Laying low in Almora

It was a relief to get out of way-too-hot Delhi and head for the hills. The day before yesterday we rode the night train from Old Delhi Railway Station for Kathgodam, a journey of about seven hours. It was a pretty good introduction to the Indian trains for Jess - no journey in India is complete without one. We went in high style, with a 2-up a/c sleeper berth that we shared with two travelers from Poland, of all places. The trains in India are a whole world unto themselves - the stations are invariably packed with people, many of whom actually live in the station. The dark cavernous spaces of the station building just seem like chaos, but with repeated inquires we found our way to the right platform, and soon the great, hissing, screeching train pulled in, we found our carriage and berth, and settled in for the journey. Both of us fell asleep to the gentle swaying and bouncing of the train, and some good tunes on our ipods.

Arrived early morning in Kathgodam, and getting off the train we were in another world - cool breezes and forested hills. After a couple of cups of roadside chai, hired a jeep for Almora, a 'hill station' that dates from the British Raj, when the colonists built places in the hills to escape from heat of the plains in summer. Our driver and his assistant were the exceptions to the great people we've met so far; aside from the driving - questionable even by Indian standards - they wanted to pick up more people along the way and charge them, and play music at ear-splitting volume despite being repeatedly told to turn it down or off. I'd be willing to put up with this if I was on a bus, but we had hired the whole vehicle, and I felt fairly justified in calling the tune. Anyway, we arrived intact and were happy to see the end of them.

Almora's a beautiful place, and we wandered for a while with our fully loaded backpacks. The hills are high - they'd be called mountains anywhere else if they weren't next to the Himalayas, and terraced for growing crops. The Himalayas are supposed to be visible from town, although so far we haven't been able to see them for clouds and haze. We sat for a while along a little lane, laughing with all of the cute schoolkids coming home from school. Most seemed to be about six to ten years old, and they were delightfully curious and cheerful. We took pictures, showed them, laughed, took more pictures. When an older gentleman came along, we asked for directions to a hotel, and he walked us to the market street part of the town and showed us to a clean, comfortable little hotel called the Him Tower. Mr. B.K. Loney (sp?) was a retired school principal that had gone to pick up his eight-year-old son from school. He was an excellent guide, but unfortunately by the time we reached the hotel, I was not feeling at all well - stomach cramps and extreme fatigue that was the beginning of a bout of a diarrhea, and worse, Jess was soon down with the same thing a few hours later. We both felt barely well enough to go out to a little restaurant for an excellent thali with Mr. Loney in the evening, but this morning were both completely down and spent most of the day sleeping and reading. By early evening I was feeling quite a bit better, but Jess was still down, so I've found my way to a tiny internet cafe to do this post.

This cafe is on Almora's amazing market street; notable for the fact that all vehicles are barred from entering it, making it a very pleasant walk. The road itself seems to be surfaced in polished slate or some other stone, and it is packed with shops and food stalls of every description for its entire length, which must be about a mile. None of the hassles that you find in Delhi markets where everybody is trying to sell you something, and a really impressive range of fruits and vegetables. There's more of interest going on in a hundred yards of this lane than your average Canadian town. This internet cafe has half a dozen terminals packed into a cramped, fluorescent-lit little room, and all of them are in use by what appear to be high-school age boys, either messaging their friends or checking out schools, from what I can tell eavesdropping over their shoulders. If it weren't for the distinct smell of kerosene in here, it would be a great little place.

We originally were thinking of heading up to one of a number of places above Almora for a better view of the Himalaya, but we're now thinking that stomachs, buses, and banks willing, tomorrow we'll either jump a bus or a jeep for Munsiari, a ride of about six or seven hours. From there we hope to hire a guide and a couple of porters for the walk up to Milam. Time now to head back to the hotel and see if Jess is up for a bit of food...