It was one of those long mind-numbing days at work. When I finally got a breather, I sat idly browsing through travel videos on Youtube. One particular video caught my attention -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Esftngs8kHg
The video starts with the statement that sort of translates to - some places never change and ‘have always stood the test of time’ (Quote - Ruskin Bond). Landour - A place that holds on to an old charm. I was taken to my fancy, right then and there.
I visited Landour as part of a resting holiday after a few days of trekking in the Himalayas. It is a small cantonment town near Mussoorie (which in itself is quite a nice hilly town). From the Mussoire taxi-stand at the farthest end of the mall road, it hardly takes a 10minutes drive to reach Landour, depending on how stuck the traffic is at the front!
The very popular and very pretty Doma’s Inn marks the start of the town. I stayed at Domas and I think I got the best room possible. Just by the corner of the hilly winding road, my room overlooked the valley through its huge glass wall. To add to this, the warm, colorful and cozy interior of this place was very welcoming.
Just beside Doma’s Inn stood the house of the famous author, Ruskin Bond. Can I just knock on the door and say Hello? I wished I could every time I stopped in front of his house and imagined him writing on his desk in a cozy homely corner! Stupid me!
Taking the road uphill from here, you will reach Char Dukan - a bustling place with roadside eateries and a couple of cafe. It was probably here where I could see most of the crowd in this little town.
I continued walking uphill and came across a classy and very English looking period building - Rokeby Manor. This was an old manor house, now refurbished to serve as a restaurant and a hotel. Intrigued, I went inside for a meal.
Ah! The food! Rokeby Manor just stole my heart. It’s the quintessential English food, albeit not that bland. I had salmon and charred Basa and a sticky toffee pudding and an apple pie! The charred Basa is one of the best fish prep I have ever tried. The desserts were spot on. It transported me to my days spent stuffing my face in English and French bakeries! I loved it so much that the very next day, I found myself there again - having another gala lunch! This time with a turkey roast with cranberry sauce and a hot chocolate brownie! Yummy. I am already drooling as I am typing this on my laptop!
Further up the road from the Manor house, you could go to the Sisters Bazaar on one side, the Management school straight up the road or the Lal Tibba Scenic point on the other side. I took a slightly different route. From Doma’s Inn, I climbed up to Char Dukan and from there went to Lal Tibba (Red Hill). This is the highest point of Mussoorie. From here you can get a good view of few of the Himalayan peaks like Bandarpoonch, etc.
As you keep walking from the Lal Tibba, you would cross a few pretty houses and some unkempt garden. This place was under the British colonial rule and you can sense the whole town smelling of old English charm. The stone walls, low-hanging roofs, pretty cottages, wooden doors and windows of a specific style, cobble stones - everything taken together would remind you of some cutesy countryside English town.
The Sisters Bazaar is an area consisting of three or four shops selling clothes, garment and other touristy stuff. However, a bakery called - The Landour bakehouse attracted most of the crowd. The variety and quality of stuff sold in that bakery just made me drool even more! I got myself loads of cakes and chocolates but you see, you can never have enough of bakeries! I loved the quaint wooden décor inside the shop as well.
From one of the shops in Sisters Bazar, I bought myself a jar of wild Himalayan honey. Let me try out how different the wild honey tastes compared to the normal stuff we get. I walked out of Sisters bazaar and after a lazy amble in all possible random directions, I started to trace my way back to the Inn where I was staying.
Suddenly, I felt a strong tug from behind. Someone was pulling the plastic bag in my hand. I turned around and it was a monkey! A stupid, silly monkey! It held on to the bag and kept pulling it hard. I kept pulling it towards myself as well. In this tug of war over honey, the jar fell on the road. The monkey snatched it off the road and ran away! I just stood there, shocked! Did I just get mugged by a monkey!
With the memories of the long trees winding up along the hilly path, the fresh smell of the bakery, the delicious Rockeby meals and the mischievous monkeys, I had to say goodbye to this place at the end of my short stay of three days.
I would definitely go back to Landour again. The quaint, uninterrupted magic of the place is just too tempting to ignore!
