Richard's Travel Blog

So far, for the most part, we’ve had a nice road trip. Most of the day before yesterday was spent fighting our way out of Delhi and the large cities north of it. The only long stop we made was at a lovely town in eastern Punjab, Chandigarh. Most of India, so far as I’ve observed, is quite poor, run down and dirty. Chandigarh has many large, well kept parks, and other signs of relative wealth, like not so much garbage, less abject poverty, mowed green traffic mediums, etc.. Anyway, we got out and walked in one of the parks for about an hour. It’s still lowland there, and hot, so I was for getting out of there. So we started making our way up into Hamachal Padesh. that was a slow go because it’s uphill and only two lanes. It got dark, which is really not a good time to drive, so we stopped at a roadside hotel. My room had a nice view out the window and a balcony view. In the morning we took a secondary road, which was way secondary, to Shimla. The good thing about that road was no trucks and few cars.

Anyway, we got here. You saw a couple of pictures on the last post. I’ve been walking around “The Mall” and doing this internet thing. Today my driver took me on a nice drive with nice views along the side of the mountain to a town called Naldehra. It’s basically at the top of that stretch of road. There’s a resort up there. We had already stopped to look at a couple of summer homes of rich royalty in the old days, and I was used to paying a little entrance fee to go in. This place wanted the equivalent of $8. I’m thinking this has got to be some kind of place! With communication between my driver and me spotty at best sometimes, I figured I’d see what it was about without trudging through our communication process. It turned out I had bought a horse ride. It was SO embarrassing. A guy walked the horse through hill and dale, with steep places and mud, while I rode. Oh well. I just let go of my ego as best as possible and enjoyed some really very pretty views. Up there is a gold course of all things. Hoo-boy, that’s a tough course. It’s all up and down, the fairways aren’t straight, and in places it’s about 20 yards wide.

After that we just got some lunch and he dropped me off at “The Mall”, where the internet places are, and I got help at a place recommended to me, and actually got that post with pictures done. But it wasn’t easy. The guy wanted to do it his way, which wasn’t working, and I had to let him try until he finally let me do it my way, the only way I know. Now I’m just wrapping it up for a couple of days while we go east to the Kinnaur and Sangla Valleys.

Talk to you in a couple of days.

Day by day, things are coming together. For months I’ve beeen struggling with learning how to take pictures with a digital camera, then with learning how to use the website my friend Renato set up for me. One of my last worries was would I be able to get words and pictures published on the road. Looks like this picture part has fallen into place.

The first picture is of Shimla in the state of Hamachal Pradesh, north of Delhi. Obviously, everything is up and down here. It’s in the foothills of the Himalayas at about 7000 feet elevation. Before World War II,the whole Indian government used to move here during the hot summer months in the capital then of Calcutta. I can see why. It’s so nice and cool here. I’m so glad I decided to escape the heaqt myself. I think I’m going to just bag the Ganges Plain until at least Diwali, which is the biggest Hindu holiday. Delhi may be a good place to be for that.

The second picture is of part of “The Mall”, a long pedestrian only shopping street in Shimla. Many tourists come here because it’s so pretty, cool, and on the way to other nice places.

Delhi wasn’t too bad, as seething megalopoli go, but I am so glad to be out of there. The things I think I’ll do there can wait.

The reason I never make plans is I always change them about two days into them. Here’s what happened this time. I got up and got to the train station at 7, tickets on the 7:40 to Shimla in hand. I was looking around a little bewildered, when a guy from the government tourist office asked me if I needed any help. I asked where the platform was for the train I wanted. He looked at my tickets and said the first train would never get to Kalka in time to make the transfer to the one to Shimla. We talked awhile about my travel plans, and he suggested I do it another way. So, not particularly liking to do everything the hard way and suppressing the urge to do it the Lonely Planet way, I went back to the office with him. One thing I’m learning is that the Indian national tourist office really is out to help you. And they have discounts on everything, if you do stuff through them.

In short, they described to me the effort I’d have to make to do what I want to do up north, the pitfalls, and the expenses. They convinced my to allow them to provide me with a driver who knows the areas, and a car for a month for $1330. Now, that’s a shocking amount, so I thought about it, thought about my clunky pack at 15,000 ft, about how many times I’ve handled all this myself and what I got out of it, and about the times I’ve allowed myself to be babysat and what I got out of those times. I had just gotten my first bum steer. So I decided to do it. I am now, again, a sahib with an ever differential manservant. I pay for my room. He sleeps wherever and keeps his expense money if he wants. So far, I’ve bought his food a couple of times, but a great meal only costs no more than $2 here. The rooms he gets because he’s a government guy are good. They are better than I would get on my own, with sit down toilets, hot private showers, etc., but they are only $8-$12, so I can deal.

It’s already been worth it to go with a driver. He doesn’t speak much English, but he’s been taking people up here and over to Rajastan for 10 years, and he knows where stuff is. He takes the best routes, stops whenever I want, suggests things to see and do, places to eat, etc.. I know so much more than I would have at this point, had I done it myself. And it will especially pay off once we’re in the Himalayan boonies.

We got to Shimla today. I’m going to save talking about where we went between Delhi and here until tomorrow, or when ever I can get to a computer again. I’ll spice this up with photos once I get to an internet place where someone speaks English and I can ask to hook up my camera. So far, the places are manned by kids who don’t seem to know anything. And the computers are crappy. I may be able to write tomorrow, as we’re going to drive around and come back here to sleep. Then for at least a couple of days, I may not be in places with internet.

Until then, as always, best wishes to you all. — Richard

Greetings. I got here last night after an uneventful 20 hours of flight time, and am starting to get my sea legs. It’s interesting how at first your safe zone is the area right around your hotel room. Then you walk up and down the street. Then you walk around the corner. Then, oh dear, you try an alley and get a little lost. That was my “adventure” last night. Last night I was a little leary of the food I was looking at, so this morning I ate the buffet spread at the hotel, which was pretty western-like. Milk curd could pass as cottage cheese, naan is like a fat tortilla, mashed potato and something fritters was familiar looking, as was the mango juice and tea bag tea. I also got myself oriented by taking a half day tour of Old Delhi, a big mosque and a big Hindu temple, a couple of museums, Mahatma Gandhi’s cremation site/park, and had a look-see at the monumental governmant buildings. After a nap I took a two-stroke “autotaxi” to the Connaught Place area of town, which is a fairly nice shopping and nightlife area. I just walked around. The next little step up in adventuring was to buy a spicy ground lamb kabob.

I went into that place because it looked clean and lots of people were getting take-out there, and because I liked the looks of the kabob one guy was eating. Turned out he is a tour operator and spoke english well. Lots of people talk to you on the street here. Usually they want something. But this guy was genuine, and he gave me some good advice about going to Ladakh, a southwestern portion of the Tibetan plateau in India. Little by little I’m getting my sea legs.

The day after tomorrow I’m going to Shimla, north of here, and the first step on the road to Ladakh. For $2 I let the guy at the hotel arrange the train rides. I have to transfer to a narrow guage railway in Kalka, but I’ll get there in one day. From there I’ll go to Manali. From there, it’s 2-3 days thrugh the mountains to Leh, the principle city in Ladakh. I’ll play it by ear from there. By mid-October it should cool down down here.

Best wishes to you all. Feel free to write or comment.

I’m planning to leave for India on Sept 7. This blog will bring to you the tales of my travels. Since this is only August 8, I have nothing much to say. I’m busy getting rid of my stuff and making other preparations.  I will answer all emails and comments, though once I’m on the road, it may take a while. I look forward to hearing from you.