Mussorie. (Mussoorie)

Member Name: lordsquelch

Product:	Mussoorie
Date:	15/01/01 (39 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy on mind,body and soul after Delhi.

Disadvantages: Longish train journey,you will need a sleeper.

Most guide books try and break India to you gently, but can never in any way shape or form explain what only direct experience can teach you.Before I went I bought "The Rough Guide To India",had a good scan through,read and re-read bits and decided I would fly to Delhi and then head out as quickly as the train woyld carry my bones upland into the foothills of the Himalayas.Having been ripped off whilst totally knackered from my flight,by an un licenced taxi,it was only a fiver but alas loads more than I should have paid by all accounts,I was taken not where I had asked ie the tourist information office in central Delhi,but to the Indian equivalent of a "bucket shop" for air tickets etc and almost forced into a two week trip somewhere I did not want to go.I managed to gain a ticket for the train for the princly sum of fifteen pounds,the actual price being somewhere in the region of a fiver,in the first three hours in Delhi I recieved nothing but smiling lies.The good thing is that you find out later so are most of the time blissfully unaware.
I caught the train an overnighter stopping at every station between Delhi and Dehra Dun,where the line stops and you mount a bus to drive upwards,through the Dehra valley to my first port of call, Mussorie.
Mussorie,is one of the old "hill stations" from the days of the "Empire",where the British would go when it got to hot to stay in the sweltering summer heat of Delhi.It still bears the hallmarks of such days,with a small amount of buildings from the time.I was there at the begining of March,so it was sunny but cool compared to Delhi,a fantastic time to visit as if the need for solitude is upon you,then you wont be meeting many other tourists.Mussorie is a wonderful place to wander about and soak up a peice of the past that maybe some of your ancestors shared,the walks and views of the Himalayas are easy on the body,and stimulate the will to explore higher up,futher into the moun
tains of Uttar Pradesh.Hotels are pretty cheap,in the couple of pound region,food is basic,but again very reasonable just have a good look about a meal shouldnt cost more than a pound or so.Transport out of the place goes two directions either upland in the direction of Uttar Kashi or down the valley to the lowlands via Dehra Dun and the Beatles old 60's haunt of Rishikesh.

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