The one where we trekked a lot-Excerpts from my non-existent Mussoorie travel diary
The Secret Waterfall was a short trek. The Zostel staff had found a couple of small, secluded falls which were untouched by human population. Twas beautiful! It was in a secluded spot, hidden among the trees. It also had a lot of space where we could walk around in the shallow rocky riverbed. The water was freezing but my feet soon got used to it. I was in my element! I loved climbing about the rocks and finding different ways to reach the little clearing. We clicked lots of pictures and splashed around, basically.
Our second trek of the day, that evening was to a place called Vulture’s Crest. What’s with blasting music in the hillside? You’re not at a fucking rave party. You’re here to enjoy nature. As if that wasn’t enough, the people I was with got beer and cigarettes and it just became very un-hike-like. Don’t dilute the experience, of a hike. Just like you don’t add garam masala in pasta, you don’t bring party equipment to a beautiful trek. At the top was a patch of flattish land, a little plateau, if you will, and they decided to set up the bar there.
I had to go far away just to hear the silence. And that’s when I felt it. A sort of enlightenment about the Himalayas. I was looking out at the view, and I felt it. The overpowering aura of the Himalayas. There’s something mystical about these huge mountains and you’re just in awe of them.
When we started climbing down, it was getting dark. It was getting difficult to climb down since people had flashlights in one hand and beer in the other. #Dontdrinkandtrek. One chick told me to leave my bottle there itself, thinking it contained beer. Since when did people start filling their bottles with alcohol and not water while trekking?
That night, we had a birthday party, so I slept at 1 am and woke up at 5 am. We were going to go visit Dalai Hills to see the sunrise. It was beautiful! We had breakfast at the famous Landour Bakehouse. When we got back to Zostel around 10 am, the others were getting ready to trek to Secret Waterfall number 2.
Our plan was to crash as soon as we reached Zostel but trekking fever was in the air and I for one felt so energetic that it was unlike me! I don’t know who first decided to join the Second Waterfall gang but once we were in, we were all in, like a domino effect. The guys decided to push out their check out and the girls went, “we are not that old, let’s go!”
And that’s how I ended up doing 3 little treks in 1.5 days. It was fun and different parts of myself peeked out each time. I loved it!
An honourable mention: the Canadian Bakery
It’s a small cute and quaint little bakery up near the Sainji village, run by a Canadian lady married to an Indian. She opened this bakery to help fund the education of children whose schools shut during the pandemic and couldn’t study online.
It’s not very often that people gush about how great something is and when you experience it, it turns out to be exactly as great as they had hyped it up to be! This was one of those experiences. We ordered 3 pies — Banana cream, Coconut and Carrot. We also ordered some tarts, some brownies (they melted in my mouth!) and some nachos. The nachos were freshly made — literally, they were baked and fried right after we placed the order! They were hot, crisp and went so well with the homemade salsa that they were wiped off in minutes!
I loved the nachos and salsa so much that I got two packs to take home with me!
Check out my other posts about the trip here —
