Nainital, Sattal, Uttarakhand

I guess I should apologise for not writing for a while- what can I say- work has been pretty hectic, and I just haven't been able to sit down and convince myself that I have seen, experienced or thought about anything recently that's worth an hour sitting in front of the PC, when I could be doing something more useful like watching Simpsons back-episiodes on Veetle ;-)

But now I have done something that compels me to write, not least of all because I myself enjoy reading travel blogs, especially to places that can be hit and miss tourist experiences. This one rates as a hit for me, but probably because I have been deprived of these sorts of experiences since I arrived in India.

Nainital, Sattal, Bhimtal etc. are one of the three main "hill station" getaways for Delhites, primarily because they are cool places situated in verdent green mountains, and also because they're only a half-day trip from Delhi itself. Half-day if you have the right transport that is.

A friend of mine who is also working here in Delhi recently told me that she knows heaps of ex-pats that go travel somewhere (out of Delhi) every weekend they can- which usually involves a 12-hour overnight bus or train trip to somewhere, two days of frantic sightseeing/adventuring/etc. and then rushing back on an overnighter to start work on Monday. She couldn't understand how they could do it- and almost every weekend. Well, after seeing some of the places that you could see by taking one of these weekends, I am starting to understand why.

Nainital was a good introduction to the difference that the hill stations are from what you're used to seeing around Delhi. You start climbing at the outpouring of a big river, coming from the mountains, and are immediately in a rain-forest environment, and in our case, also surrounded by clouds. You climb from probably 200 to 1900m, which also gives you an idea of what you're in for. My arrival at Nainital was a little underwhelming- we were let out at a non-descript spot on the road somewhere, from which I could see exactly 5 metres in front of me.

It was, of course, also raining- so the first thing I did was buy an umbrella from a guy near what turned out to be the bus station, thereby making it my second purchase of an umbrella in a week. (As it turned out the purchase ended up having a bonus thrown in, as I got the guy to look after my bag for a couple of hours while I walked around the lake. I loooove India, man!)

Nainital shows off a little of its mixture of cultures, there were quite a few butchers around, although everybody still spoke Hindi, and every now and again a girl would walk past wearing a kurta that I, with my limited knowledge of world fashion and ingrained Western perceptions could only term 'oriental', and I am guessing that the design came from a little further North, either Tibet or perhaps China. Certainly this 'hill station' felt like a mix of people from different hills (it didn't matter that these hills happen to be the highest in the world).

When the mist eventually began to clear after an hour, I found myself in Naina Devi Temple, which apparently is where the goddess Sati's eye fell to earth (I actually thought the lake itself was meant to resemble the green of the goddess' eye as well). Anyway, without waking lyrical, these Hindi temples really touch my spiritual buttons. The place feels so serene, nestled amongst the green surrounding hills, and looking directly out over the lake. I like the open plan of them as well, the temples all face toward the lake, so as you move from one God to the next, you can't help but turn and look out in the same direction that they are looking. It's a little strange I guess, that one of the prime spots in these places, and easily the best kept, is in a holy temple, where people go to spend probably the least amount of their time. Then it's off to a cement bench surrounded by rubbish, or to a damp hotel room where you hope that you've paid enough to be able to see some of the lake.

I spent a good couple of hours walking around the lake, and was only a little dissappointed that I didn't get to heap up a trail to the top of the mountains surrounding it. The weather didn't look that great each time I got near one of the trail heads though, so in one of those "no way of knowing which choice might have been better", I headed off to Sattal after a negotiation on a 'taxi' price with my friendly umbrella salesman/left luggage guy.
Sattal certainly felt like the right choice when I got there. A smaller lake, but with a lot less people, and practically no hotels (only my tourist rest house, as the government lodges are called, and the 'country inn', which looked a lot fancier. There were some YMCA tents there as well, but they looked pretty, erm, 'damp'). Damp would also be the way to describe my room at the rest house, it really wasn't pleasant, and you would have expected better for Rs1150 in India. But again, considering the other choices (which were at least twice as much) I guess you take what you can get.

I had a nice walk around the lake in the afternoon- and got acquainted some of the birds that I would be seeing in the next few days. There was also a large hunting bird who flew down to the water's edge a couple of times to try and grab something, but I didn't identify either the bird itself or it's prey.

Late afternoon reflections in Sattal Lake

The next day I decided to take advantage of what tracks there were close to the lake, but without too much expectation- I was told that there was a walk to a waterfall nearby, and set off after breakfast around 9:30am.  It was about 10 minutes into that walk, when suddenly I stopped hearing the other people breakfasting and boating around the lake, that I knew I was in the exact place that I wanted to be, right at that moment. The only noise was the babble of nearby birds, the weirdest woodpecker I have ever seen was perched on a tree in front of me, and light rain was making this perfect design on the body of water below me. I was completely immersed in a natural setting that felt like it hadn't been significantly changed in millennia. Ahhhhhh- this is getting away from it all for me.

That feeling was compounded as I headed up a mountain track that gave me almost at 180-degree view of the valley and villages below.

All this with no effort, practically no climbing, just some luck and following a couple of tricky paths. Then AFTER that (yep, I was in full hippy mode obviously) I sat down on some rock for about half an hour and looked at some of the micro stuff going on around me. Some weird grasshopper that didn't want his photo taken, an ant who looked like he knew where he wanted to go, but kept running into the ends of leaves so he couldn't get there, this orange hat fungi, suspended on the end of the thinnest black stem...

(No, I didn't eat it, although after reading this you may wonder...) Man, as I said I was just in the right place at that moment- things were good for me that morning.

Then I wandered back to the waterfall for a while- it was also pretty peaceful- completely deserted and nothing but the gentle rush of water to listen to. Of course it had the requisite lots of plastic water-bottles and tobacco pouches spread around it, but I managed to keep them out of frame...

As it started to rain the time was getting right to head back, and when it really came down I wasn't even bothered, such was the mood that this little break in what seemed like just the right place had put me in. Lunch was my chance to try some Kahri (that's curry to you non Indian-English speakers), which was a very yellow sauce in which two balls of boiled gram flour had been dipped. It was (as the cliche goes) as appetizing as it sounds.

After the rain once again timed itself perfectly to allow me to avoid it, I climbed the mountain behind the rest house to the local mandir (temple) which was pretty much straight up a couple of hundred metres or so. What greeted me at the top though, was fairly different from the one in Nainital.

First of all, the location was absolutely spectacular. They had really built the temple itself right on the highest point of that particular mountain, and had views at least over three sides into the valleys or lakes below. They had also done their best to promote the growth of the forest on top of the mountain, which somehow still managed to look natural, despite them having built a temple, living quarters, etc. up there. The old Majaraj didn't look in the best of health, he had on a lot of old jumpers and socks, despite the fact that I was sweating so much from the humidity, but I guess they have little protection from the elements up there. He seemed like a down-to-earth guy though, and everyone was keen to know if I had come to bunk down in the Ashram for the night ;-)

They served me a chai and some cold potatoes on a leaf of dubious sanitary standards, but how do you refuse food offered by the gods? Well, I guess the answer is you eat the minimum possible and try and keep them in conversation while doing so... I got to see some of the creatures that inhabited the Mandir as well (including more of the weird wood-peckers, and a monkey that didn't wanted a piece of me..

(apparently you don't want to mess with the Indian Monkeys- staring directly at them is taken as a sign of aggression, and they will attack you. This particular one was the kind of monkey that 'was just looking for trouble'- first time he peered over the edge of the temple roof and saw me he just kept starting, waiting for me to make eye contact. So I had to keep this crazy monkey in view, without actually looking at him- so I started slightly to the left while keeping him in the corner of my eye. So then he moves over to the left, and I had to start looking right, while keeping him in the corner of my eye. I was just waiting for him to jump on my head...)

So anyway, it was time to head back down the mountain, which on the way I saw some kind of mammal- I only saw it in a flash at first (and had no idea what it was), and so I pushed a little bit towards where I last saw the thing move. Problem was, I didn't know if it was a puma or what, so I didn't push too far into the bush. Then I heard what sounded like the guard dog from the Mandir up above me, barking. It was a weird bark though- only one time, and at very regular intervals (This was a weird dog though, so fair enough). After about 6 barks though- whatever was in the bush shot off at amazing speed (considering you could still barely see it) through the undergrowth, letting out this single 'woof' at the same intervals. Then the dogs down at the lake started going at it, but in 5 seconds it was 200 meters away. Unbelievably fast. I asked the guys down at the lodge what it could have been and they immediately replied 'tiger'(!) I explained to them that I'm pretty sure I know at least what colour a tiger is, so their next guess was a deer- which made sense based on it's size, but I then said- what about the noise- it was making a single bark "like a dog". Still they said deer, and as of course they had no books or anything, the description had to do. Enter the wonderful world of the internet and there just happens to be a couple of great pictures of a "barking deer" taken at Sattal. So, in all it's glory:

The Uttaranchal Barking Deer

Then came my last night at the lake, where I actually had some clear skies to watch a little night mist roll onto the lake.

The only task left for me was to take an appropriately novelty paddle boat out for the maximum 50 minutes on my last morning (finally seeing up close some of the local Kingfishers), and trekking up the mountain through the huge amount of prime land that belongs the Christian Ashram, and onto Bhimtal to take the bus back to the train station at Kathgodam.

Looking down from the road through the Ashram onto another Lake (not Sattal)

It’s true!- Delhi can be relaxing

Just because blogs are sometimes meant to be sources of *useful* information, and because I am in need of some myself, I have decided to compile a list of nice places to go and relax in Delhi. Not the sights, because they have been well-documented in hundreds of guidebooks and on the web, but more nice places to go to see something that perhaps isn’t there and (especially important for people living and working here) help you chill out a little.

Sitaram Bazar/ Chandi Mahal

Sometimes you want to see some part of Delhi that is authentic, yet not be hounded by rickshaw drivers, punched by street kids or secretly groped by passing strangers (I was with Anne and Carmen when we went there, I didn’t get groped myself ;-). It is still packed in sections, but doesn’t have that threatening air of the really crowded markets nearer to the tourist sights. It seemed as if not many people walk through here, and the “hellos” were genuine rather than seeing if you expressed any sort of interest to warrant a further probing of your current marital status.

You enter near the southern exit from Jama Mosque, and wind your way approximately south-east to exit somewhere near the Delhi Stock Exchange at Delhi Gate.

The Bazar is made up of shops that are more like those closer to Jama Mosque; “Old Currency Exchanges” (we were presuming from old Pakistani currency), Chapatti shops with queues of men waiting to be thrown a spare one, live goats and chickens awaiting instant slaughter, and the wonderful artistic creation that is power cabling in the inner city. Nothing too remarkable, but it felt nice to be able to see it at a pace that we could set, without worrying about what was happening behind us or around us.

Raj Ghat/ Shanti Sthal

We only made it to two of the shrines to Mahatma Ghandi and his grandson(?) Ravi, but this park stretches for a good few blocks more northward. What it is is a large, well-watered green area especially at Shanti Sthal, with lots of shady trees. There are a few people walking around but really a tenth of what you’ll find in the centre of Old Delhi even on a Sunday, which makes for a nice rest if it’s too hot or the crowds have got too much for you. We spent a couple of hours just sitting before we had to go, and it would most definitely be a spot I will go back to between seeing sights in the old part of the city.

Manju ka Tila

Another area that seems to defy the noise and heat of Delhi is this quarter, originally that of Tibetan people’s in exile, and still home to a small community today. It’s not easy to reach, but you should be able to get an autorickshaw from Vidhan Sabha Metro for about Rs20, and the bicycle rickshaws would be even cheaper. You’ll see the Tibetan prayer flags as you approach, both on the top of the buildings and across the pedestrian overpass.

Inside the height of the buildings mean that the noise of the nearby Ring Road and the heat seem to be shut-out, creating the illusion that you really are walking down the streets of a Tibetan city block. Naturally there are lots of traditional and not so traditional Tibetan handicrafts for sale, the shops functioning as tourist outlets as well as places for the inhabitants to buy their everyday needs.

I need to say it again, the relaxed nature of the atmosphere (not a single shop-owner even attempted to get us interested in buying something), makes it a great place to take a relaxing walk while the chaos of Delhi bubbles outside. Of course most people like Tibetan handicrafts as well, and some of the books with their hand-made covers looked pretty attractive. There are some restaurants serving Tibetan food (don’t ask me what that normally is, but the chicken Momos at Peace House tasted pretty good, and there is at least one Internet Café that serves good coffee, according to our ‘guide’ Jakob.

Relaxing Delhi- we found it and managed to spend pretty much the whole day doing it…

Delhi Vocabulary

Today has been a tough day- I’ve either eaten something dodgy or completely hit a wall energy-wise, and if it’s the latter that doesn’t bode well for 358 more days (approximately) of the same sort of stuff. I trekked into Old Delhi today despite feeling a little under the weather in the morning, and a ride on the Delhi Metro didn’t help my condition.

The centre of Delhi is one huge market- teeming with people going everywhere and doing everything, and this was on a Sunday, when most of it isn’t even open. It’s a real treat for the senses- if your senses like everything being completely shoved at them, up them, into them and onto them. Partly from this experience, I have decided to start a Delhi vocabulary, just to help you at home understand a few terms here.

The Delhi Symphony Orchestra can be appreciated from almost all over Delhi, but the vicinity of the Red Fort would have to be one of the best sites. The instruments are very similar, but they manage to cover most octaves to give an impressive performance. Once they start playing in time it’s hard to stop their building crescendo. (I hope to add a sample here later)

A Delhi shampoo is free, it doesn’t need water, or for you to be taking a shower for that matter. It’s a perfectly natural process that is experienced simply while walking the streets. After only a day your hair will feel stiff and knotted, like it has been fixed there by a kind of “dust gel”.

The Delhi Indian “head wobble” is a sign from your Indian counterpart that sends a clear signal or yes, maybe or no, depending on what they happen to mean at the time. Most of the time this movement seems to mean that they don’t actually understand what you’ve asked them.

The other list that I feel compelled to start today is one of Indian strangers who have decided that I am the kind of guy who might be interesting to talk to.

Excluding the conversations I have had with rickshaw drivers trying to convince me that I need one of them despite me constantly repeating that it wasn’t going to happen for them today, there were two notables. (They were so notable that I can’t remember their names- this is also being written to try and improve my hit-rate in that department).

Short beardy was in front of the Red Fort, and wanted to know what I thought of Ricky Ponting.

Firstly I was accosted by Muslim father’s kids, who wanted a photo and then were disappointed that my camera couldn’t then print it out for them. They were “collectors of foreign money”, but apparently not of 1c euro coins, unless I gave them two, which I didn’t want to. So then they gave it (i.e. the one I would give them) back to me. Their father engaged me in a conversation for about half an hour, which was nice while sitting in Delhi’s biggest mosque. It was a Sunday, which means that everyone basically comes with their families and spends the day there, the kids running around, the women mainly talking, the men also. It certainly wasn’t as segregated as I have heard that Mosques normally are, and the dress from the women was certainly not too conservative, hardly any full burkas, many more saris than anything else. The women tourists were all given these gigantic floral dresses which made them stand-out like nothing else, and they probably were also the ones (like me) who got charged the Rs 200 “camera tax”, which of course was done without checking whether anyone had a camera- if you look like a whitey you get it. I guess if you knew what was going on and didn’t have one then you might be able to argue and not pay it. I won’t be next time I go back, to climb the tower that overlooks the city.

Anyway, back to Muslim father, a really reasonable guy, like to talk a lot about Allah and how I wasn’t going to heaven for not praying for mankind’s sins five times a day, but otherwise was trying his best to preach brotherhood for all men and not just Muslims. One of those talks that are interesting to have but can’t really go anywhere unless one of us changes our religious beliefs in that 10 minute opportunity.

Delhi arrival

I have arrived in Delhi and am now sitting in a pretty comfortable little room which is part of a concrete complex at the USI (United Service Industries; which is some sort of association setup for Service Personell, I think mainly the army and, ahem, visiting diplomats like myself). There was a guy doing the mindless job of sweeping dirt from one side of the path to the other, and a guard in a blue uniform “patrols” the beat outside my window.

I have seen as little of Delhi as is possible, having been met by Anupam, my new boss at GreenOil at the airport are driven to this complex. Even in that short drive, we have been stopped by 5 officials, 3 in the airport carpark checking that we had a valid ticket to get out. Not much else to report, the smell of diesel(?) hits you as soon as you walk out of the airport, lots of people walking along the highway and indeed across it (apparently you need to honk your horn to stop them from walking in front of you and killing themselves), and the normal near-misses when merging traffic that somehow people who drive like this all the time manage to become accustomed to.

As an aside, I’ve already seen a little bit of the money talking here, but to be honest it solved a problem that I was grateful for and would have been happy to pay for. We got here early in the morning of course, which meant that I wasn’t able to check-in yet. But Anupam then negotiated an early check-in all the same, by asking about the “protocol” for such things. The protocol is you apparently pay for another half a day. Not too shabby though- it got me a shower and an hour lie-down time.

Delhi has turned on the weather for me as well- today should be a mild 29 degrees.

Just went down and had some breakfast at the compound (as I’m now referring to it) restaurant: complete with bagpipes on the wall and drawings of famous Indian commanders in their colonial general’s outfits. Really felt like being in something out of colonial times, especially with the five wait staff employed to serve the two customers there (the capacity is perhaps for 100 people?). Everyone speaks Hindi amongst themselves, and I was even asked by a guy in combat fatigues if I knew where ‘Part D’ of the complex was when I walked back from the restaurant to my room. I get the feeling asking for directions to offices is going to become a regular occurrence. Oh, by the way, the restaurant wasn’t called a restaurant- It is signposted with the words “Retreat”.

I have now eaten at the Retreat twice, broken up by a visit to the local currently-under-construction mall where I had a passable Thali meal. I felt a bit shameful actually eating it in front of Dhananjay (recently-hired sales guy for GreenOil) seeing as he and most Muslims are currently in fasting mode, with the start of the Hindu New Year today. So they only get one meal a day apart from some fruit in the mornings.

I just wanted to mention the Retreat for its actually pretty good Vege Jalfraezi(?) and Indian-ness, staffed as it was tonight by at least 8 waiters for the 8 tables that were occupied there. When they weren’t occupied they stood together with their hands behind their backs looking like well-behaved school kids, watched as they were by the school/master, who was allowed to wear a tie instead of a bow-tie.