Luke Kenny

I was part of India&rsquos first zombie film, Rise of the Zombie, which was released in April this year. I was co-producer, co-director as well as an actor in it. And if you&rsquove seen the film, you will have noticed the mountainous locales that form a major part of the story. These are in the magnificent state of Uttarakhand.

So this year when our vacation plans were being made, it was decided that the &lsquoother&rsquo side of Uttarakhand shall be explored. My travelling companions were my partner Devaki Singh, her 75-year-old mother and her 83-year-old friend, who joined us from Ahmedabad. So a route was charted and the first stop was Dehradun. Yes I know, it&rsquos a tourist town and all that... but a small tucked-away place called Shaheen Bagh, which is a few kilometres outside of the city, was a revelation. It&rsquos the cutest little cottage straight out of a fairy tale, hidden by foliage and complete with a swimming pool.

Onward we went to Chakrata, a tiny functional town that&rsquos closed to foreigners, but offers magical excursions to the forested areas of Kanasar and Devban. The three-night-stay here was made heavenly by rain and a hailstorm that revealed a scintillating double rainbow and a sparking clear view of the snow-clad peaks in the distance. 

Mussoorie was our next stop... While I cringed every time I had to wade through the crowd of weekend/holiday season revellers on Mall Road, Devaki&rsquos mother took the cycle rickshaw whenever we decided to walk the stretch. However, we did manage to pack in a visit to the superbly isolated Clouds End resort for lunch, a classic sunset at the George Everest point (from where he mapped India and discovered Mount Everest in the process) the ladies also stocked up on a few Ruskin Bond books (I missed meeting him by a day, though). A precarious drive upto Landour was rewarded by a sweet walk through the old pathways once travelled by horse carriages in the British era.

We left Padmini Niwas, Mussoorie with a heavy heart, vowing to return soon and drove to Dhanaulti and stayed at the Apple Orchard Resort for the night. Serenity and good food kept us in great spirits till we left for Rishikesh the next day and then proceeded to Delhi to catch our flight back to Bombay.