Mussoorie

Day 3.5 -> Rishikesh -> Mussoorie

After roaming in the streets of Rishikesh and said good byes to those Laxman jhula Monkeys, we started to Mussoorie. I usually like road trips mainly when venk is drinving. Having a driver is sort of boring and we have to be conscious all time. Though it is only 80 kms, it took  few hours to reach Mussoorie again because of the bad road conditions. The driver used Google maps, which even showed going inside some streets to reach Mussoorie. Finally we reached Mussoorie by 4.30.

Our hotel name was Mall Palace which was bang on the Mall road which is the most happening place in Mussoorie. One problem was, they won’t allow taxis in the Mall road between 4.30 to 10.30 pm. So we just carried some hand luggage to freshen up and walked towards the hotel from the central parking area, which was about 1 km. Since we were sitting in the cab for few hours, walking was kind of bliss. While walking to the hotel, we spotted a café and planned to have our late lunch there. Awsm ambience, good food, bit costly.

This Hotel front side pic was taken during night walk.

After lunch, walking few minutes, we spotted our hotel, which we had to climb steep flights..

Room was super good, chick modern furnishings, with a beautiful view of Mall road and the rope car service to the Gun hill. We freshened up and planned for a mall road walk.

View from the room balcony

Just imagine if sachin (Vijay movie) scenes shot in Pondy bazaar; With so much fog and cute girls walking here and there.  Mall road is one such place. Left and Right Street shops mostly woolen clothes and street food. Mall road stretches few kilometres and is good fun to walk in breezy road.

There was an aquarium (Javahar Aquarium) nearby, which was a total waste of time and money. But Lakshmi wanted to go, so we went. Totally skip it.

There is another spot in the mall road where they had setup model houses of Mussoorie, where you can click pics. We took few pictures there.

Enjoyed some masala corn cobs. By the time, it was dark. We packed food from a small hotel. Chowmeen, that’s how they call noodles there, which I could not even eat one string, that bad. Also everywhere there is maggi stalls as if maggi is our national food.

We went back to our room. While I went to freshen up, venk and Lakshmi had setup a surprise bday cake + gifts for my bday next day. Happy me.

Day 4:

Next day, me and venk got up at 6, and went a walk. Lakshmi refused to. So she stayed back in the room. It was a beautiful morning walk in such a scenic location. Had ginger tea from a road side tea stall. 

We went back to the room by 7. Lakshmi felt sick because of the previous day chowmeen. Because of puking multiple times, she was little weak, so we planned to visit a local doctor.

When it is written on your head that you should wait in the Dr. clinic even in Mussoorie, no one can change that.

After she took her medicines, we went for breakfast in a Punjabi hotel. Lakshmi can usally eat half loaf of bread, but she had only one piece which was super shock for us. Me and venk ate well and we started the day trip.

We planned 2 things for that day. Gun hill + Kemty falls.

Gun hill is one of the viewpoints in Mussoorie.  Just below our hotel, there was a rope way station to Gun hill. Since it was morning time, there was no much rush. We could get the rope car within few minutes of waiting. We went up and by that time it was totally foggy. There was a temple up there, since it was my bday, temple visit was a must.

We came back down by rope car back to mall road. By the time, our driver was waiting with the car. We started our trip to Kempty. The place is little outer, so we had to drive a bit to reach the place. It is single mountain road with lots of bends and terrific traffic.

Kempty falls is much more commercialized place with entry ticket of Rs.100 for one person. They have setup an artificial swimming pool, boating area too along with the natural water falls.

They have some adventure sports too with extra cost of Rs.300 per person per game. Me and Lakshmi enjoyed zip line.

We actually dint plan to dip in the falls. But after seeing the falls Lakshmi got tempted followed by me. We had so much fun. There were 2 falls, one small and another bigger one. We went for the small one since it was not crowded. We spent about half an hour. It was total fun. They had dress changing stations which was reasonably clean. We changed our dress and headed back.

The traffic was super horrible by this time and everywhere the vehicles piled up. I felt we had better control of traffic and roads in Tamil Nadu hill stations. Here the roads are not much planned. They park everywhere. It was almost evening  by the time reached back to the mall road. So they stopped the taxis and we had to walk again with Hungry stomach.

After reading raving reviews about a hotel called Kalsang which was at end of the Mall road, I wanted to eat there. We walked and walked and it was super crowded and asked to wait for half an hour, so we skipped it. So we had veg momos in a hotel nearby and washed it with super expensive milk shake which came in a fancy bottle.

Went back to hotel. Night was super foggy and you cannot even see the next person standing to you. Me and Lakshmi went down and roamed for a while.

To sum up my experience in Mussoorie, it is a very congested place with huge traffic on weekends. Then forget about the season time. If you plan Mussoorie, please plan on week days. Hotels are much cheaper and the place is much more enjoyable with fewer crowd. Don’t eat noodles in the road side shops. See below how they prepare noodles in bulk and spread in road side. Even the jelabis tasted horrible. So stick to some good hotels or simple foods.

While I was watching Arjun Reddy movie, I felt so connected with the scenes shot in Mussoorie as if it was my town.

Day 5

Next day morning we had break fast and started back to Dehli.

It was a long drive. When you plan, don’t combine Haridwar and Rishikesh with Mussoorie. Plan Mussoorie as a separate trip. As such the mood of both the places are totally different. When you plan to Mussoorie, you can book flight till Dehradun which will save lot of your time in travelling. Haridwar + Rishikesh can be managed by car from Delhi. But Mussoorie is bit far and the road conditions are really very bad.

As such it was a memorable trip. We enjoyed and it was totally new experience.

Part 1 : Haridwar Trip Link  Here
Part 2 : Rishikesh Trip Link Here

Rishikesh

Day 3

Haridwar + Rishikesh + Mussorie

If you had missed the haridwar post.. Click here

Our plan was to take a dip in Ganga in the private ghat behind our hotel, then head to Rishikesh which is just 20 kms from Haridwar. Venk and Lakshmi went to the bank, I had some packing work in the room, so I planned to join then later. When I came out of room, there were lots of monkeys. I was too scared to proceed, there was a lady from Kolkata, with whom I got acquaintance the previous day, She said .. just day Jai shree ram and walk without any fear, so that those monkeys wont disturb us. When I was almost nearing the bank, it almost came to attack me, I shooed it and it went. Then it went to that lady and she couldn’t manage it, it pulled her saree and tore it. Then the hotel boy came with a big stick and shooed them off. It was such a scary scene. Now I have super monkey phobia. She warned me about the Laxman Jhoola in Rishikesh which too has very very mischievous monkeys like this. So I made my mind that I will not take risk and end up with rabies. She was the only person in the trip I could talk in English to. Rest all broken hindi and sign language only.

All the shock flew away once I got into the water. It is such a holy feeling about Ganges. It is no doubt it is such sacred. Ganga mata ki jai.

We settled the bill and started off to Rishikesh. The road was not so great. We reached there by 40 mins. We parked the car and there was a guide who charged 100 Rs, said he will show around Rishikesh. Since we dint have any much knowledge of the place, we agreed.

It is such a lively place.. One side dancing Ganga and other side majestic shivalik range and such a great feeling to watch this scene. We look teeny tiny in front of that huge river and big mountains. Ganga is so wider here compared to Haridwar. Heard it is much wider in Varanasi. Next on my wish list.

Things to do :

• River rafting  ( open from Mid of Sep – Apr)
• Ram Jula – Hanging bridge
• Laxman Jula – Hanging bridge
• Paramananth Temple.
• Gita Bhavan
• Shopping rudraksh, Spadikam
• Yoga training.

We started our plan with a hearty breakfast.  Choti wala restaurant overseeing Ganges.  Good food with a great view.  From here we did some whatsup video call with my appa, inlaws, and showed them the place. They felt as if they were with us in the trip.

After breakfast, we took a boat ride to the other side of river. Boat ride is Rs. 15 per person. When we were in boat, about 5-10 sadhus just jumped inside the boat, including a foreign sadhu. So much of rishikeshi feeling already.

After going to the bank, we were taken to few temples by the guide. Then we walked thru the Ram jula a hanging bridge and came back to our side. This bridge was built by British with no pillar support, just a huge hanging bridge. We can feel the vibration while walking. There were absolutely no monkeys in this area. So I was feeling much better.

When came back to the parking and planned to go to Laxman Jula which is 2 km away to Ram jula. After parking, walked for a while and reached near the bridge and saw those big big monkeys, I decided to call off the plan. So we just headed a café nearby and the enjoyed the laksman jula  and paramanth temple view from there. When I watching the bridge, one lady with so much fun took pics of monkey, just when she turned the other side, the monkey pulled her hair violently.  I felt blessed that I dint attempt to cross that bridge.

We walked back and had a lemon masala soda and sat a bench to watch the Ganga bank scenes. I wanted to take pics of sadhus but was little afraid what they would say. So clicked him from a distance.

We dint plan river rafting, as it takes atleast 2 hrs and we dint want to wet the clothes again. So we headed to Mussorie. It is about 80 kms from Rishikesh.

To be continued..  Mussorie.