Masoori

Recently  I was on a vacation with my family. We decided to see the cities Haridwar, Dehradun, Masoori and Rishikesh. We hired a Scorpio vehicle and started our journey at 4:30 pm on 17th June 2015.  But we forgot this is the (May & June) summer season and the schools are closed. So most of the Indian families make vacation in these two months only. And this reason makes these hill stations too much crowded. Every thing is over priced.  Services are poor. And spend hours in finding overpriced parking at hill station like Masoori, Shimla, Mananli.

We reached Haridwar at 1:00 am in night. We faced lots of trouble in finding a good hotel. All Dharmshalas were closed by 10 pm. So if you go to Haridwar always reach over there before 10 pm. Hotels who were offering AC rooms in only 1200 rs, these rooms were worthless. So small and not even neat and clean. I am quite sure if I would have done little research online before leaving Agra then I must have found a good ac room under rs 1500. But we were there at 1:00 am in night at Har ki pauri. Everyone was trying to overcharge for an unclean room. If you will go 100 mtrs ahead from Har ki pauri towards mansha devi, there are more hotels on the road. 

Next day at 8 am we went for a bath at Har ki pauri. As an Hindu it is an spiritual experience. Although we all know how much Ganga river is unclean. 

At 9 00 am we reached at Mansha devi temple starting point. At rope way booking point, the counter was closed and people were selling tkts of ropeway in rs 490 whose cost was very less. Again the drawback of overpopulation and going to such places in May and June. So we cancelled our plan to see this temple due to the huge crowd. And temperature was also not cool. Everyone was sweating. 

Haridwar temperature

We left  Haridwar at 10 am and we reached Dehradun at 1 pm. We also stopped at many places to click beautiful clicks of nature and for lunch. In Dehradun we stayed at Hotel White House. 

After taking two hours rest in hotel at 4:30 pm we went for sightseeing of Dehradun. We first reached at Tapkeshwar mahadev temple. Very impressive temple. It is under a cave. Which is a very good place for meditation. But people were clicking photographs inside the temple and making noise. I did not feel I am in a temple, I felt like tourist spot. What an Irony. 

After this Tapkeshar mahahdev temple we went to Gucchukpani(robbers cave). Here the ticket rs 25 each. It is a 1 kms long cave which you need to cross to see a very small waterfall. Everyone enjoyed very much over here.  My three years old daughter enjoyed too much over. It was a very good picnic spot for a family. 

Next day we drove to Masoori which is on one and hlf hours drive away from Dehradun. At massori we reached Mall road. We  did photo session over there. After spending one hour at mall road we decided to see Kempty fall.We drove another one hour to see this Kempty fall. An d I was surprised when I  saw a small pond which was full of 3,000 people. Everywhere people and lots of noise.  This much crowd created humidity overthere. Shops are also too much overthere. How tourism can finish the natural beauty of a hill station, Kempty fall is the perfect example. 

We drove back to Dehraduun and on the way we reached at Shahasdhara. This palce is good and everybody enjoyed. But again overpriced parking. They were charging rs 100. I do not who is getting this money but this overpriced parking business is the biggest business and most profitable business at any hill station. 

Other day we drove to Rishikesh and on the way we crossed a which is full of deadly elephants but unfortunately we did not see any Elephant. By 10 am we reached rishikesh and went to Laxman jhula. First we visited the Shivanand Ashram which is just in front of Laxman jhula. Then we had a walk on Laxman jhula. After this short visit then we drove back to Agra.