Needless to say, I wanted to take advantage of a long weekend. Mother Nature and Mother India tried to dissuade me, but I persevered. Mother Nature, as you know, contributed some horrendous monsoon rains causing roads to be blocked with landslides and flooding. Mother India, who is a very dynamic force, threw the Ayodhya conflict at us on top of all the Commonwealth Games hoopla. The story behind Ayodhya is basically that Hindus and Muslims are fighting over the rights to a temple/holy site. It has been in dispute for hundreds of years and, of course, they (I'm not sure who "they" are) decide to announce the verdict a few days before the Commonwealth Games begin. Those of you who have seen Slumdog Millionaire might remember the scene of the two boys caught in a riot between Hindus and Muslims. That is related to Ayodhya, and similar riots were expected to take place. The verdict was announced the night before we left for Quarter Break, so we were heavily cautioned about any travel over the break. I'm glad we stuck with our plans - the verdict (a three-way division of the land) was received peacefully.
So, on Friday I left with Elsa, my French friend, and Shonila, a beautiful middle-aged Indian who has been teaching here for many years and is notoriously intimidating. We took a taxi straight to Chandigarh, which is a city about 6 hours from Mussoorie. Shonila is from there, so gave us tips before we dropped her off at her sister's place. Elsa and I painted the town red!
Chandigarh is an anomaly in India. It was founded after partition about 50 years ago and so was actually planned. Yes, a planned city. The streets are wide, clean, and organized in a grid. Unbelievable! Of course, the joke is that they had to hire a foreigner (a frenchmen) to do the job because there isn't much of a history of building planned cities in India. Anyways, it is known for its shopping mostly. It is also one of the most expensive cities. I don't want to talk about how much money I spent...
Friday night we wandered out to Sector 17, which is the main shopping area. There were all sorts of brand name stores. I resisted buying anything! The center plaza had a live band, apparently celebrating Gandhi's upcoming birthday. Elsa and I found a nice place to have a drink and a bite to eat.
Saturday we woke up early and headed off to Elsa's favorite pastry shop. We might have eaten cheesecake, chocolate croissants, and mochas for breakfast.... After that, we headed to Nek Chand's Rock Garden. I learned about this place in a college art history class and have always wanted to go, so was very excited! He is an Outsider artist who created this huge garden out of cement, rock, and found objects. It is quite the labyrinth.
I couldn't find the ticket booth. Then I realized that it was at the same level as my knees!
Group photo in front of the waterfall.
Stumpy teacup arms!
Swinging.
Three-headed blob :)
Bangle ladies (made out of broken bangles)
Next we spent the day traveling by cycle rickshaw from shopping, to food, to shopping, to food, to spa, to shopping, to food. Ha! There are a number of nice coffee shops and cafes that we enjoyed.
Dinner at an Asian fusion restaurant - yum!
Sunday we got up early, had a great breakfast, and went on our second bout of sight-seeing - Sukhna Lake. This is a man-made lake that's pretty large and very brown. The draw: peddle-boats! Elsa and I, after standing in line for way too long (apparently for the first time in 5 years the electricity went out and the ticket machine wouldn't work), we managed to score ourselves a green goose boat - success! We peddled around and chased the geese. It was really hot, so we cut our 30min rental short and headed off to find a mall to cool off in. After the mall, we again went out to eat and then headed back to meet our taxi for the drive home.
Happy peddle-boaters!
Our green goose and the evil dragon surrounding the geese.
The guards at Sukhna Lake with "May I Help You" vests. Here they are in the act of helping!
Rickshaw on a typical Chandigarh street.
Happy feet after a pedicure!
Our last meal - salad and salmon on a garden patio.
Monday and Tuesday I spent at home doing a lot of laundry and hanging out with friends. Now its back to school - Quarter 2!
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