Mussoorie: Part One

We left Goa at 4:30am on Saturday. We flew Goa-Mumbai-Delhi and arrived at lunch time. As soon as we retrieved our luggage we set out to ticket counters to see who could immediately fly us up north. Teresa and I know a lady from Rexdale Alliance church, Lorraine Roche, who lived with her husband and three children in Dehra Dun, India, for two years. We visited her before the trip and after her stories had our hearts set on visiting her old stomping grounds.

With travelling: if you want to, you can do it.

We landed in Delhi at 12:15 and were rechecked and boarded a 3:30 flight to Dehra Dun. After the 45 minute flight we hopped in a taxi for the two hour ride to Mussoorie, a mountain town. These mountains border the real-life Himalayas and on less cloudy days you can see these real-life Himalayas. We got glimpses but more on that in the next post. It was breathtaking!

It is a crazy, winding mountain road where Gravol proved helpful. The views reminded me of the drive from Vancouver to Whistler. 

As we drove up we passed two Tibetan monks. That sure did not feel like real life at all. That is only seen in National Geographic magazines. As we drove there were many places where coloured "Free Tibet" flags were being flown. At the restaurant where we had dinner, a Thai restaurant with incredible food, our waiter had a 'Free Tibet' pin and there was accompanying literature. 

This all makes sense if you take a look at the geography here. Mussoorie is north of Dehra Dun, where the yellow, green and blue provinces meet.

I could talk about the view but that would not do it justice. Pictures can't even, but ill try anyways.

From our hotel balcony. The view changed ridiculously fast.

In town:

We got to Mussoorie at 6, got our room and  had dinner at a Thai restaurant: (clever idea: handwritten napkins under glass as tablecloths)

Post-dinner fennel and sugar (like getting Peppermints at Boston Pizza):

After dinner we wandered the super-hilly streets, did some impromptu hill training, enjoyed the sunset, read and slept, enjoyed the sunrise and view from our hotel balcony, ate breakfast, hired a taxi to drive us to two sites and the airport and were back in Delhi by 5:30! And it was more than worth it! We all agreed this was the perfect way to end India and staying in Delhi would not have been the wisest of ideas. We do not heart Delhi. 

Morning on the balcony:

Another post on our Sunday sightseeing adventures to follow but currently it is 3:20 am, Teresa and I are chilling in the Hong Kong airport and my phone is dying. Ill write more tmrw ;)