We were free to go the morning of the 11th day. It was still a 4am wake up call and morning meditation session, and then after breakfast we could go. What a liberating feeling to leave the 'monastery' after 10 days! Awesome! A bit weird though, as we packed into a small bus that brought us back to the chaos of Dehradun. From another angle, we were leaving the tranquility of the our little haven for chaos that could bring us back into the vicious circle we came out of. Interesting situation.
We had 2 days & 1 night until our train to Varanasi. We decided that since we wouldn't check out the Himalayas on this trip, we could at least get as close to them as we possible before heading back south. So we headed to the closest hill station from Dehradun called Musoorie. You can see the start of the Himalayas from Musoorie. It was only 34 km from Dehradun but took 1.5 hours by bus to get to. I really enjoyed the bus ride; the views of the valley below were wonderful. Interestingly, I was no longer focused on the crazy bus driver and dangerous curves. Instead, I just stared out the window and enjoyed the cool breeze....
Before going into Vipassana, not knowing what to expect, we decided to plan our last week in India after the course was done, so that we were left with less stress later. So we had booked our hotel in advance in Mussoorie and splurged a bit on a nice place, a whopping $19/night! Our room had stunning views of the valley below, and had sketchy Internet & unreliable hot water (2 amenities I realized are very hard to come by in India no matter if you are paying $5 or $35/ night for a hotel --in that case we will take the $5 option --because I'm not sure what I would be paying extra money for at the nice place ?!). Nonetheless, we had our own bathroom and our own balcony! We made the most of it, enjoying breakfast on the balcony the next morning.
We were only a short walk from the center of town and had an early dinner at a popular spot suggested by our trusty 'Rough Guide to India' book called Uphar. We ordered 2 vegetarian dishes that we had never heard of, feeling rebellious, and they both turned out to be delicious!! I had my precious salty lassi after a 10 day hiatus, which I enjoyed immensely. Great meal!
Then we headed to Gun Hill, a short walk away from the restaurant, & the highest point in the town , facing the Himlayan ranges. It's just a spot to take pictures, and enjoy a cup of tea with a nice view. A nice view it was, although I was expecting some snow topped peaks, but I guess it was too warm :P
We strolled slowly back to our hotel, making a few stops along the way to check out a vintage jewellery shop and some fabrics (it was quite chilly up there so we wanted to find a decent scarf or sweater to keep warm). Our first day of freedom flew by and we called it an early night because we were exhausted after the 4am wake up call.
The next day we left Musoorie after a relaxing breakfast on the balcony. There were frequent buses to Dehradun and we didn’t have to wait long to catch one. The bus was fairly empty and the ride down was quite comfortable. We were conveniently dropped off close to the hotel with reliable wifi and planned to sit there for a few hours before heading to the train station for our evening train departing for Varanasi.
We were grateful for working Internet and connected with the world after a 10 day hiatus. To be honest, I didn't miss technology at all when we didn’t have it. Not once did I crave the computer or the phone. I did think about reading and writing a few times, but that was the only want that really popped up. I'm assuming the reason is my overactive brain. It was so hyperactive, so full of daydreams and thoughts, that my crazy brain always seemed to satisfy my boredom. It never slowed down enough that a computer or phone was necessary :P
We headed to the train station and boarded our train to Varanasi. So far we have been really lucky and all of our trains have been roughly on time, at most an hour or so late. This is the sleeper cabin leg of the trip to Varanasi. I did say I wanted to experience sleeper class but to be fair, we had no choice this time, as everything else was booked up. Lets see how this goes, although I'm sure it's not as bad as people say.....?!
