Jaiselmer

I'm now in the picturesque desert city of Jaiselmer, practically a stone's throw from Pakistan (although I guess you'd have to have a good arm, as the border is 50 miles or so away). I forget exactly when I wrote last. But just to recap...I was in the medium-sized city of Bikaner for about 6 days, in the same Indian state of Rajasthan. While there I went to a camel festival for an afternoon outside of the city a little ways, where I saw a camel race, horse race as well as just walked around looking at all the camels and people. Apparently the most interesting festivities were happening that evening, including fire dancing, but I didn't have enough warm clothes for the evening so headed back to town. Also in Bikaner I went to a "rat temple". In Hindu mythology, the elephant god Ganesha rides on a rat (which in itself is a strange, gravity-defying concept). And it seems that any animal that's in the god realm gets special treatment, so rats get a little more respect than you'd expect. The temple is famous for hundreds of live rats that scurry around the temple grounds. As it turned out it didn't quite live up to the hype, especially since you had to take a bus about 20 miles to get there (although I'm not sure what else I expected). Basically though, it just seemed like a normal Hindu temple with a serious rat problem. But still it was moderately interesting and something to do for an afternoon getting there and back, on a crowded bus ride through the desert. I also toured the palace and fort complex there in Bikaner, which was quite spectacular and a good illustration of how decadent some people live, even hundreds of years ago. Other than that I just walked around the city a bit, including the fascinating maze of lanes within the "old city" inside the fortified walls (different from the fort itself, although the city has now spilled out to encompass both of them) and just took it easy a few days, while still trying to shake off being sick. I'm basically over it, but the cough has definitely been sticking around (fortunately they have cough drops here). But I'm sure being in the desert, especially since it's a lot warmer than the mountains, will be all-around good for my health.

From Bikaner I took a 3 hour bus ride to the small town of Phalodi, near where thousands of cranes gather. That was a truly amazing experience, especially since it took place in a tiny and very atmospheric little village. I stayed at a guest house right near where they feed the cranes, and they end up flying all around in circles overhead as they come in to feed. That morning I happened to wake up early, before sunrise, which although not quite what I'd intended gave me the opportunity to watch the sun rise (except for some clouds in the way) at a small lake nearby where many of the cranes, as well as various other birds gather throughout the day. After that I went back to the guest house to see the feeding. Those are all definitely going to be some great photos.

After watching the cranes that morning, I caught another bus to Jaiselmer, arriving here yesterday afternoon. I was immediately accosted by a handfull of "touts" (anyone trying to sell you something) with offers of cheap hotel rooms, as well as camel safaris. I'd been warned that the commercialism here was particularly bad because it's such a popular tourist spot, and so I was planning to ignore the crowd there at the bus station and then find a room and check out camel safaris on my own. But one of the guys seemed pretty nice, plus the rooms are absurdly cheap here because of so much competition (a dollar a night), so I decided to check out his hotel. I liked the room, not to mention the rooftop restaurant with an amazing view of Jaiselmer's sandstone fort, and also the camel safari they were organizing sounded like what I was looking for. So I'm now set up to head out tomorrow morning for a two-night, three-day camel trek in the desert. And the room is so dang cheap that I'm just going to keep the room so that I can leave the stuff I won't need there, plus avoid having to pack up and then get another room when I get back. Jaiselmer is really amazing despite so many other tourists, it basically exceeds expectations, even though they were pretty high. And it sounds like there are also a number of interesting villages nearby worth exploring, so I'll plan to stick around here for a good little while, at least a week or so after I get back from the camel experience.

Speaking of which, I've heard mixed reports as to how much people actually enjoy sitting on a camel for hours at a time. A lot of people say that's it totally uncomfortable, and half a day was more than enough time to get the idea. Other people have said it was great, but pretty much everyone's said that being way out in the desert at night was worth it no matter what. So we'll see how it goes, sounds like it will be interesting either way. Apparently there are at least two other people going on this particular trip, so hopefully they're good company. And also I think that the guy who met me at the bus will be coming along, and he speaks good English. Plus I hear the camel drivers can be pretty entertaining, so it'll be an experience I'm sure, even if I come back with a sore butt and a sunburn...

Bikaner, Rajasthan

I'm smack in the desert now, in Bikaner, Rajasthan, after surviving the 17 hour train ride getting here. It was cold and boring, but having a bunk I managed to sleep through a pretty good chunk of it, then the last few hours in the morning was pretty interesting scenery through the desert. Today I went to a camel festival that was held in the sand dunes a little ways outside of Bikaner. It was actually fairly mellow by Indian standards, only a few thousand people there. That's because the fair is only about 15 years old, whereas the big camel fair is the one in Pushkar, also in Rajasthan, where I went the first time I was in India and had the photo taken of me sitting on the grinning camel (which my brother Christo then photo-shopped Santa hats on me and the camel for an X-mas card). Anyway camels are pretty darn cool, they look like some kind of weird creature out of Star Wars, and they're really big around here, seem almost as tall as elephants. Watching them race was pretty funny as they aren't the most graceful of creatures, although they definitely have a certain appeal. There were also horse races there but the camels were much more interesting.

So, Bikaner is a nice little city, it's about 600,000 people apparently, but doesn't feel like it at all. By Indian standards it's quite relaxed and easygoing and the pollution isn't nearly as bad as most other cities. But it has tons of character, the people are extremely friendly and it certainly feels a long ways from the mountains, by comparison I feel as if I'm in the Middle East, except for the lack of many Muslims. I was actually expecting to see more Muslims in this area, being so close to Pakistan. But it seems that isn't the major factor, there are towns and cities in south India, a long ways from here, that still have major Muslim populations. I'm assuming that's simply a matter of those who decided to stay whereever they were during the time of India's partition in 1947, when Pakistan and Bangladesh were created.

But the other nice thing about being here is that it's warmer and I think the desert air is a good thing for my cold, which I'm mostly over, other than a lingering cough. I'll probably stay here a few more days to see the sights, then I'll be headed to Jaiselmer. It's supposed to be really touristy, but for good reason, it's apparently a very romantic and beautiful small town way out in the desert, with an awesome fort and mystically scenic desert surroundings. It sounds like another good place to stay for a while, so I'll likely hang out there for a week or two, and enjoy the tourist amenities, after being out in the boondocks there for a while. Omelettes for breakfast, yum! A man can only live on peanut butter and bananas for so long...

the flu and the fog

I'm still in the hill station of Mussoorie, but booked a train ticket for Monday evening that goes to Bikaner, in Rajasthan State. That's a 16 hour train ride, but it's an overnight sleeper train, so I'll have a bunk to sleep on. And although it'll be a narrow and hard bunk that's still much better than sitting upright on a bus, and not getting any sleep at all...So, not too much has happened here in Mussoorie due to the fact that the day after I got here, I came down with a pretty bad cold. Nothing wrong with the stomach (which is what you would think would happen to me one of these days in India, but not yet miraculously), just the usual running nose, sore throat, stuffy head, etc. But it was the best place to get sick, since I have a hot shower and, even more importantly a TV. So I've definitely caught up with the news (can't wait for my $800 check from the government, even if it is Prez. Bush handing it out, that will be nice timing if it's waiting for me when I get back) and watched plenty of movies and music videos. But as it turns out I didn't miss much while being in bed the last couple of days, as Mussoorie got hit by this crazy fog that hasn't lifted the entire time I've been here. I'd mentioned that I was looking forward to seeing the views of the Himalaya from here, but at times the fog is so thick that I literally can't see the trees that are about 20 feet away from my window. So, this evening I was feeling a lot better and went out and walked around a little before it got dark, and got some great photos of the town engulfed in the fog. But I'm hoping that by either tomorrow or else Monday morning before I take off there will be some clear skies so that I can hike up Gun Hill (right in the middle of town and an easy hike, but has the best views around apparently) since this will be my last chance to see the mountains for a while. Otherwise, at least I got those photos from the bus. So the next time I write will probably be from Bikaner, in the desert of Rajasthan (where I'm hoping to heck it'll be warmer, the forecast here is a low of around freezing tonight....I know that doesn't sound so terribly cold, but you just have to imagine seeing your breath everywhere you go, even in the restaurants and your room, and then 40 degrees or so gets pretty darn chilly)....

Gangnani to Mussoorie

I survived the Himalaya. Not that I exactly climbed Mt. Everest or anything, I was only at about 5,000 feet. But Gangnani was really amazing, although I was a bit trepidatious going there. When I left Uttarkashi it was raining, a very cold rain, and then I ran into some minor complications actually getting to where I was going. There was no bus because it's low season, but only share taxis (jeeps that they fill up with as many people as possible). Then the taxi drivers tried to convince me there weren't even share taxis going there, but I'd have to pay 500 rupees for a private taxi all the way to Gangnani (about 30 miles away). Once it became clear I wasn't going to pay that, I figured out that although technically it was true that the share taxis didn't go all the way there, what I needed to do was take a share taxi about halfway, for 25 rupees, to the next substantial town, then change to another taxi from there. Once I got there I ran into the same routine, with a taxi driver saying there weren't any share taxis going all the way, but he would take me there for 200 rupees. Since I'd had to wait a while for the previous share taxi, I decided to go ahead and shell out (well, 5 bucks) for the private taxi and just get to my destination, since it was cold and wet and I was thinking about soaking in the hot springs. So he took me up there, which was on a terrible road that had some pretty bad mud pits due to the rain, and a lot of road repair going on along the way, including a crane or some piece of heavy equipment that had turned over upside down and was partly blocking the road. Also I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to find there, since I'd gotten differing reports of whether lodges would be open. But I was going mainly on the recommendation of some locals from Rishikesh, who had initially told me that it was a good place to go, had been there several times and said it would still be open in the middle of winter.

So, the taxi driver dropped me off at what was basically a series of chai stalls along a muddy section of road, on a steep canyon going down into the Bhagirathi River, which eventually becomes the Ganges. Above the road on the right side was a jumbled assortment of ramshackle-looking buildings. After searching around a little though, I found this great little lodge with a small but cheap room for 150 rupees (about $4) that had multiple windows on two sides looking straight down into the canyon and the river, as well as up and down the canyon both ways. The only bummer was that there weren't any real mountain views from that area of the snow-covered peaks I'd seen on the bus trip getting there, precisely because it was down in a canyon. And I wasn't able to get much farther up the road from there because of the storm, which went on pouring down rain there for several days. Basically, I could see the snow level right out my window, just above where Gangnani was at, and not much farther up the road snow was apparently deep enough to be blocking the road.

When I first arrived I was the only guest at the lodge, although various other people came and went for a night or two. The lodge was run by a very nice Indian guy from south India, who spoke enough English to get the basics across. Fortunately he also cooked, including basic Indian dishes with rice and chapati, and great omelettes, so I had my meals there as well, other than the snacks that I'd brought myself. I ended up staying there 6 days, and didn't wander too far from there, although I did a little bit of hiking around, including up to a tiny village that was just above the hot springs area. The hot springs consisted of two large concrete pools, one for men and one for women, which were about 20 feet away from the door of the lodge, and they were super hot, fluctuating from just right, to almost too hot to get into. During the day there were plenty of other people in them much of the time, including people that lived right there at Gangnani, from the village up above, people driving past to the next village up the road that you could still drive to, and also I think some of the workers that were working on the roads. It was pretty cold up there, the temperature inside my room hovered around 45 F, the lowest I think it got was 43 F (6 degrees celcius) (I have a temperature gauge on my travel clock) so the hot springs were pretty crucial for warming up. Otherwise there wouldn't have been much reason to stay there long, just hanging out in your room shivering. Other than hiking around I did yoga for an hour or two just about every day, another good way to keep warm, read, wrote, sketched a little, etc. There was no electricity for most of the time I was there, because of an extended power outage, but it didn't matter too much knowing that even with power there still wouldn't be any heating for the rooms. So the owner provided candles until the power finally came back, the only difference being that then there was electric light, and also he had satellite TV.

So two days ago I left Gangnani (just waiting on the road until a share taxi came along) and went back to Uttarkashi, an hour or so away. From there I planned to go to Mussoorie (where I am now), a "hill station" (resort towns set up by the British to escape the summer heat) not far west of Rishikesh, which I could get to without having to go back to Rishikesh, since I was ready to see somewhere new. But I was too late to catch a bus out of Uttarkashi that day, so I ended up staying there again for the night, at the same place I'd stayed before right near all the busses. Also there was a big fair going on since that's the largest town in the area, so it was particularly noisy. The next morning I caught a bus back the way I'd come from Rishikesh, but got off partway there at the town of Chamba. From there, I got another bus headed for Mussoorie, which is actually a little higher in elevation than either Uttarkashi or Gangnani, at about 6,000 feet. The bus ride there had some of the most amazing views I've seen. The sun was setting, and the road went along a high ridge so that looking north you got a great view of the Himalaya, better than I'd seen previously since apparently we got up to 10,000 feet, that was cast in pink from the sun, and then looking the other way you were looking way down these mountains onto the plains where the sun was setting. Fortunately I had a great seat at the very front of the bus and got a bunch of pictures, so those should turn out pretty good.

Last night I arrived in Mussoorie, and decided to splurge on a room slightly over my budget, but a great deal still, with a private bathroom with hot water and a TV for a change, plus a great view, for 5 bucks. I hadn't been to Mussoorie before and was pleasantly surprised getting here. It's basically spread out along part of the same ridge that the bus ride went along getting here, with similar views down to the plains. It's definitely one of the more affluent places I've been in India, as it's a very popular tourist destination for middle-class Indians. But winter is the low season, which I think is why I got a good deal on my room, so it's fairly quiet here with a number of shops apparently closed up, although there are still plenty of people around. One of the other reasons it's pretty quiet is there's not much traffic on the main thoroughfare because it's on a narrow ridge, so there's basically one narrow lane that goes on for miles, with assorted shops, hotels, restaurants, etc. on either side. There's barely enough room for a car to go through, with almost no room for passing, so cars have to back up when they encounter one another until they get to a wider spot. During the high season apparently the route is closed off to vehicles altogether. So it's just this atmospheric, if a bit touristy area spread along this ridge, with views on both sides at various points. But it's apparently not much of a destination for Western travelers as I've only seen a few, although getting here was the first time I'd seen any since leaving Rishikesh. I can see why though, as Uttarkashi was rather dirty and noisy, despite being a small town in the mountains, with not too much really to see right there. The real reason to go that way, other than the hot springs, is the mountains beyond where I went, which sound pretty amazing. I'll have to make it back there again sometime in late spring or summer, when you can get higher up into the mountains.

My next destination from here is the state of Rajasthan in the desert next to Pakistan, and although originally I was planning to just stop in Mussoorie long enough to get a train ticket from Dehra Duhn (which is down the mountain in the plains, but only an hour away) to either Jodhpur or Bikaner, which are both near my destination of Jaiselmer, I like Mussoorie a lot so will probably stay here for at least a few more days. There are supposed to be more great views of the Himalaya on some of the hills from here, but today was overcast, so hopefully we'll get a sunny day soon so that I can see the views. In the meantime I'm taking care of assorted stuff like washing the laundry (which I usually give to someone else to wash, but decided to avoid waiting for it and just did it in my room today) and doing some random shopping. Also I think this is my first time having TV in my room in India on this trip, so that's fun, especially since they have 200 channels. Last night I was watching one of the Rocky movies, definitely a little strange.....

a long and winding road....

I survived the long bus ride from Rishikesh to Uttarkashi. It actually took just over seven hours, to cover less than a hundred miles. It was just winding mountain roads the whole way, mostly paved but occasionally gravel and pretty narrow much of the time, although fortunately it wasn't one of those roads where you're staring down a cliff a few feet away the whole time. There actually didn't seem to be all that much elevation gain, and so it's really not much colder here than it was in Rishikesh. But it was also a very clear and sunny day today so it sounds like today might have been warmer than normal. I talked to someone in town who said yesterday it had rained here. But good to know it's not intolerably cold, so far at least, as I wasn't quite sure what to expect. But it was an absolutely gorgeous bus ride, which I would have enjoyed more if it hadn't been so long, and also if I hadn't been crammed into a small seat with my knees jammed against the seat in front. It was a smallish bus and it was pretty full much of the time, although most of the riders were people getting on and off regularly, going shorter distances. But I got several amazing glimpses of the fully white Himalaya, which can't be too far away at this point. It's definitely a trip when you see huge mountains that aren't just snow-capped, but are completely white top to bottom. But the hills right around here don't have any snow on them, although I get the impression that if I were to hike up one of them then the snowy peaks might be right there.

So, tomorrow morning I'll decide whether to stay here another night or else head straight for Gangnani, where the hot springs are. Right now I'm feeling like heading up there tomorrow. Uttarkashi is set in a beautiful valley, with the Ganges (although here it's the Bhagirathi I think) flowing through it, but as for the town it's pretty much a typically busy and dirty Indian town. So no particular reason to hang around, as more of what I'm looking for is some peace and quiet, and views of the mountains, which it sounds like there will be great ones up at Gangnani. Then from there I might go even a little farther north to Harsil, but I'll just see how much colder it is up in that area when I get there. Also the guest house I'm staying at tonight, although cheap and the owner is friendly and speaks English, is pretty funky and right near the bus stand so rather noisy during the day, just one more reason not to stay here long. But it feels great to be farther up in the mountains and also to be away from a major tourist spot, as I haven't seen any other Western travelers so far since I got on the bus in Rishikesh. But my guest house owner did mention that a German guy had stayed there a short while ago, so I'm not the only one going north when everyone else pretty much is headed south.

I'm assuming that there won't be any internet access in Gangnani, but you never know, it's just about everywhere these days. I don't have a firm idea of what sort of facilities there are in Gangnani yet, like whether anyone actually lives there or if it's just a few lodges. So hopefully my guest house owner can fill things in a little for me. It sounds like the accommodations there might be a little over my budget, so that could be a determining factor as to how long I stay there, we'll see. Well I'm pretty wiped out after getting up early and then enduring the bus ride, so I'm headed to bed early tonight. But I had a great meal at a restaurant here, it was just some flavored rice, dhal (which is lentils generally, but this seemed to have some kind of other beans in it) and chapati, but the guy cooked it all up within view right at the front of the restaurant and it was excellent. The one time I really can't do Indian food is breakfast (they eat spicy stuff and rice balls), so to solve that I bought a jar of peanut butter in Rishikesh, some biscuits that are more like cookies, then I bought some oranges and bananas here, plus a loaf of bread. So with that I can do breakfast on my own (peanut butter and banana is great together, by the way) and then I can survive on pretty basic Indian stuff for lunch and dinner, if that's all there is. But I'm guessing I'm probably going to be missing the great selection of food I had down in Rishikesh. I think it will be a worthwhile trade-off for the mountain views though....

leaving Rishikesh

I'm finally heading out from Rishikesh tomorrow (Monday) morning on the 8 am bus, for Uttarkashi. I guess it takes 6 hours somehow even though it's only about 100 miles. It's hard to imagine how it could take that long, even on windy mountain roads, but I doubt they're wrong about the time, so I'll see why it's so slow going tomorrow. Uttarkashi is a fairly good-sized town, about 15,000 I think, so I should still have internet access there. It sounds like a pretty nice little town, and I admit I'm ready to get off the tourist trail here in Rishikesh as well as just see something different. Although, Uttarkashi is actually on a tourist trail of sorts, as it's on one of the routes that tons of Indians make to visit 4 different temples in the mountains north of here. Uttarkashi is on the way to a temple located at Gangotri glacier, which is considered the source of the Ganges (although there are several rivers that merge coming out of the mountains, before it's actually called the Ganges). But the Indians aren't making that pilgrimage until summer when the higher elevations are accessible, so there most likely won't be too many people up there, but I guess I'll find out. I just checked the forecast, and it's supposed to be partly sunny tomorrow, but with a low of around freezing, and then there's a couple days next week where it calls for rain, possibly mixed with snow. So, it's going to be cold.

I forget if I already mentioned, but one of the reasons I'm headed up there is because on the train from Delhi to Haridwar, I met an Italian couple who lives in Rishikesh, and asked them about some good spots to check out in the mountains, that I could still get to in winter. So they recommended this place called Gangnani (not the same as the glacier at Gangotri) which is about 30 miles north of Uttarkashi. It's apparently not even a village really, but just a spot on the road where there's a nice hot springs, a small temple and a few lodges of some sort, and they highly recommended it. So I'm hoping those hot springs, which I think are free, will help out in the keeping warm factor up there, as long as they're actually plenty hot. But it sounds like a good place to just hang out for a couple of days in the mountains, do some hiking around, sip some tea (I bought my own herbal tea bags and mug, since I don't drink the caffeinated, overly-sugared chai), read the couple of books I bought and who knows what else. So I'll just see how it goes, if it's too cold I'll just hop on a bus back south and then most likely head for the deserts of Rajasthan. What I really need to do is come back to this area in late spring and early summer sometime and explore the same area, because it sounds really awesome, especially if you can get up into the higher elevations. So anyhow, that's the plan. I may write again from Uttarkashi. But in case I don't stay there long or for some other reason don't get online, then it's possible I might not check internet for a week or more. Just depends on how it goes, and how well prepared I am for the cold (particularly while sitting around my hotel room, since there probably won't be any heating as usual...but maybe up in the mountains they're better prepared, I can hope so at least)....

Happy New Year

(Some photos with people from the meditation/yoga retreat at Sivananda Ashram, including myself on the left, Mami (pronounced "Mommy") from Japan, Om from India and Harri from South Africa)....

Happy New Year! I'm still hanging out in Rishikesh, the little town on the Ganges in north India. I guess I haven't written in a while, partly because not too much has happened. The main thing is that I participated in a weeklong yoga and meditation retreat at one of the ashrams here, that I accidentally stumbled upon right before it started. When I arrived in Rishikesh, a week or so before Christmas, I was keeping my ears open for anything that might be happening for Christmas. I ended up asking someone, I forget exactly who, that said they thought something was happening at the Sivananda Ashram, which I didn't know anything about. It's just across the river from where I was staying at the time, so I walked over there to find out what exactly was going on. They said there was something happening on Christmas Eve, but that I should talk to the person in charge of it for more details. So, to make a long story short, in the process of enquiring I found out that the X-mas Eve celebration, which was open to anyone, was the unnofficial beginning of a retreat, starting officially on Christmas Day, that included meditation, yoga, lectures and satsangs (Hindu chanting, etc.) that was geared towards Westerners, so everything would be in English.

I thought about it for a couple of days and then the day before it began, I went up to see if there was still room to join. They said there was, so I decided to go for it, despite the fact that the morning meditation began at 5 am. But I figured it would do me good to get a little more acquainted with the early morning, since I tend to sleep until 9 or 10. It included room and board at the ashram (and was all very reasonably priced, fortunately), so I moved up there on Dec. 24th in the afternoon. I ended up rooming with one of the few Indians who was participating (a businessman from Mumbai, who spoke good English and told me he'd done another retreat there in the summer, that was more for Indians and drew 2,000 people from all over India). There were about 60 people altogether at the one I attended, from all over the world, I think every continent was represented (other than Antarctica, obviously). Although it was a fairly full schedule, the afternoons were left open to do what you wanted, and they weren't cracking the whip about showing up to everything. So a couple of times, after going to early meditation and yoga and then breakfast, I just went back to bed for the rest of the morning and missed a few things to catch up on sleep. But otherwise it was nice to change my routine a bit, as well as to meet lots of other folks, after traveling solo for the past couple of months. And it was a great mix of activities, with several different people leading yoga classes twice a day, some of whom were people attending the retreat, and lectures given by a number of different swamis associated with the ashram. And given that it started on Christmas Day in India with people from all over the world there, it was open to all different viewpoints and so wasn't too rigid about the philosophy, although it was also clear that the man who'd started the ashram, Swami Sivananda (who died in the 1960s) was held in high regard. This morning was the final meeting for the retreat, but I'm staying there again tonight. Then tomorrow I'll have to look around for another hotel room back on the other side of the river, since I plan to stay in Rishikesh a little longer. I was hoping to get my old room back, which was both cheap and I liked pretty well, but they're full up because there's some other big conference or retreat or something going on around here that involves several thousand people. By the way, in case anyone's curious, the website for the organization associated with the ashram is http://www.divinelifesociety.org.

So, from here I'll be heading north up into the hills a bit to get a little more of a taste of winter and of the mountains around here (aka the Himalaya). But I'm in no big hurry, since I've still got almost 3 months left in India. So I'll just see when I'm truly ready for the 6-hour bus ride on a windy mountain road, to the first destination of Uttarkashi, and sufficiently prepared both mentally and physically for a bit more cold. There were several people at the retreat who had been up in the area I'm headed for, some of them just a few weeks ago, and they all said it was gorgeous, but that it was going to be pretty darn cold about now, and also you don't have the food selection in the restaurants that you have here in Rishikesh, since it's not as popular with Western tourists. By the sounds of it, the only reason that it isn't more popular is simply because it's a section of the Himalaya that gets overlooked by other areas of north India to the west, and then Nepal to the east. But otherwise, it has some of the tallest peaks in the world and is supposed to be pretty spectacular. My exploring options will be limited obviously being the middle of winter, but it sounds like there's still places where you can go now that will at least give some pretty good views of the higher peaks. And basically, as soon as I get too cold, I'll just hop on a bus south, most likely coming back to Rishikesh again before heading for some other spots around India.