India, Shimla

March 3

I leave my hotel in Delhi for the airport at 5:30 am, and after waiting in a long line with the travel agency representative, I find out that the 1 hr 20 min flight to Shimla is canceled. The travel agent arranges for the driver who brought me to the airport to drive me the 8 hr trip to Shimla. He was supposed to drive his 15 yr old daughter to her important exams today but explains that the 'tourist is king' and he works very hard 6 mo a year and has very little work the other 6 mo when tourists dont visit due to the hot weather.

We cross 4 states, and in Chandigarh, where there is a lot of new road work, a policeman stops us and tells my driver he has to pay a 2500 rupe fine for not paying some tax for carrYing a tourist through his state, and will take us to the police station(for several hours), or if my driver will give him 800 rupes ($20) he will let us go. The drivers only make about 3000 ($75) rupies per month and live on tips (usually between $10 to $25 per day). I am spending between $30 and $40 in tips per day for the driver, guide, and hotel staff.

I see many students of all ages in different school uniforms, taking many forms of transportation to school; taken by adults on motorcycles, tuk tuks, bycycles, and mostly walking on the congested streets. I notice 40 - 50 delivery trucks parked on both sides of the road. I am told that all commercial delivery trucks can only drive through the big cities from 8:00pm to 8am. and wait outside the city until then. As we pass through the capital city, Chandigarh, I see many signs advertising 'property consultants'. I also notice many building supply companies, and builders. I later find out that many of the step farmers with property near Shimla are selling their land to developers, since no more building is allowed in Shimla. The last 2 hrs of my drive is climbing mountains.

My driver drops me at the Oberoi Cecil Hotel about 3:00pm and will drive the 8 hr drive back to Delhi, sleep 4 hrs and then drive 4 hrs to Agra to meet a previously scheduled client. He explains that he works very hard 6 mo a year and has very little work the other 6 mo when tourists dont visit due to the hot weather.

At least 10 staff greet me as I enter this famous spa hotel built in 1880's, and renovated from 1984 to 1997 by Italian owners. Shimla, in northern India near the HYmalaYan mountains, was developed in the 1920's by the British as a vacation spot (picture 4). This hotel has the first heated indoor pool I have had the pleasure of swimming in India. It is a 30 min walk into the center of town (picture 3), and has pedestrian traffic only. It fells like the Aspen of India; located in the mts., everyone is walking, dressed very nice, very clean, restaurants, stores, internet cafes, coffee shops, and great views. It is the first place I have visited in India where I feel safe walking by myself in the pedestrian only area. Many people look at me as I walk because I am an unescorted caucasion woman.

I meet with the travel agent and my guide to plan the hikes for the next few days. Since this was a last minute change in my itinerary due to unrest in Darjeeling, I don't have hiking shoes, so I can't do one of the hikes because there is snow.

March 4

I meet my trekking guide at 9:00am and we take several hikes within a 30 min. drive from Shimla. As we are hiking I ask him about his family and customs. He was born and raised in Shimla, but his parents were both from a Buddist village on the border with Tibet. In his village, brothers marry the same woman! This is because the family owns a small plot of land and a small house, making it difficult to divide the property into pieces for each brother to have his own.
When I ask about the sleeping arrangements, he explains that the brothers work it out. One brother goes to work in the city for 2 months, while another brother takes the heards to pasture for 2-3 months at a time, and another may go work in the city for 2-3 months. This way if the woman gets pregnant, she knows who child it is. Since my guide and his syblings were brought up and still live in Shimla, and went to English schools, they each have their own wives and separate homes. However, sons who leave the village and do not follow the customs are not able to inherit their family land.

My guide is Catholic, Buddist, and Hindu. He explained that when his father came to Shimla he was very poor. His fathers Aunt had married a Chinese Catholic man. She told him that if he became Catholic and sent his chiildren to a Catholic school, his children would be given a free education, food, and uniforms by the church.
March 5

I gave my guide money to buy pens, pencils and paper to give to the students in the villages we hike through (picture 2 and 5). We walk through Shimla as we begin our 4 hr hike, passing many monkeys. Tues and Thurs are monkey feeding days. The goal of the Indian government is to build a road to connect all of the villages to cities by 2020. Many of the 2 foot wide paths we were going to take are being made into roads. My guide explains that this includes several famous mt passes on which he takes tourists trecking. This will mean that trecks that take 7 days, will be reached by jeep in one day, which he sees as ending his business.

On our steep, rocky hike, we pass goats, cows, butterflies, cactus, flowering trees, small farms with their terrace farming, several village schools, and men carrying a load of bricks on their back (picture1).

I return to the hotel after 5 hours of hiking, eat food I kept from breakfast, and spend 6 hrs on the internet catching up on uploading pictures to my blog. I swim for 45 min to loosen up my body and go to sleep.

March 6

I drive 3 hrs to an airport where I can catch a 35 min flt. to Dehli. Today is a Holiday celebrating the God Shiva. The streets are busy with families walking and the woman dresed up in colorful Saris. It is legal to smoke Hash today because God Shiva smoked a lot of hash.