Back to civilisation: Dehradun

 10 - 15 May

We had to get back to the city, to drop off our local host, who lived in Dehradun.  After the hike, no one was objecting to having some of the comforts that comes with city life. 

We took our respective scooter vs public transport routes to get to Dehradun from Chopta, which consisted of an overnight stop at a small town called Rudrapryag (2 hours tracker, and 3 hour bus), and a sweep past Rishikesh to pick up our bags (7 hour bus), and a 2 hour bus ride to Dehradun.

After being in India for some time, I have come to learn some trueisms here: 

1) Do not try understand things with logic.  

In the afternoon, we had booked a hotel room in Dehradun online.  Being millenials, we knew, and have a certain level of faith in online bookings.  You choose what you want, you pay, the website confirms such, sends you a friendly email confirming same, and the bank sends you a message that you are a little poorer.  All of these are only illusions of safety and certainty here in India however, as when we were on the bus on the way to Dehradun, the other half of the team (who had arrived at the room via scooter) called to say that the place turned out to be an ordinary, 3-bedroom apartment.  There was no reception, and there were people staying there already.  The contact person (who was not staying there) had no confirmation that we were coming, despite us sending him a copy of ours.

Unwelcome guests.
Oh, and the electricity went out too

So, when we all convened outside the steps to this apartment, at 9pm, after 2 days of travelling, what had become clear was that between the booking agent and the owner, there had been a mix up (we subsequently learnt the owner wanted 2 of the 3 rooms in the apartment booked, which someone had already done – hence the one free room, but if there were people in the apartment already, you couldn’t have the third, free room, although it was still advertised as free.  Really, it is a three bedroom apartment that you need to book out the whole thing). 

2) You have no real idea what is going to be happening in a few hours time 

The guests who were staying there already, were a group of friends, sailors in fact, who had booked out the room to catch up, after all being at sea (I literally can't make this up).  We spoke to them, and they had no problem with us taking the third, empty room.  They did explain that there would be some music, and drinking, as they had not seen each other in a while, and were having a bit of a party.  We were just happy to have a roof over our heads, and accepted their terms and thanked them for their generosity. 

Fast forward a few hours, and what we thought would be, after a long journey, a hot shower, and early night, turned into a full on party, with our new sailor-friends teaching us Punjabi dance moves.  I think we got to bed at 3am?  It’s a bit blurry.

The next morning we thanked our hosts once again, and ventured to find a more permanent residence.  We found a great little homestay, which a son was running while his parents still lived on the property.  Dehradun was where I would be leaving my travelling buddies, as we would all be going our separate ways.  One had to do a visa run to Nepal, the other was going to Dharamsala, and I... well I had to figure out a plan. 

The comforts of the homestay, and being in one place, and also not really having an idea of where to go next, meant that what was supposed to be a few days stay, turned out to be a week.

Outside, chill area in the homestay

Inside the homestay

This though gave me the opportunity to explore Dehradun, and some of its attractions.  The locals have a strong affinity for baked goods, and Ellora’s bakery is famous there, as the finest among the many bakeries that can be found there.  There is also a significant Tibetan population, so I got my first real introduction to Tibetan food, most notably, momos – which are steamed dumplings.

The healthiest thing at the bakery.
Note the are nuts (and lots of sugar),
but sooo good

Lhasa, a Tibetan restaurant

We were recommended to go to a restaurant called Orchards, and went there on an evening with live music.  Oh, the pad thai! Oh, the red thai curry!

Otherwise, like any major city, there are lots of places to eat, and explore.  However, when you know a local, you get a few gems.  Our last night together, our local friend took us to a side of the road cart, where this man makes buntiki.  Basically, a fried veggie burger.  The stall is only open at night, and the queues are said to full the street.  He has to be quick to full all the orders, and well, he is, and the food is great, and for only 20 rupees a buntiki (R5).   

We also went to some parks, and markets, but the highlight was Robber's cave.  This is the main tourist attraction in Dehradun, so we were obviously skeptical of how good it would be. 

Decent spice game
Night market, Dehradun

Night market, Dehradun

3) If you expect something, it will be completely different. 

The story goes that, in the older days, robbers used the cave network to hide and escape with their booty to outside of the city.  The cave has a lot of little twists and turns, but the attraction is that there is a constant river of water flowing through all of it.  We hitched to the cave entrance (because the tuk tuk drivers wanted to rip us off.  Surprise) and you can either rent some slip slops, or go through the cave bare foot.  We chose bare foot, because we thought it would be a short little journey.  However, after spending 2 hours in the cave, walking on rocks, the soles of our feet suffered.  The cave though turned out to be far nicer that we expected, not too full or commerical, and actually a really nice place to have seen.

4) Expect the unexpected.

In a cave, you don't expect to see a river flowing through it, but its plausible.  In the middle of a cave, with a river running through it, you definitely don't expect to find a little café, pumping music, serving chai and maggi, but it's India.  So when we came across this little cart, we had to sit down - at the small plastic table, with our feet in the water - to indulge ourselves.

Disco, disco, inside the cave

Put a cafe in the middle of a river/cave.
Classic India. 

Half way through, we began having second thoughts, about the "rock foot massage" option 

Robber's cave, Dehradun

The week ended up being a perfect amount of time to rejuvenate, enjoy some comforts, and plan for the next part of the journey.  I had arranged a new volunteering opportunity, on an organic farm, and had about a week to spare before my new volunteering started.  There was a friend (from the old volunteering) in the next town, Mussoorie, who was playing at a hotel there every night.  So that was the next.