Riding the rails, Part I
Trip Start
Aug 11, 2007
1
4
23
Trip End
Jul 30, 2008
Mussoorie,
India
Monday, August 27, 2007
Honestly, I was a bit nervous about the train ride, since I've been in some pretty chaotic train stations and had heard that the trains in India have rows of seats literally on top of eachother.
However, my train riding experience was as smooth as they come! We got porters to help us carry our bags to the train platform, the train was clean, spacious and air-conditioned, and the service on the train was fantastic! At various points on our six-hour ride, the train staff gave us newspapers and magazines to read, and served us tea, a hot lunch and bottled water
Dev Dar House, Landor
.The only downside was this somewhat-annoying little girl who was sitting with her mom in front of us. In addition to jumping up and down for hours, running up and down the aisle, singing and counting backwards in English (which did impress me, I must admit), she would periodically come by our row, stand and stare at us for a bit, and randomly rub the arm of my friend who was sitting on the aisle. The funny part was, she never said hello or tried to talk to us, but she definitely seemed to be fascinated by my friend's arm. Annoying as she was, she was probaby 7 or 8, so I can forgive her for bothering us.
We got off the train in Dehra Dun and had lunch at Indian chain restaurant called "Nirula's." It wasn't my favorite, but at least we knew that the food wasn't going to make us sick.
Then we began the windy ascent up into the mountains to our hostal and the language school. As we climbed and climbed, the road got narrower and narrower until it was basically a one-lane road with a little wiggle room. At several points along the way, we had to stop and roll backwards down the hill a bit to let cars pass us that were coming from the opposite direction
My Room, Dev Dar House
. I give props to our drivers who were amazing at maneuvering backwards down the windy mountain roads. What's more, it got increasingly more foggy as we made our ascent, and at times it seemed like we were above the clouds. After about 2 hours, and just when I thought we'd reached the top of the mountain range, we pullled into the driveway of a beautiful guest house. I was a bit nauseated from the windy ride up, but my nausea left me when we entered the guest house. It was a gorgeous old mansion-of-sorts, with high ceilings, old wooden furniture, and beautiful old lamps. It seemed like we had the place basically to ourselves too.
After picking rooms and settling in, we walked over to the language school for a quick orientation with the principal, a very cute old Indian man, who told us about the schedule for the week.
On our way back to the hostal, we stood to marvel at the whole families of monkees leaping from tree to tree on the sides of the road. We also took a walk into the small village (3 stores, to be exact) just down the road from our hostal. There were 2 food stores, one with a phone and internet, and a beautiful textile store with prices just for tourists! The storekeepers here definitely have it made in terms of their location right near the language school where tourists are always around.
Dinner was another version of the food we ate at the first part of our orientation retreat, leading some of us to believe that the cooks at the two places were related somehow.
After hanging out with the group a bit, I went to bed early to be well rested for my first day of hindi lessons on Monday....more about that to come!
