Messing About in Mussorrie

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We finally managed to shake off the hippie torpor that had overtaken us in Rishikesh and escape 'happy valley'. We decided to travel to Mussorrie, a hill station founded by a Captain Young in the 1840's.

Mussorie is wonderful. The town is located at an altitude of 6000ft in the Himalayas. It has an alpine climate at this time of year, with warm clear sunny days and cool evenings. We have been spending our time walking in the stuning countryside and taking in the views, including the distant snowy peaks of the high himalayas in the distance. We hiked to the place where George Everest lived when he was surveyor general of India. We also visited the Surkhanda Devi temple, which is at the top of a mountain at an altitude of about 10,000 feet. To get there you need to take a bus from Mussorrie and then walk the last couple of kilometers up a very steep path. The bus ride took us through the mountains along twisting roads with a very big sheer drop on one side - to add to the excitement the driver was the Lewis Hamilton of the Mussorrie bus company - a few times we just shut our eyes and hoped. The climb at the end of the bus trip was also quite tough given the altitude. However, it was worth it - there are spectacular views of the high Himamlayas at the top.

Mussorrie has another great thing going for it. There are bars and restaurants that sell beer. After more than a month in an alcohol free town, it was great to stumble upon a place enticingly called 'The Tavern', which sold all types of booze. That first pint tasted great. The drinks menu also included wine, which is unusual for an Indian restuarant. The wine list was not extensive, basically the choice was red or white, but as we hadnt had any for nearly two months we thought we would give it a go. We chose white - maybe it would be a nice Chablis or perhaps a Gurvurtzamener to compliment the spicy food. Nope - it turned out to be a Chinese Chardonay. Actually it wasnt bad - or maybe it was just that anything tasted good after such an enforced absence.

Before we left Rishikesh I (David) had a bathe in the holy waters of the Ganges. This took place about three Sundays ago at Haridwar, which is another holy town about 40km down river. We had become friendly with a lovely guy called Rana who works in the hotel where we were staying. He offered to show us Haridwar but he couldnt get the time off work, so one sunday he took us to meet his brother and family who live in the town. We had lunch with the family who then took us into Haridwar to show us the sites. Rana's brother is a lawyer and a local politician in the Congress party - over lunch he proudly showed us pictures of him posing next to Sonia Ghandi, so clearly he is a man of some importance. The first place he and his wife took us in Haridwar was the banks of the Ganges, where on a sunday afternoon hundreds of locals were enjoying a swim. Dee and I were the only Europeans there at the time and immediately we attracted the attention of the locals in the water, calling for us to get in. I explained to a young guy standing next to me that I couldnt go in as I didnt have a swimming costume. Oh no problem he said, just strip to your underpants and jump in. By this time we had a bit of a crowd around us and I thought it would be bad form to chicken out, so I stripped to my baggy M&S boxers and jumped in. Now there were two potential problems with this that I didnt fully appreciate until I was in the water. First, the current in the river was very fast, and the elastic on M&S boxers is not as strong as that on a pair of swimming trunks. Second, swimming trunks are designed to keep everything under wraps, while boxers have various crevices and flaps through which things might escape. Anyway, I submersed myself in the water, felt things start to slide and well ... I did manage to get everything covered by the time I emerged (to general hilarity and clapping from the locals). What I want to know is whether Rana's brother will one day be showing Sonia Ghandi a picture of him standing next to a skinny dripping wet British guy in baggy boxers (hopefully everything covered) - I guess its not a picture likely to enhance his political career. The family invited us back for lunch a few days later so they cant have been too embarrased.

Our friend Rana also introduced us to one of the local senior holy men who looked like a septuagenarian Bob Marley, with strong rather gaunt features and long flowing white dreadlocks. He tried to convince us of the merits of a vegetarian diet - apparently it is not only healthier but vegetarians are less prone to anger and violence. We have been on a vegetarian diet for nearly two months now and actually we feel pretty good on it so there may be something in what he says. Of course, not everyone you meet here in flowing robes and dreadlocks is a bona fide holy man. The ones in the more expensive looking robes are often selling drugs 'want some marajuana - very good make you feel nice'. One gentlemen who was trying to persuade us to buy some from him expressed huge surprise that we were English and did not smoke cannabis. Maybe the English have an image problem in this part of the world (I blame the Beatles).

We spent a lot of our final couple of weeks in Rishikesh walking around the town going up river. There are some really nice secluded beaches along the river which are great locations for painting. We have discovered that if you want to paint here its best to get away from the town, otherwise you quickly attract a curious crowd (who generally stand right over you which is very distracting). One day I was painting on a beach and a group of Sikh guys came up to see what was going on. They were extremely polite and watched with great interest - apart from a younger guy who started chating Dee up, asking her 'did she love him?'. She kept pointing at me but he didnt seem a bit put off - (just kept looking at me, folding his fingers and shaking his hand back and forward - probably it means something different in India).

Local people are generally both extremely friendly and want to make your acquaintance. We get several requests from people who want to have their photo taken with us and when they find out where we are from and that its our first time in the country we are invariably told 'welcome to India'. While there are some things about India that are infuriating (mainly the litter which gathers everywhere - many beauty spots are spoiled by piles of garbage) the people are great - very welcoming and friendly.

We are off on our travels again soon - travelling to Agra early tomorrow, then on to Rajastan for a few weeks (where among other things we will be going to the Camel Festival in Pushkar), before heading south to Mumbai and then Kerala for Christmas. One thing we have discovered about travelling around India is that on the popular routes the trains get fully booked several weeks in advance. Even though its several weeks away we couldnt get a single seat on a train from Mumbai to Kerala in late December so we have had to take a flight.

Lastly the news from home has picked up - great win for Chelsea at the weekend (it was the featured game on Indian tv) - bring on the Arsenal!

Thats about it for now - be in touch again soon. Dee and David

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Comments

[Phil Partridge]

Keeping an eye on you!
Hi Dee and David, keeping an eye on your exploits and updating Vic and Terry where you are and what you up to - so keep posting!

[SamPahari]

Namaste from London
Hi, Well written article. Thanks for sharing it with us.