Stay: J.W. Marriott Mussoorie Walnut Grove and Spa, Uttarakhand

The hotel offers Himalayan views, and arranges trekking and sightseeing for guests to have a feel of Mussoorie. Photo courtesy J.W. Marriott Walnut Grove and Spa

I’ve found an afternoon game to play at Uttarakhand’s newest luxury resort: chasing the receding sunny spots on the lawn, as the scrub slopes behind me slowly swallow the sun. Evening begins to gather early at the J.W. Marriott Mussoorie Walnut Grove and Spa that lies in the state’s Dhanaulti region, a few kilometres ahead of Mussoorie. The Mariott is far from the bedlam of the “Queen of the Hills” thronged equally by honeymooners and children from boarding schools in the area. It is the perfect refuge for people who want to go to Mussoorie, but don’t want to experience its clamour.

With a book in my lap, I sun my legs on a cane couch in my pastel-hued room’s balcony. I am not so much reading it, as periodically sneaking a guilty look at it, between eyefuls of the Garhwal Himalayas rising around me. The spectacular vista from my cosy, temperature-controlled room’s French windows has teased me out from under the covers.

I take the short taxi ride to Mall Road, Mussoorie’s nerve centre. Walking past the antiquated Public Library and state handloom emporia, where I manage to dodge an incipient fight between troupes of belligerent monkeys, I am left with one realisation. That my time would have been better spent familiarising myself with the quiet residents of the former cantonment town of Landour (5 km west of Mall Road)—its thickets of deodar and Himalayan pine and oak, and its cemeteries. If I were staying a little longer, I’d have undertaken the three-day treks to Nag Tibba (3,022 m) and Chandrashila (4,000 m), that the resort helps organise.

Early the next morning, after breakfast at the JW Café—equally splendid for the buffet spread as the aspect of the valley—I spend a lazy hour at the hotel’s tranquil little greenhouse. It overlooks one of the two grand walnut trees on the lawns, from which the property derives its name. The little sage, rosemary, and parsley herb patch inside, serves the fragrant kitchen of the Wisteria Deck Italian restaurant. A room inside the greenhouse might soon be converted into a venue for wine-tastings, and I can think of no better place to get inebriated than in the company of wisteria, marigold, and petunia tableaux. And of course, the mighty Garhwal Himalayas.

Appeared in the January 2015 issue as “Winsome Vistas”.