Exploring Uttarakhand

This was a trip to Uttarakhand mainly to go on a trek to the Kedarkantha peak. I had booked a guided hike with indiahikes.com and their starting point was in Dehradun, which is where I started my trip.

Day 1:

I arrived at Dehradun by flight early in the morning. Dehradun city is about 30km away from the airport, and I got to my hotel by a bus. After checking into my room at my hotel, I dropped off my bags and headed out to make the most of the rest of the day. 

I had a quick breakfast of aloo paratha at a small eatery near my hotel, and then walked over to the dehradun train station. Outside the station, there were shared auto rickshaws that had fixed routes all over the city. After asking around a bit, I figured out which ones to take to get to Mindrolling Monastery (ask for Clement town).

It took about half an hour to get there. The monastery was spread over a large ground and had many different pagodas, with one large central pagoda, and several giant staues of buddha and others. I got to witness the monks praying inside the pagoda, as well as an intereting ritual outside the pagoda that involved the monks singing and playing some interesting instruments.  

There was a large buddha statue outside the complez, and a number of other smaller monasteries in the are (all in walking distance).

I spent the rest of the day here and by evening headed back to my hotel to get some rest and have dinner.