Many people would say how much one can see in one day and they would put off their plan for brief adventures. Not me! I strongly believe in the art of zen and live every moment. For me, a day has 24 hours which are sufficient to utilise wisely and beautifully.
With this philosophy, my friend and I decided to spend a day in Landour - the less travelled part of Mussoorie - the queen of hills. We were lucky as the moment we arrived at the taxi stand, we found two boys who were waiting for two more passengers. We quickly agreed to accompany and our old driver started revving even older Ambassador on the hills.
We had just started admiring the scenery, the car stopped after a few jerks. The driver tried to fix the engine a few times before giving up. Now we are on the hilly highway with a broken engine. But when you are on an adventure trip you are ready for anything. Everything seems to add to fun. Ad when one is positive, all goes well. The driver called for another vehicle while we spotted a dhaba (roadside restaurants).
This was time for some photography/selfies over a cup of tea and an omelette-bun sandwich. Soon, the journey began again.
We reached Mussoorie while talking to the boys who were going to organise some corporate event in some hotel, using smiley balls. They got out in Mussoorie where the taxi was supposed to drop us. But, Landour was another 3 km on a steep hill. We used our elderly charm and cajoled the driver to drop us at Chaar Dukaan (Four Shops) for Rs 200 as opposed to Rs 500 what he was asking for.
Chaar Dukaan used to have four shops and hence the name. However, now there are five shops. The additional shop has emerged in the place of a post office. The place had been set up by British and it still has their touch and feel. Pancakes, waffles and hot chocolate are a few most popular items on sale.
We had some hot chocolate. Got our bearings and decide to explore the place. It was afternoon when we reached Landour and by the time we finished admiring the natural beauty, the deodar trees and the serene and surreal beauty of the place, it was alrady evening. Since our trip was only for a day and we had to leave in the morning, we decided to walk to Sisters' Bazaar (Sisters' Market).
Walking uphill with our day packs on our backs we were mesmerised by the sounds of various birds. We were trying to recognise and differentiate one from the other. The walk was steep but the cool and fresh air, the greenery and quietness was refreshing. We saw the famous language school in Landour where students come from different countries to learn Indian languages.
Sisters' Bazaar has just three shops - two old ones - one Prakash provisions, selling homemade jams, pickles and peanut butter and the other Prakash Handicraft, selling woollens and other nick nacks at extorting prices. We had gone with an intention to pick up some. Not able to decide which one, I picked up one of each flavour of jam, along with some pickle, peanut butter and of course a bottle of wine. The stuff was so much that I had to buy a bag as well.
Carrying those 10 kgs of glass jars with jams in that jute bag, my hand was developing blisters. But I told myself that we do not do such things everyday. And the old saying - what doesn't kill you makes you stronger - was giving me strength.
We decided to take it easy while walking so that we take rest and also admire the forests, neatly paved road, and quaint houses. One such house caught our attention and we stopped.
At that time a gentleman walking by stopped and informed us that it was the house of a Bollywood actor Victor Banerjee. Staring at the house, we saw a worker in the house and asked if we can go inside to have a look. His curt answer was: "No."
Our interest shifted to the stranger we had just met. We started talking and found out that he works in the army. He had some connection to Lucknow as well. A courteous man, he asked if we have booked a place for the night and was surprised to know that we hadn't. Remember it was an adventure trip!
Next thing - he offered us that he could arrange our stay at their guest house!
After half an hour of conversation we left the place not believing that lady luck was on our side.
By the time we were down at Chaar Dukaan it was dark and dinner time. Leisure and hills make one hungry and we were famished. We stopped at Ivy Bank Cafe - an aesthetically done cafe serving a wide variety of food. The cafe is run by a youngster - again who has relatives in Lucknow. Without wasting any minute we asked him to give us discount at his Ivy Bank hotel and book a room while we finish our meal.
The food (thin crust pizza and cheese & chips) was gorgeous. Weight watching and calorie counting was not in our list of things to do. We were looking forward to checking in and open the bottle of wine to celebrate our friendship and the carefree age.
It was dark and we decided to explore another road via Lal Tibba to go down to reach our hotel. It was a beautiful walk but before we arrived at a junction. Not knowing which way to go to reach our hotel we were looking for someone for directions. And there she appeared - a friendly girl from Korea. She is learning Urdu at the language school to study the Kashmir problem in future.
She not only showed us the way, she accompanied us to the hotel and also gave us a hand in carrying our shopping.
The hotel was a beautiful one and we not even for a moment regretted our decision to not accept the army officer's offer. Although being civil, we did send a text informing him that we had found a place.
It was time to open the bottle and say cheers to our adventure. I find 50 is the new 30 and feel the same. Our day was wonderful. Now we had only one thing on our minds - locate the house of the famous author Ruskin Bond, in the morning.
We finished half bottle of wine and called it a beautiful day...
With this philosophy, my friend and I decided to spend a day in Landour - the less travelled part of Mussoorie - the queen of hills. We were lucky as the moment we arrived at the taxi stand, we found two boys who were waiting for two more passengers. We quickly agreed to accompany and our old driver started revving even older Ambassador on the hills.
We had just started admiring the scenery, the car stopped after a few jerks. The driver tried to fix the engine a few times before giving up. Now we are on the hilly highway with a broken engine. But when you are on an adventure trip you are ready for anything. Everything seems to add to fun. Ad when one is positive, all goes well. The driver called for another vehicle while we spotted a dhaba (roadside restaurants).
This was time for some photography/selfies over a cup of tea and an omelette-bun sandwich. Soon, the journey began again.
We reached Mussoorie while talking to the boys who were going to organise some corporate event in some hotel, using smiley balls. They got out in Mussoorie where the taxi was supposed to drop us. But, Landour was another 3 km on a steep hill. We used our elderly charm and cajoled the driver to drop us at Chaar Dukaan (Four Shops) for Rs 200 as opposed to Rs 500 what he was asking for.
Chaar Dukaan used to have four shops and hence the name. However, now there are five shops. The additional shop has emerged in the place of a post office. The place had been set up by British and it still has their touch and feel. Pancakes, waffles and hot chocolate are a few most popular items on sale.
We had some hot chocolate. Got our bearings and decide to explore the place. It was afternoon when we reached Landour and by the time we finished admiring the natural beauty, the deodar trees and the serene and surreal beauty of the place, it was alrady evening. Since our trip was only for a day and we had to leave in the morning, we decided to walk to Sisters' Bazaar (Sisters' Market).
Walking uphill with our day packs on our backs we were mesmerised by the sounds of various birds. We were trying to recognise and differentiate one from the other. The walk was steep but the cool and fresh air, the greenery and quietness was refreshing. We saw the famous language school in Landour where students come from different countries to learn Indian languages.
Sisters' Bazaar has just three shops - two old ones - one Prakash provisions, selling homemade jams, pickles and peanut butter and the other Prakash Handicraft, selling woollens and other nick nacks at extorting prices. We had gone with an intention to pick up some. Not able to decide which one, I picked up one of each flavour of jam, along with some pickle, peanut butter and of course a bottle of wine. The stuff was so much that I had to buy a bag as well.
Carrying those 10 kgs of glass jars with jams in that jute bag, my hand was developing blisters. But I told myself that we do not do such things everyday. And the old saying - what doesn't kill you makes you stronger - was giving me strength.
We decided to take it easy while walking so that we take rest and also admire the forests, neatly paved road, and quaint houses. One such house caught our attention and we stopped.
At that time a gentleman walking by stopped and informed us that it was the house of a Bollywood actor Victor Banerjee. Staring at the house, we saw a worker in the house and asked if we can go inside to have a look. His curt answer was: "No."
Our interest shifted to the stranger we had just met. We started talking and found out that he works in the army. He had some connection to Lucknow as well. A courteous man, he asked if we have booked a place for the night and was surprised to know that we hadn't. Remember it was an adventure trip!
Next thing - he offered us that he could arrange our stay at their guest house!
After half an hour of conversation we left the place not believing that lady luck was on our side.
By the time we were down at Chaar Dukaan it was dark and dinner time. Leisure and hills make one hungry and we were famished. We stopped at Ivy Bank Cafe - an aesthetically done cafe serving a wide variety of food. The cafe is run by a youngster - again who has relatives in Lucknow. Without wasting any minute we asked him to give us discount at his Ivy Bank hotel and book a room while we finish our meal.
The food (thin crust pizza and cheese & chips) was gorgeous. Weight watching and calorie counting was not in our list of things to do. We were looking forward to checking in and open the bottle of wine to celebrate our friendship and the carefree age.
It was dark and we decided to explore another road via Lal Tibba to go down to reach our hotel. It was a beautiful walk but before we arrived at a junction. Not knowing which way to go to reach our hotel we were looking for someone for directions. And there she appeared - a friendly girl from Korea. She is learning Urdu at the language school to study the Kashmir problem in future.
She not only showed us the way, she accompanied us to the hotel and also gave us a hand in carrying our shopping.
The hotel was a beautiful one and we not even for a moment regretted our decision to not accept the army officer's offer. Although being civil, we did send a text informing him that we had found a place.
It was time to open the bottle and say cheers to our adventure. I find 50 is the new 30 and feel the same. Our day was wonderful. Now we had only one thing on our minds - locate the house of the famous author Ruskin Bond, in the morning.
We finished half bottle of wine and called it a beautiful day...
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