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Published: February 27th 2008
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Back from an amazing few days in the Himalayas and waiting for our overnight bus to Hardiwar which is where the Ganges leaves the mountains.
After talking to our guide Shaan and finding out he could do the trek in two days we convinced him we could keep up with his pace and off we set with a decision we may have regreted at some points along the way.
The scenary was amazing with no flat land to be seen and as we zig zagged down the mountain Shaan pointed out many plants and gave us a great history of the region.
Mid morning we wound down to the bottom of the valley and reached a small village where the track looked down on a small rural primary school where the children were sitting in the front cortyard for their morning assembly. To our surprise the principle on stage waved us down to join them, we looked at each other and our guide and he said we can go if you want? So five mins later we were sitting up on stage in front of 100 school children and being welcomed as their honered guests Mr Matthew from New Zealand and
Miss Leanne from Australia. After drinking tea, we watched with amazement as 100 6-10 yr olds hummed Hindu payers and sang the national anthem. We were just thinking it would be time to get back on the trackwhen the Principle turned to us and asked if we could address the School. We looked at each other and as you can guess it was decided matt would rise to the occasion. So up he stood and captivated his audience with a fine speech. With Leanne sitting laughing from the back of the stage and thinking the job was done. Her face soon turned to horror as she realised the principle had now turned to her and requested a speech on the Australian education system. So up Leanne got and with knees knocking and a quiver in here voice delivered a fine speech.
Off we trod up up and more up to a village where our guides sister cooked us lunch. We seemed to cause much amusement to the local children who would peer through the window and around the door in great fits of laughter at how we ate our meal with a spoon instead of our fingers (if only we
were able to eat how we wanted as kids!!)
After lunch Shaans sister invited us to a ceromony in the village which was to celebrate a local familys son turning 11 which is a big thing here (although we didnt see children at the celebrations)
We walked to the house to be greeted by a band of trumpets and a party in full swing. The men danced and sang and the women sat up the hill on blankets keeping an eye on them. We were more than happy to watch next to the women but as you can guess we were dragged down to join in amongst the wiskey fumes and turned to find the crowd had doubled to watch us dance.
We finally escaped, which was harder than you think, then carried on our way to the top of the mountain (Shali peak), stopping only to fetch water from a well with an old paint tin(as our water had run out and shops did not stock water out here)
The view from the top was amazing and we settled in for the night in a hut in the temple grounds.
This reminded us of the back country huts in
NZ but without bunks or a fire place.
So in just under 0 degrees we cooked our food (fried wheat flour mixed with water and sugar, and chapati bread to dip) on a fire on the floor of a smoke filled room then settled in to try and sleep on our blanket matress.
The next morning we headed back down with Leanne feeling a rumble in her stomach. It was long before this develoeped and the trek was broken by Shaan and Matt admiring the view while Leanne dashed for the nearest tree.
When we reached our guest house in Tattipani Leanne was moving from bad to worse and lets say it was a rather long night and we made use of the medical supplies Leanne had brought along.
Today we caught a very very packed local bus for a 3 hr trip back to Shimla were Leannes belly managed to behave just long enough.
So now off we must go to meet our bus. (lets just hope Leannes drastic wedding diet does not cause problems for us or any other poor person on the bus)
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George
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See Leanne, told you you wouldn't put on any weight in India, it just goes straight through you :-). hope you get better soon xxx