Mussoorie

Mist over Mussoorie

We headed off to the town of Mussoorie recently. Sitting on a plateau at 2000 metres altitude, Mussoorie was a hill station established by the British in 1823 when India was under British rule, as a place to escape the heat of the valley. So I was merely following in the steps of my forefathers I guess.

Gandhi Chauwk - Mussoorie

Nowadays it's a bustling, commercial holiday town whose cool temperatures attracts the middle class from around Uttarakhand and Delhi. It has decent restaurants, decent shops, decent hotels with rooms that can't fail to provide stunning views.

Our hotel

It has the bonus of being somewhat vehicle free along it's main shopping street, there are some lovely hill walks, and i has the famous Lovely Omelette Centre which we can confirm makes the loveliest omelettes in India. So all in all it makes for a very pleasant short trip.

Lisa having a lovely omelette

However, only India could provide a cable car which zips you up to the top of a peak to see fine views of the Himalaya.... And then block the views with the most awful 70-style fairground stalls. We had to clamber behind the hoopla, "shoot he duck" and wear-a-silly-wedding outfit huts and teeter on the rocks next to the public toilets to actually get the view. Weird! (And it was flippin' cloudy again. No white peaks yet! Those Himalayas just keep on eluding us).

Behind the fairground

The no-view fairground

Mother Nature treated us to a spectacular thunder and lightning show in the evening. But like good Scandinavians, we were prepared with our rain jackets and fleece jumpers, and happily ventured out into the cool 12 degrees' evening for a Tibetan/Thai dinner. Momos are so my new gyoza!

By the way, we also found the very British looking Tavern pub, and fell off the wagon (4 weeks without alcohol ) with a shared bottle of beer in honour of my Dad's birthday. We felt a little giggly after a shared beer - what wimps. Treat us kindly when we come home!!!