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Been there, done that?

SANGEETA BAROOAH PISHAROTY gives the roadmap for doing the unusual during your next weekend trip to Mussoorie

HERITAGE CALLING A view of the picturesque Nabha Palace just three kilometers off Mussoorie

Surely there are a lot of places in India where you don't wish to be spotted as a tourist any more. Correct me if I am wrong when I reel out the names in the category... Naini Tal, Mussoorie, Shimla, Jaipur, Dehra Dun. The lack of newness about these places somehow doesn't excite the visitors who have already made a few trips to these destinations. Everything there has been done umpteen times and there is hardly anything new to talk about.

And that is why precisely this trip becomes striking, as in spite of being in Mussoorie, one could save oneself from being caught on the tourist circuit. From the very beginning, it was meant to be different. We checked in at a new place called Nabha Palace (not so new, it came up as a heritage hotel in 1994, one finds out after reaching there).

Nabha Palace, the summerhouse of the Maharaja of Nabha in Punjab, and now a Claridges Hotel property taken on lease, is not actually in Mussoorie, but in Barlowganj to be precise, just three kms short of Mussoorie town (Thank God!). And what is more, this elegant resort rests on its own hill spread across an area of over 13 acres of cedar (deodar) forests. Apart from a few odd visitors lounging on those long cane recliners basking in the sun with their face hidden behind a book, what catches your eye at Nabha are a lot of friendly monkeys. Perhaps this is one odd place where monkeys and the Himalayan langurs have a very good understanding. When the common red monkeys decide to check out your leftover coffee on the table, fiddle with your mobile phone (sorry, it works there) or perhaps knock your door (believe me, they do knock doors in Nabha!), the langurs dawdle off elsewhere, and vice versa. Breaking your conversation with the all-pervading silence is the endless chirping of birds of course.

Not doing the usual

Giving the Kempty Falls, the Mall and the Camel's Back Road a miss, we motor up to Char Dukan above Landour Bazaar. Just to check the changes in the area over the years. Sadly, Char Dukan, except for the first shop with a little sit-out, known for sprinkling some magic on the standard Maggie noodles by the shopkeeper Vipin, the rest have turned into little tiled monsters with aluminium doors! Hiking up to Sisters' Bazaar from the old church (it looks unkempt now), we note those interesting name plates of the sprawling summer bungalows owned by the richie-richs, stopping by to have some adrak chai at Devdar woods, an old British style lodge given out on rent. The next stop is Prakash's Store, claimed to be "the oldest shop in Mussoorie", and picked a can of locally-made peanut butter, some cheese and mint-flavoured jujubes.

George Everest's house

Rounding up the nippy day with dinner around a log-fire and ghost stories at Nabha, we begin the next day with a trip to George Everest's house at the far end of Mussoorie area. Though SUVs can run up the rocky pathway to the house, one decides to hike it up. The first view of the house becomes visible after a panting walk of about 35 minutes. And my God! It is such an important heritage property where lived the man after whom the great Mount Everest is named, and in what dilapidated state it lies today! Owned by the Uttaranchal Government, they did try to revive it, locals say, but no sooner did the caretaker leave, the house had been badly ransacked. And today, it is just the bare bones of something that was imposing once in the core of the peaks. The locals have even taken away the doors and the windows, and the walls are full of charcoal scribbles of many a lover's declaration of love for someone! What looks to us as yet another blow to the bungalow is the tiling of the bathrooms and the kitchen floors by some government contractors by tilling off the original red-cement flooring.

Feeling quite powerless to do anything about restoring the place, with a heavy heart, we slowly take the downhill road that forks off to the left of the Everest's house into a small village with just one creaky tea-shop. Snaking our way through, we land up in the Cloud's End area. It has a rather expensive 19th Century lodge for those with deep pockets but also has a low-priced camp with tents. As there is nothing beyond Cloud's End, you would find quite a few adventurers indulging in shooting here besides spotting the types doing yet another adventure sport, para-gliding, at a place little off Mussoorie town these days. The tiring day ends with a four-course gourmet dinner at Nabha Palace rolled out by The Claridges's Executive Chef Ranveer Brar. And in the morning arrives the present Maharaja of Nabha, Hanumant Singh Tika from Delhi for a weekend. His family has kept one side of this sprawling place for themselves. We spend the breakfast table with him sodden with his nostalgic conversation about growing up there before taking the return bus to Delhi.

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