lots of dreams come true at woodside in landour bazar.
first the magic of the place is such it can make you forget 4 hours stuck in the traffic and rain on mg road in delhi.
its on the top of the peak, has the most dear old grandmother as owner, its in the middle of the jungle, there is continuous precipitation for the romantic types, there are continuous ups and downs in case you wanto work on that flat tummy, people from atleast 15 countries, you can discuss footie (or beach volleyball) with brazilians, beer with germans, caste system with christian missionaries, flowers with certain pretty koreans...ahem
its ghostly quite, lots of books, the huge bazaar of mussorrie is just 15 mins away in case you belong to the lovely earring gender,and then there is mansoor.
hidden away tucked away drawing only 5000 rs per month is ustad mansoor, the absolute master of any kind of cooking. he can produce the perfect indian dish of any genre in 30 mins flat. and the fact that he is a man of few words only helps matters. next time i going to poach him. see, some people never change, fuck the heavenly place, food, land of gods etc. i want that man in my kitchen.
he is like wasim akram dude. first ball alan lamb out to vicious outswinger, second ball chris lewis out to equally vicious inswinger. first day everyone out to fiery spicy lucknawi chicken;second day killed again to mild bengali gosht.
in case you are still hungry, there is chaar, chaya and mogamabo. chaar has guess; yes only chaar/four shops. their pakodas are great; also the garlic chicken. although slightly overpriced. sit there after strenuous mountain walks and enjoy the show. chaya is a peculiar mishmash of mid eastern (yes chickpeas) and european fare. chicken pie, please try. also the many cookies. mogambo has all tibetan stuff and lots of new stuff, stuff you never knew existed.
landour cantonment is at sisters bazaar near prakash's grocery shop. thats higher than chaar, whish is higher than landour bazaar, which is higher than mussorrie, which is higher than dehradun. soooo, 2 things... landour cantonment is ghostly, even after 300 years of being populated and long after mussoorie stopped resembling a hill town and began to look more like delhi. and the view. you stand on any bloody terrace in landour cantonment, you see clouds, then mussorie, then clouds again, and dehradun below. where else can you see such a view, you feel like the gods, with the clouds beneath you. you can even try saying let there be light, clouds would part and the sun would break out.
best way to get there? take the overnite shatabdi from nizamuddin to dehradun. saves both time and money. a little advanced planning required, the train fills up real fast.then taxi from dehra. wolfs burn is the best place to stay, followed by Kilmarnock. we stayed at woodside. bcoz it is 200 years old and huge and colonial. loved it. youre free to play around.
go for long nature walks, experiement with food, go for shopping or a quick drink to mussoorie. perfectly secluded, yet not to far away from serious habitation, its the ideal hill station. but leave mansoor alone. he is mine.
last question. what kind of a vacation i had? did i enjoy it? most popular question.. no i didnt. wouldnt have been happy in switzerland. but you will. the place has all the ingredients. go for it.
