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.

Hjemsuk

Mussouri, 24/03/1994. Being hjemsuk is quite a new feeling to me but off late i seems to attack me more and more every day. Mussouri is quite a nice little hillstation used by the locals for holidaying and spending their honymoon. Like any other hillstation in India Mussouri has got it s own population of tibetan refugees who seem mostly employed as streetseller of clothes and junk.

An one armed monkey

Every so often i see or experience something here in thid country that is so typically indian that i can hardly believe my eyes, although this is really India after all. Just the other day i crossed bridge to the connects the two parts of Rishikesh, and smack there right in the middle of the bridge in the middle of Sahdus, mutulated beggar and poorly dressed women with small children all screaming out at me for baksheesh was this one armed monkey - the Rhesus Maque type - . I gave him an orange which he gratefully accepted and after eating it at ease he gazed up at me with a look that seemed to say .....MORE;MORE,MORE......