Japan 2025 - Perfect 9 day trip - Part 2

 

This is Part 2 of Kanishka and my Japan trip 2025. The first part covered what we liked and didn''t like about Japan.  In this blog, we will share our itinerary. 

Our itineraries are crafted to perfection. They have mix of things that we like - some museums, some local / cultural bits,  some outdoorsy, some touristy, some rustic - a unique blend of experiences that are chosen carefully.  

Day 1 - Our flight landed in Tokyo in the afternoon. Our first thing was to go from airport to Tokyo station, via the Narita express, and then take the train to Kanazawa. It was a daring plan, new country, different train systems and no idea how to switch trains etc. All in a short window to reach hotel by reasonable time. Our hotel in Kanazawa was carefully booked to be about 700m from the train station. 

Why go via all the hurry? Our visit coincided with the annual festival of Kanazawa . The next day, there was going to be an awesome parade as part of the festival itinerary. We wanted to attend it. 

Onboarding to Narita was simple but at the Tokyo station, it was a world of its own. Underground stations have markets, shops, a whole city in itself. At the ticket line to buy ticket to Kanazawa, the guy asked for our tickets that we had used to reach the Tokyo station, thankfully, we had not thrown them away. Still not sure why he asked for it. The train journey to Kanazawa was good. By the time we reached the hotel, it was 8ish pm. 

Our dinner was at Izakaya Musashi, a quaint Gastropub which had good veg options. Our first introduction to Izakaya was delicious, a little pricey though. At night, we strolled on the quite streets of Kanazawa - nicely lit by street lights.

Day 2 - Out hotel in Kanazawa was Hotel Forza Kanazawa. It had complimentary breakfast which we enjoyed each day. Forza kanawa was next to the local Omichi market. After breakfast, we did a quick stroll through the market. I had never seen a cleaner sabji-mandi/fish-market ever. Not even in US. Japan is another level in its cleanliness

Day 2 was busy. We walked to the local Kanazawa castle where they had all these stalls owing to their festival. It was a mela. The stalls were of nearby prefectures who were asking residents of Kanazawa and tourists like us to travel to their towns, selling their town tourism. To get traction, some of them had folks dressed as samurai, some had freebies. 

At Kanazawa castle information centre, we learnt that there is a volunteer led group which gives free english tours of their garden - Kenroku-en. We took their offer and a nice lady gave us a free 90 mins tour. Kenroku-en garden is amazing. It has a waterfall (manmade), a lake, beautiful trails and trees. It is not huge either.  There is also a residence home inside the garden. Each garden is like a king's summer retreat and has a place to stay/relax. The residence was now hosting a dolls exhibition which was good to explore. Post the garden, we also visited the Kanazawa shrine

After Kenroku-en, we walked our way down to the parade route. Along the way, we had cabbage hotdog kind of item on a stick with some very long french fries. The ice cream above  has god leaf covering - something which is unique to Kanazawa

The parade was grand, festive and full of local spirit. It had giesha, bands, boy scouts, ninja, dragon, fights and what not. Very local and cultural. Very Japanese - highly organized, clean and simple. 

After the parade, we rested for sometime at the hotel. Our day was far from being over. In the evening, there was a flute performance - a Geisha would play flute on a boat at the Kenroku-en lake, under the moonlight. It was too good to miss. so we went and saw that. The performance was good but only for 15 mins long. There was also the threatre performance of Noh at the castle. We attended the performance but found it to be too slow for our taste. hat 

After the performance, we went to have dinner. Most places were closed and we wanted to try local. We found one places and were lucky since another family had just got in, perhaps after closing hrs. Our local restaurant did not speak English. But our other family were kind enough to translate for us. We bonded over Google-translate :) 

Here is where we had the template for our Izakaya - soya sauce, sticky rice and vegetable tempura. Here they also gave us edmame

The day was not yet over. On the walk back to hotel, we saw a long night food market and when there is night market, we have to go check it out. We were full in stomach, tired, but we walked the length of market

Day 3 

Day 3 was meant to be light - we woke up cozily and had a sumptuous breakfast. We walked to see local houses os Samurai or other foot soldiers. Kanazawa is a castle town, so there were kings, samurais and soldiers in the old days. The Samurai house are a treat to visit - they have lovely architecture, simple interior decor and an amazing personal garden :) . Inside one of the Samurai houses, we had our first and only tea-tasting ceremony. A matcha tea which is okayish to drink but almost like a habit for locals. 

After the Samurai houses, it was time for some introspection and zen, So we went to D.T. Suzuki museum. Mr. D.T. Suzuki was a zen practitioner and a philosopher who had significant influence on Japanese culture. His museum was serene, and relaxing. we stopped there for a bit. On the way to museum, Kanishka briefly went to McDonalds and I clicked a picture. Right outside, the D.T. Suzuki museum was another Samurai garden, albeit a public one. It was amazingly beautiful. 

We walked down to checkout a museum of bowls. Similar to Berlin's museum island, Kanazawa has a section where there are 4-5 museums. We checked out one and then decided to walk back to hotel.  Our lunch was at this curry place which had chole with tofu curry. What more can we want

Our dinner was hotel-made, bought from local shops. Kanishka got soya sauce and some other items from nearby grocery store. 

Day 3 - Day 3 was departure from Kanazawa. But before I check out, I wanted to share this pic of their breakfast tray - a nice 6 bowl tray that we had used daily. 

Day 3 itinerary was to move from Kanazawa to Kaga - an onsen town. We had to take a train for this. 

Kaga for me was the best part of the trip. It is a village with a main downtown street, some temples etc. We ended up just strolling the entire village. Stopped at small restaurants and had local delicacies, one of them being Kuzu bar. Kaza also had a old traditional bathhouses and this was our first experience with a Japanese bathhouse. 

Japanese bathhouse, separate sections for men and women. You go in full naked into a hot water pool and relax there. After that, there are taps along-side the pool for you to apply soap/shampoo and have a bath. It is incredibly relaxing. In the old days, when soldiers would travel, then these bathhouses (onsen) were build for them for communal baths. Makes sense to conserve water. Also, there was procedures which makes sure that the hot water is clean. It is a unique and refreshing experience. It is a concept that we saw in Germany also. 

We had booked our stay at Rurikoh which is an onsen hotel. We ended up doing onsen hopping, first at the old and moden public bathouses and then later in the night at a private onsen.  The hot water is really hot. Rurikoh also gave us Yukata for free which we gladly wore and roamed around the streets there. 

This was also Kanishka's 40th birthday. We had a noodle dessert, known as Mont Blanc for cake cutting. Dinner was at a local Izakaya. There was a drum show at the hotel and in the night, we dipped our feet in hot water. 

Day 4

Day 4 morning - the Kaga experience continued. In the morning, we went to the public bath of Rurikoh and it was open air hot-spring. It was just surreal, pure natural hot water under an overcast sky. We were debating if we had enough of Onsens but this was a right decision. Onsens also freshens you up like anything. This was followed by a authentic Japanese breakfast buffet, served on the table. It was awesome. 

Rurikoh remains the best stay place and Kaga was the best destination for me. It was away from crowds, no itinerary, no frills. Perhaps, the closest glimpse of authentic Japanese culture. Our next stops were Kyoto and then Tokyo, and now we were getting into the touristy territory :) 

It is the small acts that make you remember the travel. One such act has been imprinted on me. We were at the Kaga station and had to take a train to Kyoto. There were no direct trains. We had to go to a station (forgot the name, lets say X) and change train. I was not sure if I should buy both Kaga to X and then go to X and then buy ticket to Kyoto or can I buy both here. It is a small village railway station with only one employee at the counter and she was dealing with a customer ahead of us and that took 5 mins. We were patiently waiting behind. She seemed very diligent about our job. When our turn came, we asked tickets to go to X,  then I paid for them and she printed those. Later, I asked her if I can buy tickets from X to Kyoto here as well, or should I buy this at X.  She realized that I can save money if I buy a direct ticket to Kyoto via X. She explained the math and it was pretty substantial saving(~30%).  She didn't had to do this since she had already printed one and the easiest would have been to print another one. She also didn't berate us by saying that yo should have told this earlier. She cancelled our current ticket, refunded the amount and then issued a new ticket. During all of this, we were communicating in broken English, with some google-translate thrown in.  The sense of duty and helping others is so much ingrained to them and it is just amazing. The pride-in-the-job concept is so powerful. I feel that if you have to build stronger nations, this is the key. When everyone does their job well, strong nations are built. 

Our Kyoto stay was at Hotel Tomiya with Ms, a Scandinavian decor hotel, close to station with no lobby. a machine an entrance but thankfully, they had help staff to guide us.  Our first stop in Kyoto sightseeing was Ninja museum and it was a very touristy experience. Meant to be insta-grammable. But still fun. We had dinner at a local vegan Ramen place  (Moon and back ramen bar).  Kanishka had booked a walking tour in the night but it was raining heavily. Like heavy heavy downpour. I was thinking that they would cancel the tour but that was not the case. There were 6 of us plus the tour guide and he conducted the entire tour in this heavy dowpour with umbrellas. The good thing was that streets were empty, so we had the place to ourselves. But, we were wet, our shoes, socks, feet were wet. But, it was an amazing experience. Kyoto still has an active Geisha culture and we learnt a lot about their world. 

Day 5

It was still raining on Day 5 morning. So, we decided to go to a museum, thinking it will be indoors and less crowded. But, boy was I wrong. I had never seen a more crowded museum before. Seemed like entire Kyoto was there. We spent couple of hrs learnings about the Japanese history. Even though the museum was crowded, the people were super chill about it. They would take their time to wait in lines to see the exhibits in order. Move slowly, take their time and were extremely patient about it. Again, a part of culture that shocked me.  We had lunch at a local vegan shop and it had a nice poster below

We walked a lot and then visited the handicraft museum. This is actually a local handicraft store, two buildings of local craft that they were selling. Like Delhi-haat or dastkar but in a fancy shop-like setting. Good experience. Mostly expensive items

From here, we walked to a cat-cafe. Japan has this culture of cat cafes where you can spend time with cats. You pay for time and drinks there. Buying drinks is mandatory. This cafe had healthy well-fed cats and it was fun to play with them for sometime. 

Post cat cafe, we were looking for dinner options and stumbled into Nijiya Kyoto - a hole in the wall joint which serves the best Vegana Izakaya. The place is so small that it can only seat 6 people at a time, at a bar-counter kind of setting. This food was perhaps the best food of the trip. There were two people serving the food and it was just amazing how much can be packed in such a small place.  

After food, we were full but craving for some nice ice creams. 

Day 6 

Today was checkout and take the train to Tokyo. Kyoto to Tokyo trains run as if they are local, every 5-6 mins. These two stations are 250+kms apart. We had no prior reservation, so we just walked and booked and had trouble finding seats - many trains were full. Trains in Japan are extremely comfortable. 

We had to change trains, walk a lot dragging our suitcase, but finally we were at our hotel. At Tokyo, we were staying at Ryokan asakusa Shigetsu . Ryokan means traditional Japanese inn. We picked this hotel because it had an onsen on top. You sleep on the ground, on  a mattress on top of bamboo chatai . It is an authentic experience. This place was also next to Tokyo's oldest temple and walkable to a train station. 

Near the oldest temple was a huge market, including a market which sells all the plastic food items. Plastic food items are also such a brilliant Japanese idea - instead of putting real food items on display where food will go waste, there are these plastic replicas which look exactly as the food. And then there is a market dedicated to it.  We just strolled in the market. 

In the evening, we went to the Museum of roadside art and I have never seen anything as bizarre as this one. It is so bizarre that it is cool. Walking with no expectations, it takes sometime to understand WTF is this. But, then the writings on the wall say - what is art - isn't it meant to challenge you . And this museum challenges in you in many many ways. The best part is that we had no idea before we walked in. Tokyo is known for its quirky museums but this one is a topper. I will highly recommend this, but it is not for faint hearted folks. 

Near Asakusa, there is a space needle which gives you a high-rise view of the city but it is expensive. The internet hack is that, nearby, there is a Asahi HQ building who have a beer joint on their top floor and you get equally good view of it. You get good beer and it is cheaper. We went to the Asahi place and enjoyed the lighted Tokyo city. 

Day 7

Day 7 started with a walking tour starting from Akihabara. The walking tour was okay-ish. Since, between Shogun and the Kyoto walking tour, and the Ninja museum, we knew the history. But Akihabara was awesome! 

Akihabara is an experience that again is quintessential Japanese. It is a world of its own. First, there are these massive figurines/manga shops. We decided to check one building which had 9 floors, each with a different aspect of this, full of people. Then there are these arcade game centers where you can just spend the whole day playing arcade games, claw machines etc. And then it has these maid-cafes; we went to maidcafe-athome which is the birthplace of moe moe kyun . Each experience in Akihabara was like something that one will never get outside. 

Day 7 was also the day we had Sushi. We went to a Sushi-bar . At a Sushi bar, you sit on a bar counter and on the other side, there is a chef making live-Sushi for you. It was like an everyday QSR restaurant, nothing fancy, but it had good Sushi. Day 7 dinner was at home (hotel). Japan sells curd, soya sauce satchets, cut cabbage etc and you can make salads at home. We also got Theplas from IN and it made a quirky dinner but delicious. 

Day 8 

Today was 14 June and it was my birthday. We had a great day planned ahead of us. But our first stop was visiting toilets. Tokyo hosted olympics and as part of that they had an art project to have designer toilets installed at various places. It was called the Toilet Project. Each one designed by a different art designer. One of them is designed that the toilet is transparent when not in use and then as soon as you lock in from inside, it changes color and becomes opaque. Just fascinating. We ended up visiting two of such installations

We were now just walking and our next stop was to see the Shibuya crossing. Known as the busiest crossing, we had time to just check it out. 15 year old me would have never gone there, saying that it is just an intersection where people cross roads,  but I am mellow-er now. Anyways, we want and it was okayish. Along the way, Kanishka clicked whole bunch of flower photos. 

Next two events were planned by Kanishka for my 40th. First one was lunch at a Michelin star restaurant - Daigo. This was going to be our first Michelin star restaurant. Food was good, small portions, multipe courses. Each item explained to us by the staff, setup in a cozy setting where we were only ones in the room and the room had a private garden. The food was good. I do not have the palette to understand what makes a Michelin star and what does not. So, I can not comment on that, but it was good. But, what we also remember, and probably will never forget, is that their dessert menu was a slice of watermelon. Japan, a place known for its desserts, a michelin-star restaurant known for its creativity, and we got watermelon slice for a dessert. We cannot forget this. 

We went home, slept for a while and our late-evening program was to visit TeamLabs Planets. Before TeamLabs, we were hungry and next to the planets venue, there is a open barbeque place and we had fries and sprouts there. A very Americanish experience in Japan :)  Team Labs was awesome. So much creativity, experiences packed in one place. we loved all the art installations. In another world, I would just go and spend a day here. The experiences are amazing and I think it is the feeling that  we carry more than anything else. 

Day 9 

This was the journey back day. But, we had a morning to ourselves. In a city with so many things to do, what do you pick up if you have 3 hrs. We decided to keep it simple and go back to basics - visit a garden. We visited the Koishikawa Korakuen Garden - it is one of those decisions which makes this itinerary a perfect one. It was raining mildly and the garden was in its prime green beauty. Plus, understanding the design of Japanese garden, it is simple but an awe-inspiring experience. Garden is paid entry, small-ish one but had all hallmarks - stone bridge, flower garden, ponds, waterfall - you name it.  This was a perfect way to end the trip! 

I do not think that I have experienced so many new things in one country as much as we experienced in Japan. From gardens, to onsen, to concept cafes - cats, maids, to teamLabs, to roadside art museum, to Izakayas, to Michelin-star restaurants, to samurais and parades. Japan has been a perfect way to spend our 40th birthdays. 

Thank you for reading. 

Japan 2025 - Perfect 9 day trip

 

Japan

A bucket list country for a long long time. Stars were not aligning for us to visit. The plan was to visit in April this year during Cherry blossom season but it didn't happen. So, in April we decided to book the trip anyways, in June, on our 40th birthdays. 

Interesting tidbits about Japan/what I liked - 

• Japan's tourism industry is mostly domestic. Japanese folks love to travel and only 10% or so of Japanese have passports. So, majority travel domestically. What does it mean? It means that many destinations/restaurants are not geared to cater for outsiders. Many restaurants have menus in Japanese only, museums have exhibits mostly in Japanese. Fortunately, google-translate helps a lot. Touristy cities like Kyoto-Tokyo is where people know English but in 2nd/3rd tier towns, it is rather difficult. 
• Gardens - I had never appreciated the Japanese gardens before this trip. There was one Japanese garden in SF, I visited there once but did not realize what was special about it. Now, I am wiser. Japanese gardens are an art in itself - there is a man-made waterfall, a lake, bridges, flower gardens, tea-houses inside gardens. Gardens are designed that if you are standing at one place, you can only see a part of the garden, there would be trees or paths obstructing the other parts so that each area stands out. Gardens are also inspired by local places/hills/routes and their design is just fascinating. We based our trip to see one of the three perfect gardens - Kenroku-en. 
• Cleanliness - without trash cans. There are no public trash cans in Japan. Yet, the city is beautifully clean. It is just a way of life for folks - do not litter. Outside = inside. It is an unwritten rule that folks do not eat in public places, including gardens. You buy from the shop and then you go home or office and eat there. No walking and eating, not even coffee. No eating in trains unless the trains have trays. 
• Public transport - Kyoto to Tokyo is ~450kms and the train covers this in 2.5 hrs, a train runs every 5 min in the peak hrs. Locally everywhere in Tokyo or even in interior towns, there is public transport. The coverage and punctuality is awesome. We took public transport everywhere and if we missed one train, there was another  5 mins away. I had not seen this good public transport even in Europe. 
• Walking/footpaths - We were walking everywhere in Japan. Their footpaths or walking trails were just amazing. From stations, we would drag our suitcase for 1 km and it was easy - footpaths had ramp built in everywhere. 
• Shogun - I saw the TV series Shogun before my visit. to culturally immerse myself and it was a good thing. It helped me relate to many things that I would later hear in tours, like seppuku. 
• Plastic food - This is so obvious and it is a wonder why it is not everywhere. In India, every darshini will have a photo of Idli or dosa outside to give a feel of how the dish would look like. In Japan, it is the same, except that instead of a photo, it is real-looking replica of the food made out of plastic. The dish looks exactly like the plastic replica. It is amazing! Since it is made out of plastic, it is forever. It provides a visual representation of the dish. I had not seen this in US or anywhere. But, now that I think about it, it so makes sense. There is a whole market which sells this plastic food items. 
• Public baths - When one army is traveling from one place to another, usually to attack, the soldiers travel in a group and they would like to take bath together. This is the concept of public baths - a giant hot-tub where folks can take bath together - saves water, social activity and is scalable. Separate ones for men vs women. Why is this not common everywhere. 
• Automate everything - If there is a usecase, then there should be a machine to handle it. At the end of the trip, we wanted to return our local subway cards (known as IC cards). We get money back on returning the IC card. We checked and were redirected to a kiosk where this can be returned. It is just amazing how much of this country is ahead of everyone else. 

What we didn't like - 

• Food, specifically vegetarian food - Japan is not for vegetarians. We tried vegan restaurants, we tried vegetarian Izakaya restaurants, we tried ordering vegetarian dishes at normal restaurants - we never got the taste. Not a big fan of matcha flavor, did not like moshi desserts, and sobu noodles were too bland for us. Vegetable tempura and sobu noodles with soya sauce filled stomach but we did not relish the food. It was not a foodie trip. 
• The train/subway IC cards are confusing - Cards bought in one city does not work in the other. There are different rail systems, each having their own cards, and some are inter-operable and some are not. We lost some money in this confusion. 
• Tourist spots have many tourists :) - Yeah, an Indian complaining about population is ironic. We were mindful to avoid many tourist spots/activities. But, when there were people, even in this non-touristy season, there were many. Kind of hard to avoid. 

Diwali ritual - 2024

 How do you celebrate Diwali ?

In my 2008 Diwali post (https://arvindbatra.blogspot.com/2008/10/diwali-post.html), I had asked this question - how does one celebrate Diwali ? For someone who does not like bursting crackers (pollution, money, ROI, you name it, there are many reasons to not do it), not too much in Pooja either, how does one celebrate the festival? 

(Side note - It is amazing that I had asked this question back in 2008 :), sometimes I look back at this blog and it is just amazing to reconnect with a past of myself)

Anyways, responding to this in 2024, I can proudly say that this question has been answered. Kanishka and I have created our own Diwali ritual and have followed this tradition over the last 10 years. 

Our ritual is that we will prepare one sweet from scratch on the day of Diwali. It has to be a sweet that we have never prepared before, we like it and hopefully prepare-able within a day. We have done with almost consistently. 

Diwali 2014 - Malpua

Diwali 2015 - Imarthi

Diwali 2016 - Kala Jamun

Diwali 2017 - Badam Katli

2018 - No sweet. Spent Diwali in New Zealand :) 

Diwali 2019 - Chennapoda

Diwali 2020 - Sandesh

Diwali 2021 - No sweet. Spent Diwali in Goa :)

Diwali 2022 - Mawa Jalebi

Diwali 2023 - No sweet. Were lazy this year :) 

Diwali 2024 - Madeleine

2024 dessert of the year was Madeleines - a French tea cake. We had Madeleines made by deepali Sawant and also in US. It was yum. We gave it a try. There are hundreds (or may be thousands) recipes for this. But, the one that really worked for us was by PastryLiving - https://pastryliving.com/vanilla-madeleines/ . Her Youtube video was very helpful and in the comments, we learnt a lot of what can go wrong. 

(Bonus Tip - In youtube videos, the way to judge a good recipe is to read the comments and learn from folks who have tried it. There are always some quirks, and dos and donts that are not covered, which are discussed in the comments. Comments determine the video/recipe value. In this case, the fact that the batter and the tray had to be refrigerated for the madeleines to get the right shape. was a very good tip)

Like every year, we do not make one recipe but we make variations and do our experimentation. This year, we tried Vanilla madeleines, Chocolate covered madeleines and chocolate madeleines. We tried two or three different variations but the pastryliving was incredibly useful. 

Madeleines were a definite hit this year and almost everyone liked it. It is not so common, so I am guessing that folks didn't had a good reference point either to compare :) . Anyways, they are always nice to us. so gave glowing reviews. 

Overall, we made close to 200 madeleines and it took us almost the entire day :) 

2024 - 

2022 - 

2021 - 

2019 - 

2017 - 

2016 - 

2015 - 

2014 - 

I love the fact that we have innovated our own Diwali Ritual. This way of celebration resonates much more closely - both of us have a sweet tooth. Also, making something on your own has a lot of fun. It is a great way to spend the Diwali day and it makes the day memorable too. What else is Diwali if not to create memories and spend it with the loved ones. 

Book Review - The Word for the World is Forest

 

The Word for the World is Forest

By Ursulla LeGuinn

A short novel. Ursulla LeGuin writes a story on a new planetary colonization by humans. This new planet, New Tahiti, is 27 years away from Earth. This new planet has a human-like folks who have learnt to live in harmony with nature. They do not kill each other, and when they get angry, they sing. Societies are ruled by woman because they excel in politics while men excel in intellect. The best part is that they can dream while being awake and there is something called dream-time and real-time. They are surrounded by trees and in their language, the term used to describe the world is 'forest'

LeGuin's takes us into this world where such abstract concepts and imagery is brought to light in an easing manner. I wanted to visit this place, learn how to dream while being awake, live among these people for a while. They were content folks. Until the colonizers came. 

The colonizers are cliche-like brutal except one person who is a do-gooder. Earth beings, or yumens, as they are called by the natives, are cruel to the natives, use them as slaves and hunt them for pleasure. Classic tropes are done to create this duality of good vs evil. I am more familiar with this trope from the movie Avatar but as it usually is, Ursulla did it first :) 

It is a good over evil story, so native species win. In that manner, it is a positive ending. But along the way, they learn something from humans - the ability to kill each other. LeGuin leaves the question hanging on how this would change them but hints it enough that it will change them. 

Overall, a short and good read. 3.5/5

Mussoorie 2024 - An Ideal itinerary

 

Mussoorie - 3 day itinerary (28-30 Apr)

At a time when rest of India, particularly Bangalore was dealing with dealing with ~40 deg weather, we were using room heaters in Mussoorie. It was truly a hill station experience in summers. 

Day 0 - Land in Dehradun

Dehradun is like Bangalore - a concrete jungle with lots and lots of restaurants and malls. Kanishka landed at around 330 pm. I was already in Dehradun back from my Surya top trek  . I had alerady packed a quick lunch from Chetan Swadisht Kachori. It was amazing - one of the food recommendations that does not disappoint. 

Next, we went to Buddha statue and Stupa. It is written that all your 'paap' will go away if you visit the Stupa. So, there you go, we are now again in net-zero. Stupa paintings were wonderful. Good place to visit. It started a heavy downpour while we were there. We could not visit the Mindrolling monastery which was just next to us. Our next stop was a quick stop at Ellora's Melting moments bakery - a very highly rated bakery in Dehradun which is now 60+ years old. We packed a few sandwiches for our trek tomorrow. Our dinner was at Orchard restaurant and on the way, we got to witness a BLR nostalgic traffic jam. Food was ok at Orchard but we were tired and full from the Pudis. They had a live band which played Local Train and Lucky Ali, so it was good. 

Day 1 - Benog Tibba hike, Landour

We hired a trek guide from Easy Prime Holidays to take us for a day hike to Benog Tibba (tibba means top) It was a ~7.5KM round trip hike. It was awesome, I loved it. The trail is very clean, easy to walk. Goes through a nice forest cover first and then opens to a ledge walk. Benog Tibba - from the top, you get to see Mussoorie and other mountains. There was no one else, so it was very peaceful to walk. Our guide also delighted us with local stories. We started from Dehradun at 7 am and reached the starting point at around 830 am. The weather was also good - not too sunny, not too hot either. All in all, a perfect day hike. 

From Benog Tibba, we visited the famous touristy spot of Company garden. It was past 1:30, so we were hungry. The local chana chat was yummy. COmpany garden is decent, small garden park, but it attracts lot of crowds. It is maintained well. Our lunch was a typical Garhwal food at Hill-e-ishq in Mussoorie, near to Landour. The food was good - a particluar delight is the saag from stinging nettle leaves . Rotis were made of bajra and we also got Pahadi Rajma, Stinging nettle kebabs, all was good. Place could use better hygiene though - it was very dusty.

Our car dropped us at our airbnb homestay which was right next to CharDukaan. It was a steep walk down but there was a guide to help us. Our homestay was a 1BHK so it had a kitchen too. In the evening, we walked to the famous Landour Bakehouse  where we had coffee and orange marmalade cake. We also packed some salad items, eggs and break for our breakfast the next day. 

Day 2 - Landour walk, Mall road

We did yet another walking tour in Landour on day 2 - Landour Infinity walk, again with Easy Prime travels. Landour Infinity walk is almost on a plain surface and covers the famous lal tibba, Bakehouse. Landour is a corner of Mussorie and is famous for being Ruskin Bond's place. It was also an old English settlement which has not been commercialized much. So, it is pretty good to walk. Our guide regaled with the history of Landour, who has houses there, took us to bakehouse (again), churches etc. This walking tour was a really good idea.

After the walk, we decided to have something at CharDukaan :) - Kanishka had ginger lemon tea and I had Chilli cheese sandwich. The walk started at 8 and ended at 11. We had salad and boiled eggs for lunch. Our plan in 2nd half was to walk down to Mall road (2.3 km walk to Picture Palace) and then do some shopping and do a food walk on the Mall road. 

The walk to Mall road is all downhill, so it makes sense to walk down and take a cab back. Transportation in Mussoorie is incredibly expensive. There is no Ola/Uber and you should call 3-4 vendors and negotitate the best price. People are good though. The drive from Mall road to our homestay, we heard rate of INR 800/INR1000 but eventually found a person that took only INR 500. 

Mall road runs from Picture Palace at one end to Library Chowk at the other. We walked from one end to another (almost till Library Chowk) and then turned back. Along the way, we did some shopping from Kashmiri sellers. In terms of food, we had - 

- Delhi style Suji golgappas - A food walk without golgappas is not possible. 

- Corn roasted on coal - It was a very sweet corn

- Jalebi with Rabdi at Kulhad Rabdi wala- a local delight 

- Amritsari Chole Kulche, street food vendor. The chole kulche were so good that I got it packed for next day breakfast. We had only Kulcha to taste it there so that we can save appetite. 

- Wood-fired pizza and beer at the Tavern  - Their pizza was decent. They had pizza named after interesting folks such as Tom Alter, we had the Bill Aitkens pizza and this is the first time I heard his name. Pretty amazin guy

We were pretty tired after the walk and the food, so we took the cab back. 

Day 3 - Museums and George Everest

We checked out from our Airbnb and our tonight's stay was at Everest base camp. Along the way, we stopped at the Soham Himalayan Centre - a private, family run museum that displays local arts. Run by a couple, the husband is a sculpturist and wife a painter. Their crafts depict local traditions. They also have a good collection of coins, stamps, manuscripts, old photos. A really good place to visit and know about the history. We got a local tour from them. 

After Soham, we headed to Everest Base Camp. This was a luxury stay, even though it was in a tent. Little at the outskirts but still a lovely one. After checking in, we decided to check out the George Everest cartography museum and hike up the George Everest mountain. 

George Everest was the surveyor general of India, responsible to map out the Indian terrain. It is the museum of cartography and a very well managed museum. One of the best museums that I have seen in India. We got to know that the Everest mountain is actually named after George Everest because it was under him that the right height of mountain was identified. Even though it was done by a guy called Sikandar who did the actual work. We also learn about other folks who played a key role in understanding the terrain, one example to know that how both Tsangpo and Brahmputra is the same river. Overall, I would highly recommend this place. 

After the museum, we hiked up to the George Everest hill. Pretty easy 1Km hike up. It is known for good views of sunrise and sunset. We were nearing the sunset time and had really good views from there. After coming down, we had maggi at a local shop :)

At dinner., we played Jaipur board game and had good. Night time temperature was ~5 deg. 

Next day was just drive down from Mussoorie to Dehradun, a brief stop at Ellora again to pack some goodies. When we landed in BLR, at around 8pm, BLR was nearing 37 degrees and it felt so hot. If I had known this, I may have stayed there for two more days :)