Feb. 27th: Footsore in Dharamsala

A beautiful, sunny morning in the Himalayas

After another tasty Tibetan breakfast we decided to take advantage of the good weather forecast and go for a hike. Our destination was a cascading stream up in the hills that Chris had hiked to on his last visit. We had a few false starts trying to find the right trail, but even the wrong ones gave us stunning views of the valley below and we stumbled on several clearings where people hang prayer flags to blow in the hilltop wind.

This baby's mom tried to attack Chris for taking this picture

A local man hanging a new string of prayer flags

We eventually found the correct trail, but it was above the snowline. On Chris’ last visit (also at this time of year), he’d done this hike in the balmy sunshine, but it was much slower going on the snow-covered rocks. We almost managed to make it to the stream, but it started to snow again and we thought it would be much wiser to head back before the precarious hillside trail got completely obscured by the snow. It would have been nice to see the water, but I definitely feel like I got a Himalayan hiking experience.

A gorgeous view from one of our unintended detours

Finally, the right trail!

When we got back to the road we met up with three dogs who decided they would follow us the rest of the way down the mountain. (I have to admit that I’d given some cookies to one of them on our way up – against Chris’ advice). They were very funny to watch, playing and chasing each other while we walked, and one person we passed even assumed that they were our dogs. Almost an hour later, a dumpster proved more interesting than we were and we lost two of them, but one of the dogs (NOT the one I’d fed) followed us all the way to the hotel door.

The snow clouds blow in...

Two of our canine companions on our walk home

Back in town (and the sunshine)

After a five hour (very vertical, Chris estimated between 1500 and 2000 feet) hike we were quite sore, so we spent a while resting at the hotel and soaking our feet, and managed to get out just before sunset to explore some more of the town. We had a delicious dinner of momos (Tibetan dumplings stuffed with vegetables, cheese and potatoes, either fried or in soup) and headed back to our room for some well-deserved rest.

Feb. 26th: Snow in the Himalayas

The view from our balcony - the Dhalai Lhama's
complex is in those trees on the far hill

Well, it was a lot colder this morning than it ever was on my last visit ten years ago. So cold that it snowed! Although it didn’t last and melted within an hour or so, it still made for a great photo of McLeod Ganj from our hotel balcony.

Although snow rarely stays in the foothills at this elevation (~1700 meters, or ~5100 feet), the peaks just above us maintain glaciers year round. (The trick is getting a clear enough sky to actually see them!)

After the snow stopped and quickly melted, the local wildlife emerged from just about every nook and cranny in the valley. The monkeys, which are notorious for taking food right off of people’s plates when dining on the town’s many balconies, were out in force, making a ton of racket and swinging all over the rooftops of the single-level houses below. The birds also came out and sang as the eagles and ravens got into it while hunting and scavenging.

Monkey on a roof

$20 to anyone that can tell me what the hell this thing is -
(I think it's in the weasel family but it also looks porcupine-ish...)

We had breakfast and hiked up the road to the next small village (Bhagsu) where there is a beautiful waterfall that cascades down the center of the valley. We hiked up a fair way towards the top and enjoyed the view in the still chilly air. There were many more Indian tourists than the last time I was here. This is something that I have noticed throughout our trip and I suspect is has to do with the increasing wealth in the country in general (though, as in most economies these days, India’s recent prosperity has not helped the approximate 400 million that live at or below the poverty line, or less than $1/day income – that’s larger than the entire US population!). With more Indian tourists, however, you have more litter on the trails and in the rivers – it is a serious problem.

These eagles are huge and they are everywhere!

McLeod Ganj from the road to Bhagsu - after the snow melted

We are above the waterfall on a rock

That evening things cleared a bit and we could
see some mountains with fresh snow

 ON RUBBISH: One thing that Indians seem to be oblivious to, is the huge amount of plastic and other garbage littering just about every inhabited corner of the country. This phenomenon is hardest to witness in India's parks and natural spaces where the contrast makes it that much worse. India’s waste management system is very poor. Combine that with most Indians’ age-old habit of throwing their garbage on the ground or in the street as soon as they are finished with it, and you have a country drowning in trash. As with most environmental issues, this situation is not sustainable. With India's economic growth and an increase in the consumption of plastics, something will have to change dramatically.

We spent the rest of the day exploring and retired into a bed that is much too short for the both of us.

Feb. 25th: Ughhhh

And googlemaps says it should only take 7.5 hours (ha!)
note the location of New Delhi to the South

The beginning of the car trip - in the valley

Well, that sucked. We got on the road to Dharamsala a little after 8 am and then spent the next 15 hours in a car (with about 20 minutes of breaks). India is a wonderful and beautiful country, but road maintenance is not one of its strong suits. We traveled about 475 km, but at an average speed of 35 km/hr, or 24 mph. Fortunately, we’re flying back to New Delhi.

 
Dharamsala is located even higher up in the Himalayas, and is the home of the Dalai Lama and location of Tibet’s government-in-exile. So, over the course of the drive we went slowly up the Himalayan foothills, through gorgeous countryside and along incredibly steep gorges. We finally arrived in the hilltop enclave of McLeod Ganj above Dharamsala just before midnight. The hotel’s concierge had stayed awake for us and had a heater running in our cozy room where we fell asleep almost immediately.

Feb 24th: Last day in Rishikesh

This morning we booked our car and driver to Dharamsala and McLeod Ganj for the morning of the 25^th. We will leave early as the drive is expected to take all day (12 hours as I remember from my trip in 2001). We also had to change hotels because the one we were at was all booked (we hadn’t made reservations for our full stay). Our new hotel was not quite as nice but what it lacked in amenities was made up for by the view of the river (which we had not had before – see the sunset picture below for our view from the room’s balcony).

The rest of our day was spent getting a few more gifts, etc. in the markets of Lakshman Jhula. We enjoyed some peace and quiet on the banks of the river and had a simple dinner at sunset. (I scrambled to run back to our room and get my camera for a photo but most of the color had already faded.) We packed and headed to bed early for the start of the next leg in the morning before most of the restaurants would be open for breakfast. 

Pedestrians, cars, jeeps, cows, and motorcycles all share
 the skinny market streets

Emily tries to resist the high-pressure sales tactics of this
seemingly harmless Indian women

On the banks of the Ganges - The foot bridge at
 Lakshman Jhula can be seen in the distance

Apartments along the river next to a very old tree

Our view at sunset

This little fellow was in our bathroom warming himself
by the water heater (he says "Geico sucks")

Feb. 23rd: Into the foothills and Kunjapuri Temple

It's greener than it looks

After breakfast we booked a car and driver to take us into the foothills and up to the Kujapuri Temple. This small Hindu (Shaivite) shrine sits atop the highest peak in this section of the Himalayan foothills and overlooks the plains below. It is about an hour’s drive through some very steep hills and tall granite folds in the land, where deep valleys are jeweled with rich green tea and rice terraces.

 The drive itself, although beautiful, can be quite terrifying. The roads are not very wide, have many switch-backs, and are barely wide enough to accommodate the high flow of buses, jeeps, cars, mules and pedestrians. Driving on the outside of the curve is the worst. When you are forced to the edge by oncoming traffic, your heart races a bit when you look over the side to see a thousand foot, almost sheer drop!

At the top there is a small parking area, then you must climb 308 steps to the temple itself. However, once there you have a panoramic view extending as far as the clouds and haze will allow. On clearer days you can see the white caps of the Himalayas to the north (we were able to make them out in the distance, but the haze made it difficult to get a decent photo). The temple is believed to house the location of Purusha’s (or the primordial man’s) breast. After he was cut into many pieces by the gods and sages as a sacrifice, each piece landed somewhere around the Indian subcontinent to become its many rich resources – in this case, the source of the Ganges which gives life to the rest of India’s fertile plains and valleys.

The Kunjapuri Temple (typical Indian courtyard
- unfinished, no railings, and exposed rebar)

The mountains are back there, I swear

After a while we returned to town, in the valley far below, and enjoyed some dinner at a restaurant overlooking the river. 

Feb. 22nd: Exploring Rishikesh

The nearest bridge (Lakshman Jhula) seen from the west side of the river

Cows wander back and forth across the bridge all day

After a very long morning with a travel agent, spent finalizing our air travel for the rest of the trip, we took the afternoon to explore the east side of the river. We headed south from the bridge near our hotel (Lakshman Jhula) through the marketplace and temples to the other major suspension bridge (Ram Jhula), and even further south to the remnants of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Ashram, where the Beatles stayed in 1968. The ashram was abandoned in 1997 and is slowly falling apart, but it was an interesting place to see nevertheless. The path on the east side of the river is theoretically pedestrian only, but is also full of motorcycles…and cows, and monkeys, and stray dogs, and Hindu ascetics (sadhus).

Monkeys! Now with more aggression!

A statue of Shiva in a chariot at Ram Jhula

What's left of the Maharishi Ashram

Hindus, especially those devoted to Shiva (one of the trinity of gods that make up the top of the Hindu pantheon, along with Brahma and Vishnu), also known as Shaivites, consider this area very holy, since it is where the holy Ganges River leaves the mountains and enters the plains below. Since the area is so spiritually significant, it is a pilgrimage site for both Hindus and “new-age” westerners alike.

Another statue of Shiva - this one depicts his ascetic aspect

We got back to the hotel in the late afternoon and spent the time before dinner reading Hindu mythology (Chris is a lot more familiar with the stories than I am). We had a very tasty dinner at an open-air restaurant and went to bed early since we’re both feeling a little under the weather (a result of breathing too much Delhi air, I suspect).

Feb. 21st: Heading North

A statue of Shiva in Haridwar, on the way to Rishikesh

In the morning we hired a car and driver to take us north to Rishikesh. The drive took us through the chaotic outskirts of Delhi and into the rural valley where the locals were in the middle of harvesting sugar cane. The road was packed with cars, trucks, motorcycles, cattle-driven wagons and bicycles all piled with cut sugar cane on its way to being processed. After a very long and dusty 7 hours (to drive 200 km!) we finally arrived in Rishikesh just before sunset.

The view from our new hotel room

Rishikesh sits on either side of the upper Ganges River in the foothills of the Himalayas. Some consider it the yoga capitol of the world, and it is also where the Beatles wrote most of the White Album (although Ringo left after 2 weeks because he didn’t like the food). Two huge suspension bridges connect one side of town with the other, and after a quick dinner at the hotel we headed to the other side of the river where we explored the shops, ashrams, and Hindu temples that line the opposite bank (and I finally found some safety pins for my sari). We went to bed early, but were woken in the middle of the night by a loud windstorm that fortunately died down by morning.

Temples on the other side of the Ganges

For those who remember my family's tibetan mastiffs - this guy lives next  door to the hotel

Feb 20th: Spice Market and Packing for Rishikesh

Today was our last day of the first leg of our trip so we will be leaving Delhi in the morning by hired car to Rishikesh (more on this later). We decided to spend a half-day at the spice market in Chandni Chowk (a very large market near the Red Fort that we had visited the day before). The market’s main promenade begins across the street from the Red Fort and is framed by several large temples and a mosque.

The afternoon and evening we spent packing for Monday’s trip to Rishikesh. We consolidated the stuff we would need into just one of our bags and left the rest with the hotel in Delhi (we will be back there for a night on March 2^nd). Around 4 PM the wind began to pick up outside, and thunder crashed in the distance. Eventually the thunder and lightning got very close, flashing and crackling in the air around us and shaking the building. Soon the rain came, and very hard. The storm lasted into the evening and gave Delhi and the whole central plains a good washing.