On arrival to Mussoorie, we called our hotel, Hotel Emerald Heights, for them to send a pickup (which we had read on tripadvisor, they did free of charge.) We sipped on chai, as we waited for our car to come and whisk us (and our heavy backpacks) into the mountains. Unfortunately, we were greeted by our pickup, a 60 year old man. Now it made sense why we were hounded by porters asking to bring our bags.
This is the moment when Ale finally realized she is too old for backpacking. She handed over her 70 rupees and sipped her chai as we walked the 15 minutes uphill to our hotel. I, on the other hand, hadn't bought an entire new bag (see picture below) and filled it with souvenirs, so i could still manage by backpack. Yes, my backpack may be 75 L instead of Ale's 65, but I leave some room before my trips so I can carry everything on my back.
We passed gulab jamun and Jelibee and pani poori on the street and knew we had come to the right place! We got to our hotel and were pleasantly surprised by how nice our room was. Of course, this is no Ritz Carlton, but by far the largest and newest room we have stayed in as of yet. The views of the Himalayas were much needed, and the only complaint we had was that they were doing some minor construction on the hotel. Aka chainsaws. But given this place was well in our budget and we hadn't found another place with as good of reviews- we were more than okay to sacrifice. This is low season in Mussoorie and the rains just stopped a week before, so most of the hotels in the area were getting some work done.
We did encounter one more problem, as sunset came. It was chilly! For me, this wasn't too bad since I had packed for India thinking it would be freezing, but Ale was not prepared. And she gets colder way easier than I do. So after realizing we might freeze to death that night, we asked the front desk if there was a heater. They have been very accommodating to our needs, which isn't too hard since we are just one of a few guests who have decided to come freeze their butts off in Mussoorie. But still, we are thankful. They sent up a guy to set up an electric blanket. This was a novel invention for Ale (who lived at the equator for her first 12 years) and although I had heard of an electric blanket, I had never used one before. I plugged it in and turned it all the way up. Unfortunately by the time we realized it only worked on Ale's side of the bed (he had put it in horizontal and it was only the size of a beach towel), it was late and we decided to put the hot part of the blanket in the middle of the bed and share what little warmth there was. I, of course, have the superpower of sleeping anytime anywhere and had a wonderfully cozy night's sleep. I'm also kind of a bed hog, so Ale didn't end up getting too much of the warmth (sorry, Ale!)
This morning, we decided to ask for 2 new electric blankets (that worked, please!), and as the guy was setting them up (now vertical so we could each get our whole body warm), he showed us the key to the settings. When I had turned it all the way up, I had set the blanket to F for feet. My bad.
Today was fabulous - we have figured out that our hotel provides room service, which is awesome. We did venture out today, though, I promise. After breakfast that they set up for us in the reception area (which was tiny!) so we could have wifi with breakfast, the guy at the front desk walked us to buy train tickets. We thought he was bringing us to a travel agent, but turns out we went straight to the source! We normally buy all our tickets on makemytrip.com but last night they apparently decided they were no longer taking international credit cards. Hence, the train ticket counter. The trains start from Dehra Dun, though, so we will get to take another bus ride from Mussoorie down to Dehra Dun and then a train from Dehra Dun to Delhi in a couple days.
After buying our train tickets, we explored the rest of Mussoorie. We have noticed that lonely planet is pretty bad at setting up a visual of a town, so we eventually realized that Mussoorie is a big circle. It starts with mall bazaar which leads to library bazaar by mall road. You can also get between the two by camel back road. It probably makes no sense, but we were glad to figure it out. Included in our activities today, was drinking about 10 cups of chai and now lemon tea (it's freezing) and then also going up to Gun Hill, which is one of the highest spots in town. It's
normally much busier in high season, and by busier I mean more touristy. It's pretty tacky, with lots of shops and restaurants but it still has a nice view, so we definitely enjoyed ourselves. We also took a bicycle rickshaw at one point because Ale really wanted to experience it.
Now we lay in our heated bed waiting for room service. In case you can't tell, we like Mussoorie a lot better than Rishikesh!
Pictures: 1. Ale's porter and me before our hike to the hotel 2. Eating dinner in town, our Malai kabobs made in front of us! 3. The view from Gun Hill 4. Our favorite thing to do- drink chai and read with a gorgeous view 5. Eating gulab jamon in bed
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