India is big and driving anywhere takes a long time but it's never boring. Driving out of Rishikesh yesterday was like driving through a big cage less zoo. We were still very close to the town when Tarun pointed out the piles of elephant poo on the road. It was hard for me to imagine that there were actually elephants living in that area...along with the monkeys, peacocks and who knows what else. My first animal encounter that morning had been with the cow who had been trying to eat the bag of apples that I was holding as we got into the car... of course I gave him one.
There was no real division between the zoo and the carnival where I spent much of the day riding on the dodgem cars. Tarun, like most Indian drivers seems to have a well developed sense of timing and distance and has an uncanny sense of just how much room and time he needs to pass another vehicle. My worst nightmare would be having to drive a car on these roads. The star circus act was at the train crossing. When the train passed there was no orderly queuing as we would do at home, the cars, bikes, carts and whatever just pushed as close to the barriers as possible...on both sides of the roads! You can image the chaos when the barrier arms finally went up but everyone seemed to sort themselves out reasonably quickly.
We are now in Nainitel ... a rather lovely place in the Himalayan foothills. The drive up the mountains was beautiful and we were right up in the clouds. It is a bit cooler here but not really cold .... Yet! As we arrived late in the afternoon I haven't had much of a chance to see the place yet but after dinner last night we went for a walk. The houses are all lit up for Diwali and there were some fireworks being let off....nothing to what will happen tomorrow I'm told.
A week of travelling hadn't done much for my fingernails so last night Tarun was clever enough to find me a beauty salon. After his attempt at finding a hairdresser for Rebecca I should have known better perhaps :-) . However I guess my nails do look slightly better and I did have an interesting experience... all for about the equivalent of 50 cents. The choice of colours was fantastic... All the primary colours and not much else, and the drying process equally impressive with the woman holding my hand at what seemed an almost impossible angle and rhythmically blowing. It was also a community event with what seemed to be every little girl in the town coming to watch.. ..and probably marvel at the whiteness of my skin. Each had to tell me their name and ask mine and believe it or not they understood my attempt at Hindi.... I bet that surprises you Abhishek!
I never cease to be amazed at the diversity of this country. There's the 'good , the bad and the ugly, 'but there's also the beautiful and this area is one of those places. I am looking forward to every day!
There was no real division between the zoo and the carnival where I spent much of the day riding on the dodgem cars. Tarun, like most Indian drivers seems to have a well developed sense of timing and distance and has an uncanny sense of just how much room and time he needs to pass another vehicle. My worst nightmare would be having to drive a car on these roads. The star circus act was at the train crossing. When the train passed there was no orderly queuing as we would do at home, the cars, bikes, carts and whatever just pushed as close to the barriers as possible...on both sides of the roads! You can image the chaos when the barrier arms finally went up but everyone seemed to sort themselves out reasonably quickly.
We are now in Nainitel ... a rather lovely place in the Himalayan foothills. The drive up the mountains was beautiful and we were right up in the clouds. It is a bit cooler here but not really cold .... Yet! As we arrived late in the afternoon I haven't had much of a chance to see the place yet but after dinner last night we went for a walk. The houses are all lit up for Diwali and there were some fireworks being let off....nothing to what will happen tomorrow I'm told.
A week of travelling hadn't done much for my fingernails so last night Tarun was clever enough to find me a beauty salon. After his attempt at finding a hairdresser for Rebecca I should have known better perhaps :-) . However I guess my nails do look slightly better and I did have an interesting experience... all for about the equivalent of 50 cents. The choice of colours was fantastic... All the primary colours and not much else, and the drying process equally impressive with the woman holding my hand at what seemed an almost impossible angle and rhythmically blowing. It was also a community event with what seemed to be every little girl in the town coming to watch.. ..and probably marvel at the whiteness of my skin. Each had to tell me their name and ask mine and believe it or not they understood my attempt at Hindi.... I bet that surprises you Abhishek!
I never cease to be amazed at the diversity of this country. There's the 'good , the bad and the ugly, 'but there's also the beautiful and this area is one of those places. I am looking forward to every day!
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