Going Down Again
Check out time was 10am so that gave us enough time for room Chai and packing up. We left our little hotel behind and headed up the steep slope to Library. That is the name of the area - not a library. We settled into a little cafe nearby and ordered Aloo Paratha and more tea. The temperature seemed a little cooler this morning and clouds filled the sky ...
We sat for a while and discussed plans. We purchased a bus ticket and waited on the bus for departure. Even though the bus wasn't that busy we had been allocated seats 10 and 11. The seats however were nowhere near each other. On a different bus maybe they are!
The windy journey down was a little stomach churning but we fell asleep. It didn't take long and we arrived near the Dehradun clock tower.
We jumped off and started walking towards our friend's house. On the way we picked up some food. We know one dish was rajma but the other ?. It was yellow with balls of mixed vegetables. We had not had it before but it was good.
Back at our friend's house we sat and chatted. Diwali gifts were bought to the house by well wishers. Diwali is in 2 days time and we have been invited to stay by our friends to experience the festival.
Night fell and our friends disappeareded to the shops. They returned with bags filled with floating fire lanterns, sparklers and bangers. We ate a delicious meal together, prepared the chef and then headed to the roof top.
We all let off super loud potato bangers that echoed through the streets and sent the fire lanterns up into the air, never to be seen again. Not strictly true ...
To top off the day we watched a rather magnificent family members wedding in the cinema room. It is staggering how much a family spends on wedding. Just the bride's dress was eye wateringly expensive, let alone the wedding venue for 1000 people, individually decorated to the bride and groom's taste.There was approximately 60 food stalls containing different food for the guests. Simply unbelievable!