Someone pointed out to me the other day that it has been a while since I have updated this…I’m on vacation! Now that I am at a hotel with Internet (luxurious!), I can get all caught up.
I left Mussoorie on the 10th and took an early train to Delhi. It was quite an experience leaving Mussoorie at 2am. I was expecting a nice quiet ride down from the mountains to the train, and what I got was anything but peaceful. It was pouring rain, as always. We were driving through the main bazaar of Landour and suddenly there were cars blocking the way and people all over; an odd sight at 2am. A man ran past yelling something about a fire, so we ran from the car towards the brightness in the sky. As we rounded the corner we watched as flames enveloped the homes I walked past everyday. We stood there staring at the flames, as men stood watching, helpless. The roads are too narrow in Landour to get a fire truck through, and too steep to get a fire truck up the hills, something I never thought of. Men were trying to throw buckets of water, but that and the pouring rain seemed somehow to be fueling the fire. My driver instructed me back to the car, saying we would try the back roads made only for motorcycles. We bumped our way down the back roads until we were beneath the fire. Large pieces of burnt tin roof were blocking the road, and more were crashing down from above as we tried to pass through. My driver kept running through the rain to move them, and eventually we made it by. I watched out the back window in awe as the flames got bigger and bigger, eating more houses. I still have not heard what the damage was after all, or how long it took to put it out, but I know nothing good could come of what I saw. No one knew if there were any people inside.
I spent one night in Delhi before moving on to Bangalore in South India to visit my friend Jeremy. He is here for a few months working with a social entrepreneurship company called Ashoka. We traveled last weekend to Hampi for a long weekend. It is a World Heritage Site town known for its temple ruins. We stayed across the river from Hampi in Viru, where small straw huts serve as guesthouses along the green rice paddies and palm trees. It was a relaxing trip. We rented motorcycles the first day and toured around the area stopping at temples and enjoying the gorgeous scenery. We spent the last day on the other side, rented bikes again and went to all the famous tourist/ruin sites. It was blazing hot and I was enjoying the sun so much (it felt as though it had been three months since I had seen sunlight, oh wait…it was!) that I didn’t realize we were both getting absolutely terrible sunburns. It was India’s Independence Day, so people were all over the streets with painted faces waving flags. Driving through the main bazaar in the afternoon on a bike was a terrible idea, it took forever to get through the crowds of people, and I was grabbed at on more than one occasion. We took an overnight sleeper bus back to Bangalore and I will be spending a few days here exploring before heading on a weekend trip; I am not sure where yet.
Bangalore is a very Western city. I am in an area surrounded by Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Levi, and Apple stores. It’s interesting to compare this city to the other large ones I have been in. My Indian clothes are certainly not appropriate here! Bangalore is known to be the business capital of India, so there are many foreigners here living and working as well.
Our last sunset, we decided to hike down to the river and sit on the rocks before getting on the overnight bus
I have more photos from Hampi on facebook, check out this link: Hampi Photos
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