Up to Mussoorie

After 6 days of teaching and learning, everyone took a break and there were no classes scheduled.   Instead, the monks, nuns and western educators went on a field trip to the city of Mussoorie.   Mussoorie is a hill station set in the hillside above Dehradun.  Mussoori is located at an elevation of about 6,000 feet so everyone brought warm clothes in case the weather was cool.

The bus met us outside the gates of the Songsten Library at 9 am.  We did not get more than a minute or so on our journey when we found our way blocked by a pickup truck loading dirt.We could not back up and the truck refused to move until the truck was loaded.  So we sat and waited.  A few of the monks got off the bus to watch the work and put a little pressure on the workers to get the job done.  After 10 minutes, we were back on our way.

The trip up to Mussoorie is a steep winding road with more switchbacks and hairpin turns than I care to remember.  We made a stop at a Buddhist college about halfway up the hill.  Everyone got out of the bus to tour the colorful, immaculate grounds.  We also posed for many photo opportunities and then it was back to the bus.

Mussoorie is only a distance of 20 miles, but it took us more than an hour to drive there because of the bad traffic and poor road that often went from two lanes to one lane.  But we eventually made it and stopped after we went through the city.  We walked to "park" that combined gardens,  amusement rides, games and restaurant.  After a cup of chai, some of us hiked back to the city center while the monks went their separate ways with instructions to be back at the bus at 4:15 pm.
 
Along the way to the city, we had great views of the Himalayan mountains.  Those white peaks in the distance are mountains, not clouds!   There were also many monkeys along the road and in trees.  I recognized some of the monkeys as macaques, but am not sure of the name of the other type of monkey.  Bryce, Tori, Chris and I found a nice restaurant in a restaurant above the city after walking through the bazaar. 

After some great Indian food, we walked back to the bus to meet the monks...well most of them.  A few monks waited in the city center.  When the bus approached them, the driver opened the door, and slowed the bus, but didn't stop.  So the monks jumped into the rolling bus and we were back on our way down the hill back to town.

We arrived back at the library at about 5:30 pm, with plenty of time before dinner at 7:00 pm.