Exploring uttarakhand

Our travel plans to Uttarakhand seemed non-existent. But we finally  reached a conclusion and reached our first stop Dehradun. 

Although I've never been there, but i felt like it's my place. Dehradun seemed so familiar to me, so my fondness of adventure and attraction toward the beauty of nature brought me here. 

Uttarakhand is land of devotion and adventure. This is the place where the tourists are attracted the most. People are so good and their hostility as well.

This is a pious state and a place where you can find yourself by meditating, relaxing as there are some places which to gives you that vibe. 

So let's get started: 

Where to go when you are in Dehradun?

 Dehradun is a capital city of uttarakhand.

This city is divided into two places for tourist attraction that's the city itself and hill station Mussoorie. The Indian military academy is located here, when I was wandering there in the morning for a walk, at 6:00am I heard a sound of drum beats, the tapping sound of soldiers' shoes .

 They were so disciplined wearing green uniforms. This city has a vibe for education as I saw large banners of many educational and coaching institutes. There are so many amazing food places. Their street food was awesome, the lavish parks, the spectacular architecture and perfect places for seeing Buddhist culture with the blend of their architecture. This city offers a lot.

 

The first place you can visit is the Buddha temple, which is the perfect place of worship for Buddhists. When I asked one of the monks there about the structure he told me these are vihara, chaitya, stupa and pagoda in different languages and regions. 

A large buddha statue
PC: Pant mridul

They symbolize 5 elements of earth. There was a one giant buddha statue surrounded with the Buddha stupas. The locals living there believe that if you have all those stupas, all your wishes will get fulfilled. Well, truly speaking I also tried that.

Buddha stupas
PC: Pant mridul

 There is a Tibetan market near the temple, which sells clothes and other things of Tibetan art and craft. Around the temple, there's a plethora of a green space filled with people relaxing and tranquiling there taking break from the hustle and bustle of life.

 

The second place you can visit is Tapkeshwar mahadev temple:

This temple is a pious site in which is 6 km away from the main city. When I went there I talked to the Hindu priest there, he told me that this temple was used as a residence place by guru Dronacharya at the time of Mahabharata. 

I saw a cave there also known as the Drona cave where shiva linga is established, a continuous dripping of water drops occuring on it. And that water is seen in the form of stream at a specific distance from shiva linga. I saw water fall there where pilgrims take bath before entering in temple.

My next venture is to gucchu paani or robbers cave:

Robbers cave, the place where the people living in Dehradun believe that robbers used these caves to conceal precious things. It is basically a river cave with a high waterfall.The ingenuity of this cave is its main quality as  its walls are broken. I really enjoyed there, people were picnicking and taking photographs. That was so blissful.

Robbers cave
PC: Mukul kumar

 After that, I was starving so I decided to eat something. So I grabbed uber to go to krishan nagar chowk. Then I went to the city's famous Chinese fast food stall.

I ate gravy rolls there, they were so spicy, but mouth watering also. It's gravy  was filled with vegetables. But most of the people were trying gravy manchurian and kababs also. You must try cheese shots near clock tower. They were so spicy, but I ate them thrice, because they were so yummy. I also ate cheese shots at chai sutta, near clock tower.

Cheese shots
PC: Dehradun footslogger

Paan at star paan parlour.
PC: Dehradun footslogger

From there I went for shopping in Paltan Bazaar near clock tower. The market consists of diversity of clothes, footwear, handicrafts etc. So I brought chikankari kurta from the shop.  In Paltan Bazaar, I ate paan at star paan parlour, Gandhi nagar. That was sweet and mouth freshing.

 So I will be heading now towards Mussoorie.