It's Solo Time
After getting out of the freezing hills down to Kasol, we decided to make tracks down to Chandigarh to visit my mum's friend of 35 years; the one and only Rani Khumar. Rani is an unstoppable little whirlwind of life and from the moment we touched down she has excessively fussed over us like a surrogate mother making sure we are constantly well-fed and refreshed and there are no two ways about it.
After living simply in the mountains hand washing clothes and so forth it the special treatment is definately welcome. However I feel bad for Rani's house helpers who have had to put in overtime in the kitchen to make us a variety of tasty treats. In these 5 days I've sampled countless new Indian tasty treats that have all been superb; thank you Gita.
So the last 5 days have been filled with eating, drinking (Rani is fond of the pre-dinner drink) and a little sight seeing around town. Chandigarh it turns out is the only planned city in India so it reminds me alot of Canberra with it's straight wide roads lined with old trees, a very pleasant place indeed. The rickshaw drivers must love it because all the trees make it about 5 degrees cooler on the roads than it would be without them.
On our little trips we ran into a bunch of keen school kids who followed us around all day and we went to this amazing Rock Garden built by a guy called Nek Chand. He was this government worker who one day was inspired by the discarded waste he saw and began making sculptures and eventually this whole wonderland of junk for which heis world famous now. I was suprised by how impressive the place was.
Today Em & I parted ways because she wants to go to another Indian valley and she has already been to Nepal which is relatively close by. I've wanted to go there ever since I saw Mr. Guy Fisher's amazing photos and Em assures me it's a great place. I have about a week to spend there, so not enough time for a big mountain trek but I will certainly be visiting the Chitwan National Park so I can finally realise one of my life's ambitions to ride an elephant. So it'sfinally time for me to break out on my own a little and spread those wings of mine. Fly baby.
Tomorrow I'm off, so big thanks to Rani for the hospitality and the laughs. You're a legend.
After living simply in the mountains hand washing clothes and so forth it the special treatment is definately welcome. However I feel bad for Rani's house helpers who have had to put in overtime in the kitchen to make us a variety of tasty treats. In these 5 days I've sampled countless new Indian tasty treats that have all been superb; thank you Gita.
So the last 5 days have been filled with eating, drinking (Rani is fond of the pre-dinner drink) and a little sight seeing around town. Chandigarh it turns out is the only planned city in India so it reminds me alot of Canberra with it's straight wide roads lined with old trees, a very pleasant place indeed. The rickshaw drivers must love it because all the trees make it about 5 degrees cooler on the roads than it would be without them.
On our little trips we ran into a bunch of keen school kids who followed us around all day and we went to this amazing Rock Garden built by a guy called Nek Chand. He was this government worker who one day was inspired by the discarded waste he saw and began making sculptures and eventually this whole wonderland of junk for which heis world famous now. I was suprised by how impressive the place was.
Today Em & I parted ways because she wants to go to another Indian valley and she has already been to Nepal which is relatively close by. I've wanted to go there ever since I saw Mr. Guy Fisher's amazing photos and Em assures me it's a great place. I have about a week to spend there, so not enough time for a big mountain trek but I will certainly be visiting the Chitwan National Park so I can finally realise one of my life's ambitions to ride an elephant. So it'sfinally time for me to break out on my own a little and spread those wings of mine. Fly baby.
Tomorrow I'm off, so big thanks to Rani for the hospitality and the laughs. You're a legend.
posted by Dave Tran at 5:31 AM
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