India Trip: Mussorie

On our one year anniversary we traveled up to Mussorie for the day/evening. Mussorie is known as the "Queen of the Hill Stations", and is a small town about an hour up the mountain from DDun. Some friends of Shveta's dad, CP Singh and his wife, were kind enough to hire a car for us to take up to Mussorie and spend the evening. The ride up was through lovely green forests and winding roads, then when we were just a few km away from our destination we were stopped. Apparently there was a big protest going on and the roads were all closed. So we backtracked a bit to a hotel for lunch.

When lunch was over the roads were still closed, so our driver dropped us off near a small town where we did some walking around, down by a school and along the roads. Eventually the protest finished, and we got to our hotel for the evening. After checking in (to the sound of "Everything I do" by Bryan Adams), we headed out ot Mall Rd., the main drag of Mussorie. Mall Rd. was full of various shops and eateries, and tons of people were out for their evening stroll. It was a nice 3km walk to the end of the road, all the while with sweeping views of the Doon valley below us. Then it was getting late, so we headed back to the hotel for dinner and some rest.

The next morning we woke up and headed for Kempty falls, about an hour further into the hills. The ride was even more twisty than the ride up to DDun, but we caught glimpses of the Himalayas in the distance. The falls were tall and silky, spreading out like a fan over rocks. The hike down to the base of the falls was basically along a concrete path filled with vendors. It really made me appreciate our national parks, and all the work of conservationists. Even with all the stalls everywhere, the falls were very pretty and worth the trip. Then we stopped by company gardens on the way back to DDun.