Dehradun, as what I saw, had a pleasant climate, good people, some surprisingly good places, pretty girls & sumptuous food.
Clock Tower (Ghanta Ghar) is the central point of the city & you can get shared autos to almost every place from this point. I stayed at Moti Mahal which was close to the Clock Tower. The rooms were decent & food here was costly.
Rober’s Cave (Gucchupani)
I took a Bus from clock tower (going towards Ghadi Kant), to reach Rober’s cave. On reaching here, you have to trek almost one km to reach the base of the cave. Once you are inside, the views are stunning. They have locker facilities & changing room. I reached there early morning, it was quite peaceful with not a soul around. These are times when you feel happy that you’re traveling alone. Make sure you rent slippers out here before you enter the waters. I stepped inside the floor of lake with my rented slippers dipped in knee length waters. The cave is located in between two mountains which converge at places. You can walk almost 200 meters inside till you reach the waterfalls. There’s a snacks shop in there at the top but it was closed when I reached. The path leading to the cave also has restaurants where you can have Maggi, Omletes & Momos beside the river.
Bus from Clock Tower to Guccupani & back- Rs. 10 * 2
Entry charges – Rs. 25
Clock room – Rs. 30
Rented Slippers – Rs. 10
Maggi – Rs. 50
I returned back to my hotel at 9 to get ready for the office meeting. The meeting ended sooner than I had expected & I was back to my hotel at 12. Had lunch & left for FRI.
Forest Research Institute (FRI)
There’s a direct share auto connecting clock tower to FRI. But that dropped me at the entrance gate, which was about 1.5 kms away from the Institute. The scenic beauty was just woah. If you’re a nature lover, this a must visit place at Dehradun. After a 20 mins stroll through the jungle I reached the building which was used in the movie Student of the Year. And let me put these bluntly, this is one place which disappointed me the most. There are 5 museums inside FRI. The tickets they provide has the map of all the museums. My legs were already numb with the walk & now I walked again through museums after museums of paintings & dead timber.
Auto from Clock tower to FRI – Rs. 10
Ticket for Museums – Rs. 30
Ola from FRI to Monastery – Rs. 110
With dawn hanging on to me & my mind bugging me with questions like whether sleeping at the hotel would’ve been a better plan, I had to run to the Mind rolling Monastery which closes at 7. I chucked Tapkeswar Temple out of my imaginary itinerary and quickly booked an Ola to that buddha monastery.
Mind rolling Monastery & Buddha Temple
Tibetans always have that rich culture & mountaineer charm in their expression. The monasteries are the right place to witness this. Mind rolling monastery is located towards the south of ISBT. You can get direct autos for them from the clock tower. Before I could step inside the monastery, I saw the child monks playing cricket in the backyard. They were kind of cute. The monastery was closed when I reached at 6, but to my relief the Buddha temple was flooded with tourist. There were no entry charges, just a nominal token for depositing shoes. The insides of the temple was serene & calm. The temple was surrounded by Giant Buddha statues, which deserved a good pose for the camera.
On the back gates to the temples there were a dozen cafe offering Drinks, Chinese & Tibetan delicacies. I tried the Uptown cafe, and it’s ambience was just awesome. Ordered an Iced Tea, which was just fine. Tried momos in another cafe which tasted surprisingly different. I missed out on Kalsang restaurant which is really good for authentic Tibetan & Chinese delicacies.
After walking few meters from clock tower, there’s this restaurant called The Buffet Snacks where I tried Break Rolls, they were the best I have ever had. It’s Veg Sandwich is also popular here.
All in all Dehradun is a nice place is you’re travelling alone, but for just a day.
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