Carltons Plaisance Mussoorie

... friendly. It was more than I wanted to spend, but the views and location were amazing, and it included really good Indian breakfast and dinner, and they packed me a lunch to take on my treks during the day.
Mussorie and only one other place in the world can you see the 'Winter Lines' at sunset. After taking pictures I was checking the memory on my card and found all of my pictures from Egypt, Delhi, and Agra were all erased. I don't think I've ever been so ...

... br>Rishikesh. My first night in a lodge in Uttaranchal !! Next day I did a
routine temple hopping.Lakshman jhoola and Ram jhoola, Trayambakeshwar
Temple Chotiwala restaurant are few things one shouldn't miss in
Rishikesh. I missed out on riverwater rafting because water level in
the ganges was low. Another reason to go back!!


By
evening i left for Haridwar to catch the Ganga Arti at Hari ki Pauri in
Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand, India onaiza

... Summer thought it was funny because out of all the guys on the trip, Andrew is the one least interested in trying to assimilate fully. All of the other guys would have loved the hand holding as a gesture of being accepted and culturally aware; but they only treat Andrew this way and it is so funny. He now likes to walk around with his arms crossed, and stay in the room as much as possible. I'm sure after a couple of days his fear will wear off, but not the hilarity of the situation will continue.

... main lobby. And there are 8 of us (including me) living in an apartment type place, little hike down from the main lobby. There are only 6 places to sleep but our place is so nice that we have two guys sleeping on the floor/couch so they can stay here. We have the most beautiful view I have ever seen from our patio. You can see the entire side of the mountain and Mussoorie and the valley below and everything is green and lush and monkeys are always swinging past ...

... scraping of gurneys on the old tile, the rattling of scalpel trays, soft scuffling of booties...I jump outta bed and toss on scrubs and open the door....to blackness, no lights on, not a ****ing living thing, and the door to the OR is locked...interesting ,back to bed.... The scraping continues...then stops, awesome snooze time....oh wait, it is time for the demented elderly patients to start wailing hysterically, then a pressure starts to creep up the back of my ...

... shake your hand and hug you (and then play football for hours!) of course there are still some major issues at the school, the main one being what to do with the kids who need constant care after they have reached adulthood. many of my old students are now in their early twenties but still attending the school as there is no where else really for them to go, except home with their families or an over-crowded 'institute'. the tibetan government are in ...

... men made their way through different sections of the crowd seated on the banks of the Ganges. I soon discovered that these men were the offering collectors (as described in Lonely Planet India). The collector in my section of the crowd gave what seemed like a motivational speech, asking people to give monetary donations as part of the puja. He led a few chants and the crowd around me erupted in chanting after him, lifting their arms in the air. The money ...

... both serve the orphanage and the surrounding villages. There is even a langur monkey who guards the place. There used to be barrels of smaller monkeys invading the whole place and that would steal food from the kid's plates! The langur keeps those rascals at bay. He hates Deb. He chased her down and lunged on her back when she was walking across the courtyard. The next day, he took a Big dump in front of our room door. Mitch tried to scare him out of our building ...

... Good thing we are no longer in a holy town as our first stop was a bar for the first beer in weeks. Mmmmm mmmmm. As I was saying before, it is COLD. My room is a very frigid seven degrees Celsius, seven degrees INSIDE. I guess it goes without saying that insulation has still not been introduced into Indian construction practices. Thanks to my Mom for depositing an extra $5 into my account for my birthday (turned 25 on the 23rd) I have rented a heater for my room ...

... Delhi. If all had gone to plan, we would now be experiencing the undeveloped delights of snowboarding down the Indian Himalayas (or nurturing bruised bottoms at least). However, the Alps are not the only mountain range to feel the effects of global warming this winter - there is no snow in Auli, despite the ski season being well under way and having an altitude of over 2000m. So, ski trip cancelled, we left for the Pakistan border instead...where John will fill you in next...