Lansdowne; now why Lansdowne of all places. Simply because it actually
fits in to the string of criteria those we had set (and normally set for
other cases as well) in front of us for this Summer weekend getaway
trip. I feel I should name a few of the criteria to make things clear to
all. To begin with, the locale must be a bit off the charts, that is to
say not on top of the charts with respect to a Summer Weekend getaway.
Simplistically speaking, it should not be the popularist’s choice like a
Shimla or a Mussourie. Then, the travel plan needs to be simple, well
connected by train, followed by a not so long travel via the road. The
timings of the train also need to be time-economical. Then again there
is also a silly clause that the name of the place should sound
interesting! Silly it may be, but important none the less. Finally,
comes the budget and availability of Hotels; proper places to sleep,
with good reviews, yet moderately priced; not to pinch the common man’s
pocket. And now if you look at it, Lansdowne fits the bill on all
counts. It is not so popular, yet had good feedbacks from travelers to
that place. It was just an overnight train journey followed by an hours
drive. And, of course, the name was smart enough! So, now you see.
The tour plan was made. We start off from Delhi on the 31st night on board the Mussourie Express. Reach Kotdwar at six in the next morning. We were to stay in the Blue Pine Resort and travel back to Delhi on the 3rd of July on board the Garhwal Express. We were scheduled to reach Delhi at 10:15 in the night, after a seven hour train journey. And we had planned to take Meera-di along with us in this tour.
We left office early on Thursday to catch up on the last minute packing, and left home at around half past seven in the evening. The taxi was pre-booked and without any hitches we reached Sarai Rohilla Station an hour before the scheduled departure of the Mussourie Express. The station somehow seemed too deserted, weary and tiny to support as a terminal station for an ‘Express’ train. But there it was, our dear old Mussourie Express waiting at platform number three. There is a funny thing with the Mussourie Express. The main part of the train reaches Dehra Doon, while a smaller section of the train (one 3AC coach and 6 other normal sleeper coaches) gets detached at Najibabad Junction, only to be pulled again by a separate engine to Kotdwar! So beware, while getting on board the Mussourie Express. You may reach Dehra Doon instead of Kotdwar the next morning! Our journey was obviously devoid of any such mishaps, though!
The train was really very much unassuming, and on the verge of being a bit uncomfortable. And the crowd around was a mix of people of all ages, led mainly by a brigade of younger kids, leading the whole family to a summer holiday. And hence there was a buzz of enthusiasm inside the compartment, which was rubbed into us in a good way, and at the same time was a constant hamper in our good night’s sleep.
Any way, what was most important was the fact that the train arrived at the Kotdwar Station almost on time. As we walked out of the station and climbed a flight of stairs, we were not swarmed by shouting taxi walas for a change. Instead there was a single person was shouting out at a very moderate volume, “Lansdowne, Lansdowne, Lansdowne”! After the initial bargain, we were led to a Mahindra Maxx Jeep, and started off.
The road to Lansdowne was pretty delightful, with the Kho River accompanying us for quite a length of the journey. We reached The Blue Pine Resort at Deriyakhal, around 3 kilometers before Lansdowne after almost an hour. The hotel was still sleeping though, with nobody at the front desk. But somehow, Mahavir was a around and we were led to our rooms numbered 11 and 12. The hotel was constructed in different floors (levels is a better way of describing the situation, though) in way such that all the rooms were facing the beautiful valley in the front. Rooms 1 to 8 were at the lowest level, and may be with the worst view. Rooms 9 to 12 were in the second tier, with a better view but had the common passage as the balcony. Rooms 13 and higher were at the highest level, but seemed to be smaller. Anyways, we had no other options, as it was a full house at the hotel.
Blue Pine will not definitely be a “love-at-first-sight” material. But it is not definitely a sore to the eyes as well, my feedback provided for the hotel in my Tripadvisor account gives them a low score, which just qualifies as the pass marks!
Even though, we felt that it was a bit overpriced, but I feel that the main issue with the hotel was the fact that it as not equipped well enough to attend to a full house situation. Even though the eager room service and house keeping attendants were running around, the numbers just did not match up. And hence most of the time they were playing catch-up!
Anyways, after a brief rest and freshening up, we had our buffet breakfast, and then took a car from the Hotel to Lansdowne. We were dropped at the market-cum-taxi stand-cum-main chawk of Lansdowne in a fifteen day old Maruti Ertiga by Bipin, the driver! We wandered a bit around the up-and-down road. The weather was not as good as we had wanted it to be, yet it was on the borderline between just pleasant and slightly warm. Hence the walk was enjoyable without actually breaking some sweat! Then suddenly the weather changed, and it started to get a bit dark due to the approaching clouds. The wind rose and even there were a few drops of rain, but only a few drops, not long enough to qualify as a shower! But it was enough to force us to take a Maxx back to our hotel.
Lunch was a platter of dal, bhindi, chicken, roti and raita selected from the set menu of the buffet. It was though served hot in our room. After the good and hearty meal, we could not resist ourselves from having a short siesta to recharge ourselves (which we were all in desperate need after a sort of tumultuous night at the train).
Afternoon came and the mild sunlight forced us to out of our rooms once again. This time though we ventured out on our foot. We walked uphill because of two reasons. One obviously due to the fact that it was the way to the Lansdowne (though we did not have any hope of making it up to the top); and second, the walk back will be less strenuous. The leisure stroll across the winding road around the hill was without a doubt pretty enjoyable. In the end, it was the approaching evening and the darkness associated with it, which forced us to turn back towards our hotel.
Evening tea and snacks followed. And at seven thirty sharp Blue Pine suddenly woke up with a bang. The terrace in front of our balcony had suddenly transformed itself in to a dance floor, and the ambience was broken in a thousand pieces by the loud volume of the DJ. It made me wonder, why of all places, people would want to indulge in to loud music and dance in a quiet place like Lansdowne. Is it for this reason that people flock every year in the summer, or is it the other way round? No answers still.
Anyways, at least it was time bound; and as scheduled it was over by nine thirty in the night. We had though completed our dinner by that time; although room service was delayed a bit in an attempt to meet the demands of drinks and snacks from the dance floor. The first day was over, lazily, and definitely without any regret of choosing Lansdowne over any other trendy tourist destination.
Next Morning we were all up early, and after breakfast we had planned a day trip to the major tourist attractions in and around Lansdowne. It was planned as a three to four hour trip. We started off with the Army Museum. The Darwan Singh Museum to be precise. Though the notice board outside said strictly, that children below ten years were not allowed, yet after a little chat with the army personnel at the entry, Debarghya was allowed enter with us. The Museum was well maintained, though the documentation may have been a bit better. Our next stop was Saint John’s Church on the Mall (earlier named as the Roman Catholic Church). It is situated just above the road on the spur below the Forest bungalow. It was completed in 1934. It reopened on Nov 29, 1980. From then, St. John’s Church became the only Church of worship in Lansdowne and continues till date. Though some renovation work was going on, but we were allowed to enter and sit in the tranquil indoors for a few minutes. From there we moved to the Bhulla Tal, which is in fact no way spectacular, a simple small man made water body, which barely classifies as a lake. Yet, the easy availability of the paddle boats, the abnormally low number of tourists, the pleasant weather and we all being in a holiday mood made it special. We paddled around for twenty minutes, had a small snack break; and even gave the pack of rabbits their legitimate share of our snack in the meantime. Our next stop was St Mary’s Church, but since it was not open yet, we moved on to Tip-n-Top, colloquially Tiffin top! The view from the top was great. Though it may not have been the perfect time get a glimpse of the entire horizon, as a misty haze had hampered our distant vision by quite a margin, yet the effect of elevation, and the feeling of being on top of the world (!) was incomparable. Then we moved on to the Sitala Mandir on top of a hill. There was a little flight of stairs up to the temple. And after reaching to the top, we found that we were the only persons around. And all was self-help. While making our way back from there, we made quick stop at the St Mary’s Church, which is mostly converted in to a small Museum of sort. There was a projector also fixed for an audio visual presentation featuring the hundred plus years of the Garhwal regimental history. Last, we stopped at the market; refreshed ourselves with some local ice-cream cones, made some arrangements for snacks for our next trip to Tarkeshwar Temple (which had already been planned as an after lunch activity) and came back to the hotel, little exhausted, but with a lot of content.
Lunch was the usual spread of dal, roti, rice, salad, gobi masala and chicken. And after a short break, we were again on our way. This time we were travelling to the Tarkeshwar Mahadev temple. It is around thirty six kilometers from Deriyakhal. The journey was splendid. The winding roads, either sloping down or moving up, with a deep gorge on one side and steep rocks on the other. Need an expert hand to drive in these terrains with élan. The walk way up to the temple was equally stunning. The winding, well maintained stairway surrounded deeply by the oak and deodar trees will take you to a place where sunlight also finds difficult to reach. The ambience was mesmerizing. Silence, along with the dull light creates an aura. And in there was the temple itself. It is supposedly very old (don’t remember the exact date, but somewhere I saw it to be almost seven hundred years old). The way up to the temple from the gate was laced with bells, and the chimes create a heavenly feeling inside you.
We stayed there for half an hour, and then climbed back up to civilization. And then retraced our way back to the hotel through the winding undulating road. While on our way back we came across a forest fire from pretty close; the fire, according to our driver Bipin, may have been started due to human negligence, or even intention!
The evening was as usual laced with some good moments of the night gradually settling in to the valley and some unwanted noise pollution in the dance floor. Dinner followed, and a typical day for a tourist was over in no time. Next day, it would be time to leave. Already?
Next morning brought in with a languid atmosphere for us to delve deep in it. We all woke up pretty late, and as time gradually crept along, we were all packed and ready to leave. Bipin in his Ertiga was waiting for us, and after clearing all the dues and getting a Maggi packed under special request, we were on our way, saying farewell to Lansdowne as we moved down the road to Kotdwar. We had our a la Carte Lunch at the Sidhdhabali Baba Sweets near the station, and started our journey back to Delhi on board the Garhwal Express.
I really do not need to include the details of the train journey and beyond as it would not give the proper feel for an end for this travelogue. The only good thing about the journey was that we reached Old Delhi on time.
Lansdowne; and our trip to Lansdowne was suddenly a “past tense” in our life. The entire waiting, all the planning, all the enthusiasm was over in a couple of days. Our refreshing tour was over, as we returned back to our regular daily somewhat mundane life. Enjoyed? Yes. Memorable? Definitely!!
The tour plan was made. We start off from Delhi on the 31st night on board the Mussourie Express. Reach Kotdwar at six in the next morning. We were to stay in the Blue Pine Resort and travel back to Delhi on the 3rd of July on board the Garhwal Express. We were scheduled to reach Delhi at 10:15 in the night, after a seven hour train journey. And we had planned to take Meera-di along with us in this tour.
We left office early on Thursday to catch up on the last minute packing, and left home at around half past seven in the evening. The taxi was pre-booked and without any hitches we reached Sarai Rohilla Station an hour before the scheduled departure of the Mussourie Express. The station somehow seemed too deserted, weary and tiny to support as a terminal station for an ‘Express’ train. But there it was, our dear old Mussourie Express waiting at platform number three. There is a funny thing with the Mussourie Express. The main part of the train reaches Dehra Doon, while a smaller section of the train (one 3AC coach and 6 other normal sleeper coaches) gets detached at Najibabad Junction, only to be pulled again by a separate engine to Kotdwar! So beware, while getting on board the Mussourie Express. You may reach Dehra Doon instead of Kotdwar the next morning! Our journey was obviously devoid of any such mishaps, though!
The train was really very much unassuming, and on the verge of being a bit uncomfortable. And the crowd around was a mix of people of all ages, led mainly by a brigade of younger kids, leading the whole family to a summer holiday. And hence there was a buzz of enthusiasm inside the compartment, which was rubbed into us in a good way, and at the same time was a constant hamper in our good night’s sleep.
Any way, what was most important was the fact that the train arrived at the Kotdwar Station almost on time. As we walked out of the station and climbed a flight of stairs, we were not swarmed by shouting taxi walas for a change. Instead there was a single person was shouting out at a very moderate volume, “Lansdowne, Lansdowne, Lansdowne”! After the initial bargain, we were led to a Mahindra Maxx Jeep, and started off.
The road to Lansdowne was pretty delightful, with the Kho River accompanying us for quite a length of the journey. We reached The Blue Pine Resort at Deriyakhal, around 3 kilometers before Lansdowne after almost an hour. The hotel was still sleeping though, with nobody at the front desk. But somehow, Mahavir was a around and we were led to our rooms numbered 11 and 12. The hotel was constructed in different floors (levels is a better way of describing the situation, though) in way such that all the rooms were facing the beautiful valley in the front. Rooms 1 to 8 were at the lowest level, and may be with the worst view. Rooms 9 to 12 were in the second tier, with a better view but had the common passage as the balcony. Rooms 13 and higher were at the highest level, but seemed to be smaller. Anyways, we had no other options, as it was a full house at the hotel.
Blue Pine will not definitely be a “love-at-first-sight” material. But it is not definitely a sore to the eyes as well, my feedback provided for the hotel in my Tripadvisor account gives them a low score, which just qualifies as the pass marks!
Even though, we felt that it was a bit overpriced, but I feel that the main issue with the hotel was the fact that it as not equipped well enough to attend to a full house situation. Even though the eager room service and house keeping attendants were running around, the numbers just did not match up. And hence most of the time they were playing catch-up!
Anyways, after a brief rest and freshening up, we had our buffet breakfast, and then took a car from the Hotel to Lansdowne. We were dropped at the market-cum-taxi stand-cum-main chawk of Lansdowne in a fifteen day old Maruti Ertiga by Bipin, the driver! We wandered a bit around the up-and-down road. The weather was not as good as we had wanted it to be, yet it was on the borderline between just pleasant and slightly warm. Hence the walk was enjoyable without actually breaking some sweat! Then suddenly the weather changed, and it started to get a bit dark due to the approaching clouds. The wind rose and even there were a few drops of rain, but only a few drops, not long enough to qualify as a shower! But it was enough to force us to take a Maxx back to our hotel.
Lunch was a platter of dal, bhindi, chicken, roti and raita selected from the set menu of the buffet. It was though served hot in our room. After the good and hearty meal, we could not resist ourselves from having a short siesta to recharge ourselves (which we were all in desperate need after a sort of tumultuous night at the train).
Afternoon came and the mild sunlight forced us to out of our rooms once again. This time though we ventured out on our foot. We walked uphill because of two reasons. One obviously due to the fact that it was the way to the Lansdowne (though we did not have any hope of making it up to the top); and second, the walk back will be less strenuous. The leisure stroll across the winding road around the hill was without a doubt pretty enjoyable. In the end, it was the approaching evening and the darkness associated with it, which forced us to turn back towards our hotel.
Evening tea and snacks followed. And at seven thirty sharp Blue Pine suddenly woke up with a bang. The terrace in front of our balcony had suddenly transformed itself in to a dance floor, and the ambience was broken in a thousand pieces by the loud volume of the DJ. It made me wonder, why of all places, people would want to indulge in to loud music and dance in a quiet place like Lansdowne. Is it for this reason that people flock every year in the summer, or is it the other way round? No answers still.
Anyways, at least it was time bound; and as scheduled it was over by nine thirty in the night. We had though completed our dinner by that time; although room service was delayed a bit in an attempt to meet the demands of drinks and snacks from the dance floor. The first day was over, lazily, and definitely without any regret of choosing Lansdowne over any other trendy tourist destination.
Next Morning we were all up early, and after breakfast we had planned a day trip to the major tourist attractions in and around Lansdowne. It was planned as a three to four hour trip. We started off with the Army Museum. The Darwan Singh Museum to be precise. Though the notice board outside said strictly, that children below ten years were not allowed, yet after a little chat with the army personnel at the entry, Debarghya was allowed enter with us. The Museum was well maintained, though the documentation may have been a bit better. Our next stop was Saint John’s Church on the Mall (earlier named as the Roman Catholic Church). It is situated just above the road on the spur below the Forest bungalow. It was completed in 1934. It reopened on Nov 29, 1980. From then, St. John’s Church became the only Church of worship in Lansdowne and continues till date. Though some renovation work was going on, but we were allowed to enter and sit in the tranquil indoors for a few minutes. From there we moved to the Bhulla Tal, which is in fact no way spectacular, a simple small man made water body, which barely classifies as a lake. Yet, the easy availability of the paddle boats, the abnormally low number of tourists, the pleasant weather and we all being in a holiday mood made it special. We paddled around for twenty minutes, had a small snack break; and even gave the pack of rabbits their legitimate share of our snack in the meantime. Our next stop was St Mary’s Church, but since it was not open yet, we moved on to Tip-n-Top, colloquially Tiffin top! The view from the top was great. Though it may not have been the perfect time get a glimpse of the entire horizon, as a misty haze had hampered our distant vision by quite a margin, yet the effect of elevation, and the feeling of being on top of the world (!) was incomparable. Then we moved on to the Sitala Mandir on top of a hill. There was a little flight of stairs up to the temple. And after reaching to the top, we found that we were the only persons around. And all was self-help. While making our way back from there, we made quick stop at the St Mary’s Church, which is mostly converted in to a small Museum of sort. There was a projector also fixed for an audio visual presentation featuring the hundred plus years of the Garhwal regimental history. Last, we stopped at the market; refreshed ourselves with some local ice-cream cones, made some arrangements for snacks for our next trip to Tarkeshwar Temple (which had already been planned as an after lunch activity) and came back to the hotel, little exhausted, but with a lot of content.
Lunch was the usual spread of dal, roti, rice, salad, gobi masala and chicken. And after a short break, we were again on our way. This time we were travelling to the Tarkeshwar Mahadev temple. It is around thirty six kilometers from Deriyakhal. The journey was splendid. The winding roads, either sloping down or moving up, with a deep gorge on one side and steep rocks on the other. Need an expert hand to drive in these terrains with élan. The walk way up to the temple was equally stunning. The winding, well maintained stairway surrounded deeply by the oak and deodar trees will take you to a place where sunlight also finds difficult to reach. The ambience was mesmerizing. Silence, along with the dull light creates an aura. And in there was the temple itself. It is supposedly very old (don’t remember the exact date, but somewhere I saw it to be almost seven hundred years old). The way up to the temple from the gate was laced with bells, and the chimes create a heavenly feeling inside you.
We stayed there for half an hour, and then climbed back up to civilization. And then retraced our way back to the hotel through the winding undulating road. While on our way back we came across a forest fire from pretty close; the fire, according to our driver Bipin, may have been started due to human negligence, or even intention!
The evening was as usual laced with some good moments of the night gradually settling in to the valley and some unwanted noise pollution in the dance floor. Dinner followed, and a typical day for a tourist was over in no time. Next day, it would be time to leave. Already?
Next morning brought in with a languid atmosphere for us to delve deep in it. We all woke up pretty late, and as time gradually crept along, we were all packed and ready to leave. Bipin in his Ertiga was waiting for us, and after clearing all the dues and getting a Maggi packed under special request, we were on our way, saying farewell to Lansdowne as we moved down the road to Kotdwar. We had our a la Carte Lunch at the Sidhdhabali Baba Sweets near the station, and started our journey back to Delhi on board the Garhwal Express.
I really do not need to include the details of the train journey and beyond as it would not give the proper feel for an end for this travelogue. The only good thing about the journey was that we reached Old Delhi on time.
Lansdowne; and our trip to Lansdowne was suddenly a “past tense” in our life. The entire waiting, all the planning, all the enthusiasm was over in a couple of days. Our refreshing tour was over, as we returned back to our regular daily somewhat mundane life. Enjoyed? Yes. Memorable? Definitely!!
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