Queues of cars

Shimla, 01-04-1994. If a traffic accident happenes on one these small and winding mountain roads you will see soon long queues of cars that naturally have to wait untill the local constabulary has cleaned up the mess. That in this country takes its time so people just wait stoically as though they were waitng in a movie house after the generator has once again given up and the movie has stopped. Or the movie house experiences a brown out had has no back up generator what so ever. In the bus to Craigano, a forested area 16 km. from Shimla and the walk back my activity for today, i met a swedish guy who was the spitting image of my friend Frank back home in amsterdam. In behaviour, accented english and looks. He seemed quite impressed with my near perfect swedish which i learned from Frank, a norwegian himself.

A good deed

Shimla,31-03-1994. Today offered me the unique opportunity to help out a fellow human being. On my way back from Wildflower Hall which at 2500 m. above sea level and surrounded with once again nice pine forrest and the former residence of Lord Kichener, who ever the fuck he might be, 13 km. away from Shimla and offering me great views which were mostly obscured by rain clouds, i met a little indian girl who asked me to pluck her a wild flower out of her reach on a mountain cliff. Now, how could i refuse these big, dark and begging eyes? Hanging above the cliff and using all my acrobatic skills i got her the red colored flower. Happily she bounced off in her dark red school uniform with striped tie. Lots of rain today, all the usual fog being washed away by the dozens of buckets of rain water that came down. Howevr, when the rain finally stopped the views were really nice. Many Sihk families in Shimla, well dressed and accompanied by their children they walk up and down the mall, probably holidaying like me, i presume.

Summer Hill and Chatwick Falls

Shimla, 30-03-1994. Summer Hill, a nice and quiet suburb of Shimla, about 5 km. away from the mall and with some fine english colonial houses and Chatwick Falls, a waterfall surrounded with nice smelling pine forest another 3.5 km. down the same road as Summer Hill, were my goals for today. To write down all the minutiae of indian life that my eyes and other senses take in day after dayis beyond any possibility. The biggest problem, however is the enormous gap between me and the locals.

Rhesus Macaque

Shimla,29-03-1994. There are about as many mokeys, the Rhuesus Macaque, as there are black crows in any given city in India. Especially at Jakhu Temple which is just a short walk outside town on top of a pine forested hill. These ugly looking, short tailed and reddish brown monkeys are everywhere. But then the Jakhu Temple is dedicated to Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god. In my hotel the staff seems to enjoy jumping up and down the iron corrugated roof, the exact meaning behind this practice is as yet beyond me. As in any other hill station in the Himalayas these hardly looking kullies with their many times repaired narrow ended pants and dirty vests, carry everything imaginable on their back up to the town. From gas cilindres to whole house doors, up and down, up and down these small non asfalted mountain paths. The rich and weel to do indian holyday makers in their best suits and dresses don t seem to mind letting them carry their packs and suitcases as well given them a few tattered Rp. notes. The kullies make a bit of spare money hotel touting.

The town of Chandigar

Chandigar, 28-03-1994Designed by Le Corbusier and recreated as a capital to the for the state of Haryana, Chandigar certainly doesn t look like most of the indian cities i have seen so far. Broad avenues and huge patches of unused open public land that look like waste sites and are used as public toilets, an european looking shopping hallthat is still distinctly indian in appearance. However, the Rock Garden proves that evrything can be recycled in the field of art and would even get the Efteling in Holland jealous, quite good indeed. No cheap hotels in Chandigar but i found a cheap dormitory that seems to be used mostly by by locals from out of town working in this city. An elderly Sihk entered the dormitory early evening and asked me to write a recommendation letter for him for a job with the Tourisme board of India. He was so straight forward and friendly i felt i could not possible refuse and wrote him the letter on the spot.

The festifall of Holi

Dehra Dun, 27-03-1994Today the end of the winter was celebrated by the festifall of Holi. People throw water at each other and colored powder. All transport stopped untill around 14.00 h. afternoon so instead of busses the streets were full with people and scooters with their occupants all wearing many colored clothes carrying buckets of water and bags full with colored powder and bomb the riders of other scooters with the aforementioned water and powders, anyone else they get their crazy eyes on is also fair game. Pedistrians take revenge also armed with buckets and bags of powder. The fucked up bus schedule forced me to walk the 15 km. or so down hill to Dehra Dun where i found myself a cheap place to stay, needless to say i looked like a multy hued rainbow by the time i found safety in my hotel room.

Gun s Hill

Today was a day of leisure. Like the local honeymoners and vacationers i walked up and down the mall, went up to Gun s Hill with the ropewayand walked the Camel Road which was aptly named. I did Camel Road on foot but most of the locals do it on top of filthy and deceased looking horses, whipping the poor beasts to make them go faster and yelling out their delight for the whole world to hear.

Kempty Falls

Mussoorie,26-03-1994. Kempty Falls is about 15 km. from Mussourie and the place to go when you are an indian on your honeymoon. They go there by taxi or rent a Maruti van with choffer. On the way up they buy the blossoms of trees that have fallen oof and have been carefully arranged in a bunch and subseqeuntly sold by by small local children. Almost everyone in Mussoorie seems to be employed in the indian honeymoon business. Everywhere in this small hill station i see hotels ,with TV in every room, video parlours at every street corner, restaurants, bars and souvenir shops with that typical junk that is so popular among indians, you can ride a horse on the mall or be transported around by a man powered rickshaw. I walked the 15 km. to Kempty Falls yesterday which was all the way down and with an astounding number of private schools along the way, obviously for the offspring of rich and weel to do locals. The beautifull scenery along the way was more rewarding than Kempty Falls itself which was obscured by by the many chai stalls, restaurants and all the tourbusses, lots of noisy indians and a few women with pythons of varying sizes, the locals like to be photographed with one or more of these unfortunate reptiles hanging around their necks. Had my dinner with a german buddhist lady from Hagen.