Thar desert and Mussoorie hill station

After leaving Tim and Odette in Jodhpur, we took the night train to the end of the line, Jaiselmer, only 150 km east of the Pakistan border.   As we drove from the train station to our hotel in the early morning dawn, it was apparent that we were deep in the desert, with the only relief in the horizon the prominent "sand castle" fort on the only hill within 100 miles.  The town was beautiful, with the fort constantly looming overhead,  relatively quiet streets and friendly people, but it was definitely hot.  Ironically, it was the farthest we had travelled from Delhi, both in distance and seemingly in history as the fort was the oldest and the town was the least developed, but the constant roar of air force jets overhead patrolling the border was a reminder of the military power of the country we were still in.

 

We decided to go on an overnight camel trek, further into the desert.  We drove another 50km towards Pakistan and climbed onto the waiting camels.  The camel part of the camel trek was pretty cool, but the trek part left a little to be desired.  We paralleled the paved road we had come in on for about 45 minutes, then made a 90 degree turn to the west and walked for 10 minutes and we were there.  While not very far from the road, we were still a long way from civilization, as we sat on rolling sand dunes and watched the sun disappear into the desert.  A beautiful full moon rose on the opposite horizon as we wished Bob a happy 29th birthday.   Waking in the middle of the night to what seemed like broad daylight, to the gentle sound of tinkling bells on the hobbled camels along with the shuffling dung beetles patrolling the perimeter of our sheet bed for any loose poo was a surreal experience.  We woke early the next morning and made it back to Jaiselmer before the heat of the day kicked in.  We were on an 18 hour train back to  Delhi later that afternoon.

   

After relaxing in the T&O palace for a couple days, complete with a round of golf at the Delhi golf club (mughal tombs and peacocks be warned, I have a mean slice) we bid goodbye to Bob as he headed solo to Nepal.  Lauren and I took another night train to Dehra Dun, where we hopped in a taxi for the 36km very very windy climb up to the hill station of Mussoorie.  Many of the hotels were old British Raj palace built in the middle of the 19th century, and it looked as if nothing had been done to them since.  We decided to stay in the nicest hotel in town as it was our first anniversary, which was luckily only 6 months old, as apparently the moisture, freezing temperature and Indian construction techniques make short work of most buildings.  It was a beautiful place with a private balcony looking north to the snow capped Himalayas, 100 km away.  When checking out the next morning, the manager offered to cut the price by about 40 percent if we stayed for the rest of our three days.  We quickly agreed and set about exploring the forested hill sides.   The climate was perfect, similar to Seattle, rainy one minute, sunny the next, temperature in the 70's.  We spent a lovely 5 days their all together walking along the ridge that town was perched on in either direction.  We also walked 13 km down the backside of the hill one day to the popular tourist spot, Kempty falls.  Unfortunately, the beautiful, 500 ft cascades had been transformed into something of a slum as stick and tarp "shops" selling tourist junk surrounded the bottom and most spectacular pool.  The trash and blaring hindi music didn't help the effect either.  Nevertheless, the perfect weather, and daily exercise was perfect after the heat and languidity of the desert.  

   

We are now back in Delhi, shopping for carpets.  We take the night train to Gorakphur, and then a three hour bus ride to the north tomorrow morning will take us to the Nepal border, where we will figure out transportation to Pokhara, home of Adam and Jen, and their two young  children Zach and Hannah.  Jen is the daughter of Lauren's godparents and they run a paragliding company in Pokhara.  Nepal or bust.........