Mussoorie

On 9th May, 2008, I had the opportunity to go with my colleagues in India to an off-site meeting in Mussoorie, a hill station started by the British with its history dating back to 1825. We were there over the weekend and the journey itselsf was quite interesting.

We had decided to via surface transport which means rail and road. The train leaves Delhi at 6:50am so that means waking up very early so that we can be at the station by 6:15am. Crowd and traffic can be unpredictable so we wanted to be there with sufficient time to spare.

This is the entrance to the train station where we congregated

The train journey took exactly 6 hours for a journey of some 250km. Part of the reason is that it has to stop in all the stations in between to drop off and pick up passengers.

This is the train that took us to and from Dehradun, the nearest town

The coach we were in was air-conditioned. In fact, some seats are very cold, those in the middle of the coach which could probably be near where the air is coming out.

The coach we were in

The tickets we bought are for full service. So along the way, we got served tea and breakfast. However, need to set expectations right. They have a person who comes around and give you the necessary teapots and trays for the meals. Not the same as airlines but passable.

This is the morning tea. The thermos has enough water for just 1 cup

This is the breakfast. I asked for non-veg which was omelette

On arrival at Dehradun, the nearest town which is also the last stop for the train, there was a bus and a car waiting to take us to Mussoorie. The train arrived at 12:50pm (exactly 6 hours since leaving Delhi). The journey to Mussoorie is about 30km but will take about 1 hour.

This is one of the views from the road that we were taking to Mussoorie

This is a hindu temple on the way up and is next to a buddhist temple

We stayed at the Jaypee hotel in Mussoorie. The hotel is very nice, probably one of the better hotels in Mussoorie. I was assigned a room that walks out to the garden.

This is the garden that is outside my room

The area where we had our dinner in the same garden

A view of the hotel from the terrace

The journey in itself was an experience. The road is along the hillside and in some spots, it gets quite narrow that the vehicles have to slow down to inch pass each other. Total time for the journey from Delhi railway station to the hotel, about 7 hours. I shall post more later on the area and the town.