Day 8

Tuesday. We left delhi at six in the morning, our luggage tied precariously to the motorcycle. Left in searing heat, passed thru lots of traffic, exhaust fumes, and poor people. After a few hours we stopped at Moradabad, a hindu city with no tourists whatsoever. We were hot and dirty, and I ate some street food, some kind of rice on nan thing with questionable stew type substance. Not bad. Boys took lewd pics of Michal, and then we were surrounded by 30 townsfolk who just stood and stared at us. Cool. We left.

Next stop after a few hours was rampur, a Muslim town with less friendly people. Still very very hot. Drank Chai and left. This is where the route turns north, towards Nainital.

One thing we learned quickly about the driving, is that if two buses are in the opposite lane, and one is passing another, and theyre both coming straight at you, u better hit the margins, because they dont care if theyre about to run you over and end your life. Just the wayit goes in India.

Our luggage carrier broke a little at this point. Road became bad, and whether turned tropical: hot and humid. All of a sudden there were palm trees. After a while the road started heading uphill, and the air became cooler. This was a good sign, as were were heading to Nainital, a hill station, where rich indians go this time of year to cool off. Stopped and ate some Mangos. Finally, after 12 hours, we made it to Nainital, an incredibly scenic Indian tourist trap, with a big lake. Exhausted, we ate dinner. A group of Indian students approached and we started talking with them, they told us to come hang with them, and that their guest house was really great. We climbed 10000 steps and made it to their place which was "out of rooms" so we had to go to the place next door. Ive never seen so many moths in my life. Hot bucket of water for a shower. We kicked it witht he indians for a while, and I asked them all kinds of questions about india. Very interesting.

Most illuminating was that indias middle class and rich regard those living in slums as "liking it there", as if they choose to live that way, adn that they make a decent living begging. Also, supposedly it is widely believed that the slum indians teach their kids to beg from teh age of zero, and that this is just their "way of life." I find it hard to believe that anyone living near dumpsites in paper boxes with pigs and goats digging thru trash prefers that way of life to a decent home in a regular neighborhood with a regular job. But thats just my own opinion.

next day we left nainital and rode to Almora, which is where i am now. We've been ehre for teh past three days. Its incredibly beautiful and scenic, and ill discuss this in my next post.