20 not out - Nainital

Namaste

I am sitting on the bed watching Australia struggle to dismiss the England tail in the Champions trophy semi-final. Although as I write that Graeme Swann was run out. Hurrah.
The six hours sleep from around 10am to 3pm was among the most blissful I have ever experienced. I remember at one stage waking up and Kate saying to me (in a similarly drugged state) ‘its okay to go back to sleep’, so I did.

We woke at around three and got our act together for a walk into downtown Nanital , the mall. Nanital is a town built into hills surrounding a pistachio-coloured lake. The main road runs parallel to the banks of the lake and is filled with shops and markets selling everything from hand-woven shawl s to oily street-side pakoras (deep fried vegetables). Couples and families in row-boats and giant wooden swans dot the surface of the lake.

We are staying a little up the hill, about a 10 minute walk past the high court. There was a landslide here in 1851 that killed over a hundred people and destroyed many hotels. At the southern end of the lake there is a gravel soccer pitch, hockey field and basketball court as a memorial.
Nanital is again a popular tourist destination for Indians wanting to escape the heat. It has a relaxed vibe and is surprisingly cool. I wore my jumper for the first time in India last night and did so again tonight. There are very few non-Indian tourists here, but the place is packed as we are coming up to Diwali – the Hindu festival of lights. The festival has been literally materialising before our eyes - out the front of our hotel, from our balcony we have observed over the past few days the multiplication of sequined tents and fairy lights. The trees and shrubs are being adorned with lights and the grassed area now hosts a huge gazebo and pillars. The festival is a celebration of the return of Rama (goddess) from exile in Sri Lanka. There will be fireworks and gift giving, (every major store is having a Diwali sale). Whether the whole town is coming to our hotel front lawn to do these things we are naive to, but we will find out tonight.

Kate and I took a stroll down to the lake and sat by it for a while. The change in climate is refreshing and amusing - whole families on arriving had rushed to purchase cheap woollen hats and scarves and preceded to wrap each member in multicoloured warmth. There is an abundance of peanut stalls and corn cooking vendors – signature street snacks for the winter months. We then decided to hire a giant wooden swan (see photo) and spent the afternoon peddling our way across the lake. Despite the ridiculousness of it all, it was a very pleasant way to spend the evening. Upon disembarking, we walked through the markets and made our way home, where we shared a Fosters (surprisingly, it tastes quite good over here) on the balcony, watching the lights and gazebo’s being erected.
We woke fairly late again the next day and broke all the rules by eating a buffet breakfast and eating the fruit. Actually Kate has eaten loads of pre-cut fruits from various locations, meat, clear soup, milk and water from unknown origin and is so far unscathed. Apart from all this she has increased her blasphemous thoughts as she speaks more and more regularly of her cravings for the flesh of the only sacred animal in India. She is already looking forwards to a juicy Christmas steak.
We spent the morning updating the blog and putting some pictures together. Sorry about the quality of the pictures on the last post, we tried compressing them, but for some it just made them darker. So we will try something different if we get time.

Around lunch we headed out and took the cable car up to ‘Snow View’, a peak 2290m above sea level. On a clear day you can see the snow-caps of the Himalayas, but today was not a clear day there was no snow to view. Minus the view, the top was just a couple of villages, lots of air guns for hire and two weird amusement parks (one ride was on a cow with no legs) and some roaming cows.

After we descended, we took the 4km walk up a steep mountain path to the Nanital zoo. We walked around for a while, but the enclosures were quite small (although lonely planet says that they are ‘large’), and although it was incredible to see some animals so close, it was just too close, so we left after 10 minutes or so.

Before I finish off, I forgot to mention that we visited the Lotus Temple in Delhi on our sightseeing day. It probably slipped my memory because it was the least interesting of the day’s sights (not to say it wasn’t interesting, it was just packed into an extremely interesting day). It is a very modern building shaped like a lotus flower and seemingly made from the sails of the opera house. There was an enormous line to get in with one or two Bahai escorts valiantly trying to maintain some order to the queuing. Kate was convinced the guy herding us into the temple was reminiscent of the young priest in’ There will be blood’ starring Daniel Day-Lewis - any questions can be directed to Kate. We were requested to move forward in single file but nothing in India so far operates in such a way - when the official is looking, everybody lines up single line, when he turns away, its a free for all until he turns back around again. Maybe I have said it before, but i’m sure there is no word in Hindi for ‘queue’.
The temple itself is open for people of all backgrounds and is a place for silence and meditation. You walk in and have to be quiet, while on the roof of the building is a strange all-seeing Sauron-eye. I got a pamphlet on the way out briefly explaining the Bahai religion. According to the pamphlet it was inspired a self-proclaimed prophet in 1800’s who felt that all faiths were moving towards the same god. The pamphlet was something of a mix between religious doctrine and political manifesto, with principles advocating ‘the common foundation of all religions’ and ‘the institution of a world tribunal for the adjudication of disputes between nations’. Like many pamphlets (particularly religious ones), it was filled with jargon like ‘The creative word of god in every Dispensation is vouchsafed to mankind through the intermediary of His Prophets and Messengers’. I get what they mean, but could it have been said in clearer language?
Anyway, we are about to head out for our last day in Nainital. We have to check our train tickets back to Delhi. We also might go for another paddle on the river.

Our soujourn to Nainital has been very relaxing, and exactly what we needed. We will miss the good food, the spacious hotel room, the quiet and the cool weather. But we feel recharged and ready to get on with the second big instalment of the journey that will take us first into the desert, then across north India and around the south. In a month and a half or so, we will be in Goa.

Thank you for all your responses, sms and photos
Miss you and love you

Kate and Charles