veer Ji  had offered us . 

Archit,by then,had already searched the internet for some notable food shacks in Mussoorie.And we found our next stoppage at Kalsang Friend's Corner ,a Chinese restaurant on the Mall Road.

Kalsang Friend's Corner

Token of thanks Kalsang

I am not a fan of momos ,but what they served was simply delectable.The Restaurant was highly speaking of its motto,"FREE TIBET".How do I know?Well to start with,the workers over there had the same motto printed on their Tees.Then there were a lot of messages from Dalai Lama adorning the restaurant's wall.Another peculiarity of Kalsang was their dining tables.Various tourists have left their good wishes and admiration for Kalsang's food in the form of doodles,sketches and greetings written on tissues which were  exhibited on all the dining tables beneath a glass plate.You will be welcomed to do the same.These tissues told a lot many stories and jokes which made me wonder if it is travelling that forms a story or do these stories comprise the travel.


By this time it was already 10:30 p.m.But the all cheerful nightlife of Mussoorie didn't let this bother us.Even at this hour,it felt as if the evening had just started.After another few photo sessions,we knew that it was time to have proper dinner . We went ahead to have the evergreen shahi paneer-dal makhani-naan platter  at Aggarwal Family Restraunt,followed by an awesome rabri-jalebi desert.We bought a few chocolates and gums to carry for our trek at Nag Tibba. 

Though Day 1 was officially ending but still the thrill for trekking for the next two days was something that we all were looking forward to.All of us were going to trek for the first time.As per the plan we had to trek throughout the next day and camp at night at the Nag Tibba Base Site. But for that we had to catch our bus to Nainbagh the next morning at 7 and thus we knew it was time for us to get back to our hotel.


The next morning we boarded the bus from Gandhi Chowk to Nainbagh.We reached Nainbagh by 9:00 a.m ,perfectly as planned but still the road ahead was the one we didn't take.More about that later.

To simply put it , The Queen of Hills truly ruled our hearts.
-a r n a v

M.I.T.R.O.N