A couple more notes about Shimla. Shimla is the capital of Himachal Pradesh and hosts the high court, amoung other government buildings. At 10am each morning, an air raid siren blares over the valley. This is not a signal to duck and cover - it is the alarm to remind all the lawyers to go work. Another one goes off again at around 4. We probably need an air raid siren in Sydney to get all the lawyers to go home.
Shimla is also really clean. There is a law in Shimla against spitting and littering. It will cost you 500Rs - a little over $10 - if you are caught. Consequently, Shimla is in great shape, unlike many of the other cities we have been to.
We left Shimla on Wednesday morning for a place called Mandi. Although we were heading further north into the Himalayas, we were actually descending - down to about 750m above sea level. As a result it was much hotter. We travelled there in a fairly luxurious van-taxi, which made the trip pleasant. Mandi is a small town on a river in a valley. After we arrived, we checked in at the "Raj Mahal" hotel, which was a former residence for British officials and the british nominated ruler of Mandi. It had old WW1 guns and colonial era-swords on the walls. We had a 'dressing room' attached to our hotel room.
We headed out into Mandi proper, checked out some very old Hindu temples that are being restored and the river. We also strolled down a local cloth market which, as you would expect, was alive with colour. By the late afternoon, Kate and I were exhausted, sweaty and dirty, so we retreated to the central park for a sit down and later to the garden sitting area in our hotel for a relaxing Kingfisher - India's premium beer. Interestingly, our tour-guide's favourite brew is Coopers Green - his Dad gets it from Dubai.
The odds of Sarah Miflin reading this are low, but, Becca, or Colin, you can let her know that our first-aid training came in handy while we were sitting in the beer garden. A family was walking back into the hotel and one guy started having an Asthma attack. He was okay, but the 4*4*4 was helpful.
We ate that night with the father of the owner of the hotel - an eighty year old man who used to work for the Indian foreign service in London. We were entertained for hours with his seemingly endless well of jokes and riddles, all of which were apprently on the exam to enter the foreign service. The next morning, Kate gave him the puzze where the mirror image of the 1 2 3 and 4 are drawn on a piece of paper and you have to guess the next symbol in the pattern. He kept exclaiming 'impossible, impossible... oh its too hard, too hard'. He was a funny guy.
We had a hindi - the language - spot quiz after dinner that night. I failed. As a punishment I had to spend 4 minutes dong my best bollywood moves to the latest Indian chartbuster. Apparently there is another quiz tonight. I have been studying all day.
We left Mandi early - after having breakfast witht the owner's father again - in a rickshaw. We drove to the bus-stop and boarded a local bus to Dharamasala. Local buses are an expereince. Most of the way is climbing up and around moutain traverses on pretty thin roads, just big enough for two trucks if one pulls over. The bus drivers are maniacs, but skilled ones. They burn around these corners that plunge away off a prescipice and then slam on the breaks and pull-over if a truck is coming the other way - which is a very common occurance.
About a quater of the way through the eight hour journey, the bus broke down. Our driver was able to pull out some magyver moves and fix whatever had broken with a roll of electrical tape. Further along the journey we were held up by a recent landslide that was being cleared with a backho. We arrived in the proximity of Dharamasala about the time school knocks off. People poured onto the buses until you couldn't move a muscle. By this time we were all aching from sitting prostrate for 7 hours or so, but it was fun.
Dharamasala is the home to thousands of Tibetan refugees. Its located very high in the mountains - around 2000m - and is built on the side of a plunging gorge with a waterfall at the top and a river running down the middle. There are a lot of westerners here, and it appears, a lot of Israelis. I think a people come here to 'find themselves'. Dharamasala has a nice, relaxed vibe though and is a welcome relief from the exciting, but intense parts of India we have visited.
I have to leave it there, we are about to go and have some Tibetan food. I have no idea what that is. Kate is calling me a 'blog hog' on facebook, so i'd really better go.
Love to you all and I hope Harry is going well (e-mail us some pictures of you can!
Speak again soon
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment