The moment I opened my eyes in the morning I ran towards the French windows of the hotel suite – half in anticipation, half in trepidation. The sight that greeted my eyes justified both feelings. There were houses in the immediate vicinity of the hotel but I could make out mountains in the distance – not a sweeping view of the hills but enough to make me believe that I really was at a hill station! :)
After a hearty breakfast at the hotel (and a curious sight of 2 burly foreigners filling their Tupperware containers with bacon, boiled eggs, ham and assorted bakery products!)I was ready to face the day. I marched to the reception armed with a list of tourist attractions culled from the internet.
Sahastradhara – check!
Maldevata – check!
Robber’s Cave (they call it Guchhupani locally) - – check!
Palatan Bazar – check!
Tibetan Bazaar – check!
Tapkeshwar – check!
Mindrolling Monastery – check!
Khalanga War Memorial – what’s that?
“Hmmm....it is a memorial built by the British for the Gorkha regiment after the 1814-1816 war” – I read from the printout.
I met with blank faces.
“It is supposed to be in the vicinity of Sahastradhara” I said helpfully. ‘Never heard of it” pat came the reply.
‘Maybe you call it by some other name like Guchhupani” I persisted.
The front desk people made a few calls but drew blank everywhere.
“We will inquire when we reach Sahastradhara” I said with confidence that I wasn’t actually feeling.
“Oh and BTW, will there be water at Sahastradhara this time of the year?” they all said ‘Yes’ in unison.
And yet when we reached the place, there wasn’t much of it and that too was occupied with a group of college kids who were under the impression that the whole place belongs to them. This definitely wasn’t any auspicious beginning to our sightseeing.
There is a ropeway here which promises a sweeping view of the hillside from the top. We briefly toyed with the idea but I had read about the Parvanoo cable car accident in 1992 and so dropped the idea. The place had some boards pointing to sulphur springs in the vicinity but the sight of a group of men (topless and not physically fit!) waddling about in the water nipped the whole idea in the bud. We walked back through the market – past stalls advertizing Chow mein (spelled in a zillion different ways and all wrong!), Maggie (for some reason this turns out to be a favorite item at roadside eateries across Dehradun), soup and other eatables. I stopped short at a shop selling glass bangles and bought 3 pairs for a measly price of Rs. 20 each. This turned out to be the only jewellery (!) that I ended up buying in the whole trip! Maybe I should have spent some more time looking through the pieces – could have snagged an unusual pendant or two :(
Next stop – Maldevata.
After a hearty breakfast at the hotel (and a curious sight of 2 burly foreigners filling their Tupperware containers with bacon, boiled eggs, ham and assorted bakery products!)I was ready to face the day. I marched to the reception armed with a list of tourist attractions culled from the internet.
Sahastradhara – check!
Maldevata – check!
Robber’s Cave (they call it Guchhupani locally) - – check!
Palatan Bazar – check!
Tibetan Bazaar – check!
Tapkeshwar – check!
Mindrolling Monastery – check!
Khalanga War Memorial – what’s that?
“Hmmm....it is a memorial built by the British for the Gorkha regiment after the 1814-1816 war” – I read from the printout.
I met with blank faces.
“It is supposed to be in the vicinity of Sahastradhara” I said helpfully. ‘Never heard of it” pat came the reply.
‘Maybe you call it by some other name like Guchhupani” I persisted.
The front desk people made a few calls but drew blank everywhere.
“We will inquire when we reach Sahastradhara” I said with confidence that I wasn’t actually feeling.
“Oh and BTW, will there be water at Sahastradhara this time of the year?” they all said ‘Yes’ in unison.
And yet when we reached the place, there wasn’t much of it and that too was occupied with a group of college kids who were under the impression that the whole place belongs to them. This definitely wasn’t any auspicious beginning to our sightseeing.
There is a ropeway here which promises a sweeping view of the hillside from the top. We briefly toyed with the idea but I had read about the Parvanoo cable car accident in 1992 and so dropped the idea. The place had some boards pointing to sulphur springs in the vicinity but the sight of a group of men (topless and not physically fit!) waddling about in the water nipped the whole idea in the bud. We walked back through the market – past stalls advertizing Chow mein (spelled in a zillion different ways and all wrong!), Maggie (for some reason this turns out to be a favorite item at roadside eateries across Dehradun), soup and other eatables. I stopped short at a shop selling glass bangles and bought 3 pairs for a measly price of Rs. 20 each. This turned out to be the only jewellery (!) that I ended up buying in the whole trip! Maybe I should have spent some more time looking through the pieces – could have snagged an unusual pendant or two :(
Next stop – Maldevata.
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