Aug 2007

North Indians, especially punjus, love Mussoorie. Being married to one I always wondered why and after visiting Mussorrie I think I know why. Read on if you are interested to know why Delhi-ites, esp a kind of Delhi-ites, love the Queen of Hills and how you can meet Mr. Ruskin Bond.

Republic Day 2007 happened to be on a Friday and a good enough motivation to plan for a quick vacation to a place which can be reached over a not-so-long drive. After not getting much success at Corbett and few other places, we somehow led ourselves to Mussoorie. No one wanted to go there in the first place and I guess all are glad that we finally made it to some place. It was definitely more fun being there than watching the Parade. I heard that these days you don’t even get to hear Jaswant Singh, a regular commentator of the event on erstwhile DD. Yeah, I know DD is still around but not as relevant, at least for metros like Delhi.

Read the complete story at

http://www.ghumakkar.com/2007/03/22/mussooriequeen-of-hills-jan-2007/

It was the usual Thursday evening when I gave a ring to “Mohit” on a possible visit to somewhere during the weekend and as I predicted, he was all set to go. We were nearing weekend so the only undecided question was “Where to go?”. Being a “Punjabi”, he insisted on going to Mussoorie (Nandan will understand why I am saying so) but after exploring, we finally agreed upon Udaipur. The little more exploration about the transportation, city, tourist spots, staying facilities etc, put the final nail into our plans. So, there we were ready to go to Udaipur - The City of Lakes & Palaces.

Day 0 – 23 March ’07 (Friday)
As Mewar Express was over booked, we both agreed to go to Udaipur by DTC run Volvo. It started at 6:00 pm sharp from ISBT, Kashmiri Gate; the fair was Rs 700/- and after crossing Gurgaon it caught NH-8 route. The best part was that the seats that were quite easily available. I boarded Volvo from Kashmiri Gate while Mohit caught it from Gurgaon. Bus crossed Jaipur and Bhilwara. From Bhilwara, it took a left exit towards Udaipur, bypassing Chittorgarh on the way.

Day 1-24th March (Saturday)
After reaching Udaipur at 7:30am, our search for a decent hotel started. As experienced guys, we knew that the area near bus stand will have a decent one waiting for us. Finally, we reached to Sieta Ram Lodge located in Hotel Wali Gali. Yeah, its Sieta and not Sita.

Read the full story at http://www.ghumakkar.com/2007/03/28/udaipur-and-chittorgarh-march-2007/

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