Ruse, Muse, Obtuse

Oh yeah!! For some reason R woke up at 6:30 am ...and went for a walk. I chose to sleep in since anytime before 8:00 am is unthinkable for me. R informs me that she wakes up early in the morning. Frankly she gets along with a lots less sleep than I do.
Anyways we tackle a heavy breakfast of chole bhature and poori. I love walking by these little places where they make em hot and fresh in the mornings. We decided to hike to lal tibba which is the highest point in Musoorie and offers a great view of the Himalayas. We set off enthusiastically and faltered slightly when we realised that it was a good 5 kms away and was uphill, everyone we met looked at us doubtfully. I'll admit neither of us looks very fit. We decided to walk anyways after being encouraged by a sweet lady who sells sweaters. She said very nonchalantly that it was hardly gonna matter and it'd take us 45 minutes. Onward we marched. the first half of the hike was mostly though the narrow streets and we were thankful to walk the distance since there were several traffic jams. Once we got past the most occupied area we started walking uphill. It was STEEP and we somehow kept going stopping every 5 minutes to catch our breaths. But the view on the way were totally worth it. We reached the chauraha where the road becomes a T junction with one side going to sister's bazaar and the other to lal tibba. onward we marched till be reached our first roadblock. The road was barricaded. We jumped over it and kept walking. The climb hence forth wasn't as steep so we could walk it easily while taking tonnes of photos. We finally reached what appeared to be the top when
R(yells): Is that the mountains
Me: No they are just clouds
R: No look it is mountains
Me: Wow it really is
I can be excused for the error since the snow peaked mountains where whiter than the clouds and they were actually rising above it.
there was an observation tower which was closed..but R and I had come too far to leave without a good view so we managed to jump a couple of gates and get to the top. My first break-in :)The view from there was totally worth it. I could only see mountains all around. It sure made me want to get closer to the Himalayas. That's where I am heading next. Our reverie was interrupted by a shrill yell demanding how we got up there. Alas the owners had arrived and were screaming since we climbed up :) quite understandable. We paid up for the observation tickets and were able to use binoculars to see Kedarnath, the tibetian border and gangotri too. We headed back down and went over to sister's bazaar where R and I met an very interesting lady who owns a handicraft store there. Her family owns most of the shops there and the Cinnamon rolls that they sell there is delicious. R and I headed back at the chauraha we treated ourselves to some yummy waffles.
our journey back down to the Mall area took us less than 30 minutes. We had lunch at tavern which was really good. We headed over for one last trip to camel back road which was a little disappointing. We managed to see the sunset there. After that one last stop to Casa Mia for some more yummy cakes.
We headed over to a bus station where we managed to find a taxi which was heading to dehradun. The ride down literally had us praying since the driver was probably being chased by demons. Everyone in the car was praying for their lives and controlling Nausea. I have never felt happier getting out of a car.
We checked into a hotel for the night and on checking the ticket found that the train left at 5 and not 6. Thus avoiding a catastrophe. I think henceforth R and I will be double checking all our departure times.
We made it to Delhi right on time and ate some more at wenger's :)
Most Memorable image: R's face at the platform after missing the train
Best food: Pasta at Clarke's
Favourite dessert: Rum cake at Casa mia
Best View: Lal tibba
Favourite Moment: Standing on top of the hillock near the Buddhist monastery and listening to the wind

Ahh the joy of sleep snuggled in a warm railway bunker......
AAck the jab in the back
R: "Wake up!! our stop is next"
A: Grunts
R: WAKE UP!
A: Last stop is ours (turns over and tries to sleep again)
Finally the train comes to a stop..a complete stop...the final stop
We step out and can't believe we have actually made it to Dehradoon and on TIME!!! so far so good
At the station we were accosted by several autowala's "Rickshaw madam" etc etc lots of army people walking around (surprise surprise) We walk around a lil cuz i needed to clear out my befuddled head. Though at this point i must stop and specifically talk about R in the next few line
You seen a Jack in the Box?
You seen a human jack in the Box?
Let's think of sleep as the Box
Now let me tell you that it is no exaggeration that R would be the jack!!!!I
mean seriously, if i had that gift i would'nt need to consume the bile juice disguised as coffee every single day at work.

Anyways my state of beffudleness ends quickly and we find out that the bus stop is on the way out of the station. R and I manage to potter or moossey(?) around as she likes to call it. The bus finally leaves at 7:00 am bright and early, the conductor informed us that we will reach Mussorie by 8:00 am.
The bus laboriously climbed the twisty jalebi roads and paused for a breather every now and then. We arrive at the Palace station. We get off the bus and look for a hotel. We almost settle for a cheap hotel when we find "The Clarks" It is right there on Mall road, the rooms are incredible, it was an old Raj time grocery store which the current owners bought way back in 1926. The place is pristine and extremely well maintained. OOh and did i mention that it was cheap too? R and I fell in love with the place at first sight. The owner of the place is a matronly wonderful aunty who gave us a discount since we were only girls. The room we got was awesome. It had a great view of the valley and was perfectly clean and simple.
Anyways we decide to get breakfast out of the way since I wanted to watch the Japanese Grand Prix at 10:00. We wandered around a bit, taking in the sites and sounds of the place. A good tip while in Mussoorie is that the best time to take in the view in the mall area is before 10:00 am since the tourists are not out and the place is almost empty and one can enjoy the beauty of the place at leisure and listen to the sounds of nature.We found a little place where we hogged on cheese omelets
While watching the race the valley suddenly mists up. The sky was blue as Madonna's veil all morning and suddenly it became dark and grey. We had a fun time watching the mists slowly creep into our room thru the windows. All hopes for a misty room were dashed when we were forced to close the windows because it became a little cold.
An exciting race later we headed out for lunch to Rice bowl. Which is just a hop and skip away from clarkes. it is a good chinese and Tibetan restaurant and i enjoyed my noodle soup. Then we went to Casa Mia one of the best bakeries ever. R had a lemon pie and I a rum ball. The lemon pie was awesome and the rum ball was simply the best I've ever eaten. yum yum. Both these places are just ten steps away from Clarke's.
We buy tickets for the cable car to Gun point. However the length of the queue made us head over to happy valley instead. there is a tibetian monastery there. It is a little off-beat from the main touristy places. We took a rickshaw till the start of happy valley and walked down the rest of the way to the monastery. We climbed a a little hillock, when we reached its peak we had an unhindered view of the valley. the only sounds one can hear are the flags flapping in the wind and the occasional distant sound of prayer bells. It was beautiful! We then headed to the monastery which was at the base of the hillock. This is my first time at a buddhist temple and i liked the experience.
We managed to make it back up without loosing much breath and were happy that we chose to walk as we could see so much more of the area than if we had taken a cab. We took a taxi back to the mall area. There was a huge traffic jam just before the mall road. So we walked from the library end to clarke. After a quick beak where i ate a banana slice and R a chocolate truffle we headed over to the cable car. The queue was still long but we didn't want to waste our tickets and by the time we got up there it was past dusk. We took in a few sites while there was little light had some chocolate milk and headed back down in the cable car after a long wait. Gun hill is very commercialised and the stores have blocked out a lot of views. Next time i think I'll skip the cable car and simply walk up. there early in the morning.
We had dinner at clarkes since R had read that the pasta was good there. It definitely lived up to its name. It was really good. Note that pastas have to be ordered in advance.
We walked over to tavern a restaurant which was also highly recommended but we didn't enter since a party was going on and the music was bad. Instead we were bedazzled by a little shop near tavern which specialised in Tibetan jewellery. The pieces were beautiful and very reasonable. A must stop for the ladies who like a little chunky jewellery.
We headed back to the room but not before buying an apple pie from Casa Mia. The little bakery is seriously awesome!!!!
Our first day in Mussorie was complete and we were both satisfied at having covered a significant bit. We had decided long before that we were going to avoid the touristy spots and it paid off well.
zzzzzzz

Ingredient 1: At least one equally or more insane buddy


R&A managed to do it again and this time it was bigger, better and more chaotic!!!!

Destination: Moosurie
Scope: Eat, Yak, Eat, Yak, Yak....and oh yeah see a couple of places

R by the law of averages managed to get to Delhi ahead of schedule. On account of which blogger managed to make R wait a good 40 minutes at the bustling railway station.We head over to CP for lunch since we had 2 hours and 55 minutes for our train to Dehradoon. R on seeing civilization after several months could hardly contain her excitement. We had good lunch at United Coffee House, a lovely old restaurant in CP whose interiors are probably from The Raj era, though carefully maintained. After managing to stuff on ourselves with the awesome sandwichs we wandered about CP during which blogger reminded R that they should leave for the station by three and R promptly disagreed. (R likes to cut it even finer than me) besides i wasn't wearing a watch and generally was averse to taking care of logistics.
We wandered closer to the metro station and R still wasn't ready to go to the Railway Station. So we wandered even further and came to a delightful bakery called Wegner's. It is dessert heaven!!! A definite must stop for all foodies. I loved it absolutely!!!!! we wolfed down a lemon swiss roll...yum yum. And finally R consented to head to the railway station. We reach the new Delhi metro stop but there was some major problem with the exit gates owing to technical glitches and ignorant and pushy people on the gates. We finally manage to get out..and i notice the metro time and point out that R's watch is behind by 5 minutes.We make it to the station and I look for the platform our train is to be on. When R points out that departure is at 15:25 and not 15:35. I tell her to keep moving and ask her to check the time on our ticket. Hee hee ... we arrive at a gloriously empty platform and on checking with a few people there it was confirmed that we had promptly missed our train by two whole minutes!!! I was laughing and R was simply stunned. NDLS is jinxed for her she has on all occasions either missed her train or arrived really late. her expression was priceless and I was amused that this was the first time in my life that i had missed a train for no apparent reason.
It was pointless to try and board the train at the next station as Shatabdi has very few stops. Ah well we headed out to the nearest internet cafe and book our tickets on the night train. We had a good seven hours to kill before making it for our next train.
We headed over to see the Nizam's jewellery exhibition. The jewellery were on display after a gap of six years and are worth over 2000 crores. He was a connoisseur for emeralds and pearls. Some serious B L I N G !!!!!the emeralds are the size of walnuts or even bigger. Just looking at all those diamonds and emeralds was blinding!!!!. The Jacob Diamond is one serious piece of rock. WOW WOW WOW R and I were finally able to see why women would marry nawabs ;) I loved some of the pieces which had minakari work done on the back of the jewellery and the engravings on some of the emeralds.Despite the size of the stones the work was very intricate with an eye for detail. A primary design feature was pea-cocks. They are incorporated so beautifully. Hard to believe that someone could be THAT RICH..way back then just by ruling little piece of land.
After this we headed over to CP again and parked ourselves in a movie theatre to watch "The Loins of Punjab" (no typos there!!) The movie is average it got a little boring before the interval. Had a good amount of jokes on the NRI culture and some decent digs on Gujju's. I guess the NRI movie goers might enjoy it more. On the whole I would suggest waiting for the DVD to come out. It is'nt a moive that's a must see in the Cinema.
We still had some more time so we were wandering about wondering what to do when we passed by a new Restaurant called @Live which featured a live acoustic band. We wandered in the ambiance was really good and i loved the interiors. R is a singer herself so she absolutely flipped. After some good numbers we finally left for the station.
This time we reached a full half hour earlier and endured the rain of insects as we awaited for the train's arrival. It thankfully left on time and R&A promptly fell into blissful sleep as we knew we were finally getting to our intended destination.

Final Ratings of the day
United Coffee House: A-
Wegner's: A
@Live: B+
Loins of Punjab: C+