Lal Tibba

Yesterday was another good day. I woke up to the sunrise (in my dreams) and was ready for the day come noon. This is what I call vacation. We ventured out for breakfast (at lunchtime) and found ourselves at the real princess palace. It was really pretty. We spent about 10 times what normally spend on eggs and got really bad service. Fancy hotels don't always mean fancy service and food.

The rest of the day we spent climbing up to lal tibba, another high lookout point. We leisurely made our way up the 4 kilometers through a cute little town. As we got higher and higher, we started seeing lots of really tall pine trees and less and less houses. It was beautiful. There aren't signs pointing to Lal Tibba (at least not in English), so we always asked people whenever we reached a fork in the road.

Towards the end, we ran into a young kid (it's scary when 20 is a kid) who was quickly passing us. As usual, we asked him where we needed to go, and he told us we were heading into the military base. Long story short, our new friend, Gaurav, invited us on base and we got an awesome view with chai his mommy made us. One thing we have noticed about Indians, is that they are the most hospitable and generous people. I can't even count the number of times a stranger has offered us chai or chapati. And yes, we are always very careful. Ale and I have a secret signal we make when we don't like a situation. This kid though, he literally brought us into his house, we met his mom and little brother and his brother's pet rats (they reminded me of the poor little mice I did experiments on in undergrad.) They made us chai and set out cookies and chips for us. His dad is in the military (hence they live on a military base) and he is studying mechanical engineering in Dehra Dun. His little brother is 12 and gets all A's. And the thing is, this is what most people here in India are like when we meet them- just so kind and welcoming.

After our adventure to the military base (with such a beautiful view of the Himalayas), Gaurav escorted us off base and then pointed us in the right direction for lal tibba. It was just a 5 minute walk and before we knew it, we were there. The military base is actually a little bit higher up, but tourists obviously are not allowed to just hang out there (unless you are Lauren and Ale), so lal tibba becomes the spot to get the view. Luckily, it was not too touristy up there. Just a couple chai stands, not all the commotion of Gun Hill. Less people, better view, longer hike. My kind of place!

We snapped pictures and watched the sun set (and then our new friend brought Ale's zephyrhills (well India's brand) water bottle down that she forget- yes he walked all the way down for a water bottle- too kind!) and then headed back down. It took only a half hour to get down to main Mussoorie and we found our way to the kabob restaurant. Mmmm. Dinner was malai chicken kabobs, paneer, and gobi (cauliflower) curry with laccha paranthas and roti. It's much spicier up here in Mussoorie than it has been in the rest of northern India (which hasn't been very spicy), and it's much needed. I was really missing the heat of south India. My taste buds have definitely changed and I can proudly say I like spicy food. I am glad, though, that I spent the year before India developing a fondness for hot sauces.

On our way back to the hotel, we got some street gulab jamon and Jelibee (mmmmm). We stopped in the lobby of our hotel for some wifi and then I headed up for a hot shower. I've perfected the electric blanket and by the time I was getting out of the shower, my bed was nice and warm. I love Mussoorie.