Always pack a first aid kit...

Jon and I traveled to Mussoorie, India this weekend. Mussoorie is a hill station about 300 kilometers from Delhi at 7000 feet. We took an overnight train on Friday to Dehradun, and while Dehradun is only about 250 kilometers (160ish miles) from Delhi, the travel time was 6 and a half hours. But, we slept in our 3rd class cabin with 4 other people and a baby. While I couldn't exactly sit up in my bunk which was the middle of the three, I did sleep quite well curled up in my fleece sleepsack, which was a lot more comfortable than these:



Once in Dehradun, we hopped in a taxi for a 45 minute journey up to Mussoorie. We splurged (ie. we spent $70) and stayed at a Heritage Hotel, the Kasmanda Palace, which was perched on a hill just off the main drag with great views of the town.

We spent the first bit of the day wondering if our room was ever going to warm up with the tiny space heater they provided....not so much. We spent the rest of the day wandering around town only to find....Baskin-Robbins! And lots of shops with the masks from Scream...jigga wha? Addidas, dominos pizza, benneton...um, where are we? Finally we found some delicious tandoori chicken, some ginger honey lemon tea and some momos (tibetan dumplings). Now, we're talking. We ate at Kalsang Tibetan Cuisine a couple of times because Jon said, and I quote, "these are the best chicken momos I've ever had in my life". And let me tell you, we've had a lot of momos in the last few years.


We also hiked up to the (one of the?) highest points in town to check out views of the surrounding Himalayan snow-capped peaks. There we found a church that was built in 1850, some pigs and some great views.

Next we stopped here for some "Fun Pictures".


Not really.

On Sunday, we walked along another scenic road, Camel's Back Road. Named after this rock formation that you see along the way. (can you see it?....look near the top middle)

To finish off our trip to Mussoorie, we ate at Kalsang one last time and then got body massages from this guy.



No, no we did not get body massages from that guy....though, we pondered what it would be like. We said goodbye to Mussoorie and headed back to Dehradun to board our train to Delhi. All in all, it was a lovely weekend...36 hours was the perfect amount of time for Mussoorie and it was great to get away from Delhi, bundle up, read a good book, take some nice walks, and drink lots of ginger tea.


But, wait! India won't let us get away that easily!

Soooo....we boarded our train with plenty of time to spare before it left the station. I dropped off my bag at my seat and went back onto the train platform to buy a chai. As I was walking back to the train, I was thinking about how great the weekend was and about how much I love India train chai. And then, just as I stepped back onto the train, I slipped and watched the floor of the train rush towards my face as I felt my legs crash into the side of the train and slip to the tracks below. First thought, "holy crap, I'm going to fall under the train". Second thought, "my chai!". Ha, it was hot and burning my hands. In the next instant my left leg swung behind me and caught onto the train platform saving me from having to come face to face with the train tracks. A "kind", older man, came up to me and said "Be careful!". Um, thank you, sir, for your wise words. I usually do these kinds of things for fun. Yes, I'm quite the reckless individual.


The steward on the train gave me this look like "oh great, you've just spilled chai all over my floor". "I'm so sorry!" I said. Then, he gave me a bunch of napkins. I assumed that this was so that I could clean off my hands and arms. Later, I thought that maybe he gave them to me so that I would clean up the floor. whoops. I took them and ran into the train car, sat down next to Jon and started doing that cry-laughing thing. Embarrassment, pain in my legs....you know. I then rolled up my pants and discovered a nasty, deep gauge in my right shin. I proceeded to do that cry-laughing thing even harder. Goodness gracious. My Valentine's Day 2010 scar for life. Bruises on both legs. A big bubble on my left knee and a right leg that was twice the size of my left leg. And no first aid kit. Yeah, I had grabbed our "travel kit", but I grabbed the medicine travel bag and not the first aid travel bag. whoops. We had medication for everything under the sun, but between the two of us we had no bandaids or neosporin. So, we used some hand sanitizer and a tissue.

Then, we cracked open a bottle of wine and toasted to my new scar.