6 Not Out - Shimla, Mandi, Dharamasala

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

3 Not Out

It was a shaky start to the innings, but we seem to have settled in and are off the mark. Delhi is a crazy dirty, poor, opressive and hot city. Wherever your look there is rubbish or rubble, its like the whole place is under construction. (Actually, there is some truth to that, there is a lot of construction going on before the commonwealth games are hosted there in 2010). I managed to buy a pre-paid ticket for the taxi once we arrived att he airport. Finding a taxi was another story. We eneded up getting directed to the taxi rank 10 meters away buy a man who demanded 10 rupees (20c) for his services. In hindsight, not a bad 20c spent. We got into a taxi with a couple of nice guys. Kate struck up a conversation with one of the drivers who entertained us with his selection of hindi music, played from his moblie phone. The only problem was that these guys didn't know where out hotel was. We drove around Delhi for an hour in the middle of night looking for our hotel 'the hotel good palace'. Winding through streets packed with people and rubbish in the gutter. All the buildings are run down and the air is thick with heat and smog. I keep having to pick blak balls of snot out of my nose. We eventually found the place after visiting a 'tourist office' which I was immediately sceptical of as there are many 'tourist offices' in Delhi, not all of which are reputable establishments. The hotel was clean and air conditioned, but I had not idea where we were. That would have to wait until the morning.

We were meeting our tour leader at 12pm, but we had to do a couple of things first. We had to find some breakfast, get a moblie phone and possible find some lunch. It sounds simple, but when you have no idea where you are, no idea where to go, in a place as foreign as could possibly be imagined, this is more difficult than its sounds.

The first step outside the hotel in Delhi is like a punch in the face. Its so hot, and before you have taken a step there is a little girl holding a baby with make-up on her eyes asking you for money. Those first moments are intimidating. You are at the absolute height of your senses. We manged to find a shop selling phones and an ATM and got some breakfast at the hotel. After a while its not so bad, most people are just going about their days and its not too hard to get into the rythym. You get hassled from time to time to by a belt or a 2 metre map of India, but that is manageable.

We met our tour guide at 12pm. He's a fantastic guy from Rajastan named Shakti. He lives in Delhi. Our tour group is small, just me, kate, Shakti and a girl from Denmark named Kristine. After the group meeting where we got aquainted, went through some do's and don'ts (particualy with regard to beggars (kate has already broken the rules) we headed out for an orientation walk around Delhi.

'New Delhi' and "Old Dehli" are worlds apart. New Delhi is quite spacious and middle class with shopping malls and big parks. Old Delhi is a scrum.

We spent the afternoon in Old Delhi being led by Shakti through the streets. It was nice to have a purpose (even though I wasn't quite sure what it was). Instead of paniking about where we were going and how we were goign to get there, I could walk and take in the streets. We walked through spice markets where emaciated men carry loads triple their size on their backs. We visited an enormous red mosque with four towers 200ft in the air that you can walk up and see Delhi's sprawl. We saw a Sikh temple, travelled on the Delhi metro and hung off the side of a public bus. Exhausting, depressing, fascinating , smelly, unjust, absolutely unforgettable.

Kate wasn't feeling well that night and didn't come out to dinner. I went out with he group at 'crossraods' a popular restuarant not far from the hotel. The intrepid India's properties manager came out to dinner too, and he said he might be able to find us a nice place to stay in Naimital.

I am loving the food. I have spicy curry-like things for breakfast lunch and dinner. Maybe ask me again in a month and i'll think differently.Kate hasn't eaten dinner in three nights, she says the smell makes her want to vomit. She's rapacious in the days though.

I am running out of time, but we woke early to get a train from Delhi to Kaktal (which was very spacious and sir conditioned, they served a South Indian breakfast). At Kaktal we transferred to the toy train traveeling to Shimla. The toy train journey was about 6 hours of winding up the himalayas. Even though we spent 12 hours travelling it was a realxing day. We are staying at a hotel that looks over the town of Shimla, the capital of Himchal Pradesh built on the faces of the himalyan foothills. Its a truly spectacular place.

Today we walked around Shimla to a monkey temple (on the top of a mountain)where we had a dot painted on our head and 'drank' some suspicious water and were given crunchy lollies. Some people that went in before us had their lollies stolen by the monkeys. Kate swung on a swing. We then walked back down the mountain, past the local Anglican church (there is a Diocese of Amritsar!) and down to the house of the viceroy durign the british raj. They drafted the India-Pakistan partition here in 1947. The whole of India was ruled from this house during the summers. We've just walked back through 'mall street' and am sitting at an internet cafe.

Shimla is an amazing place. It is laid-back, and not too crowded. Shimla is in many ways middle-class. There are coffee shops and brand-labels with expensive (i.e Australian priced) items. Many Indian people come here for their holidays. Whatever it is, it is a welcome relief from Delhi. The weather is pleasant, still warm, but cool in the nights. A lot like Sydney actually.

I wish I could say more, but I think I have said enough. There are really interesting things to tel you about the caste system and India-Pakistan relations, but I will come to them later. We wil also have pictures next time. I left the cable at home but we have managed to source another one.

We'll write again soon. We travel to Mandi tommorrow.

Love Kate and Charles.