My posts are a bit behind because the internet in the hotel was pretty slow, but we are heading back to Delhi so they will be uploaded there. Anyways we spent our last day in Nainital doing a little sightseeing and we started off at the High Altitude Zoo. Our driver had to drop us off about a quarter mile from the entrance and we had to hike it up a steep cobble stone street. It wasn't too bad, the view of Nainital was good and I figured it would wear Mia out. I also thought that once we got inside it would be level and easy to walk, wrong again. It was all uphill walking and stairs. Not bad if you wanted a workout but I was more looking forward to a relaxing morning at the zoo. And of course Mia was not co-operating, running everywhere she shouldn't be and had no interest in the animals. The zoo actually was not that great, it needed major work, but it was pretty cool to be up that high with the view of mountains all around. Once we reached the top there was a small doorway and we learned that one of the oldest temples in Nainital was back there. I walked back there and it was a small walkway with all of these fancy strings tied to the fence and bells strung on ropes zigzaging above my head. We went over to the priest and gave a small donation. He said to make a wish, walk around the temple and then to tie a string to the fence. He said if the wish comes true we have to come back one day to untie our string and we would be givin a bell to hang. I'm not gonna tell you what we wished for, but if it comes true and we don't come back then its considered bad luck. (So part 2 of India could be in my future!)
We decided to take off from the zoo because Mia could have cared less that we were there and we drove to another town call Bhimtal. It was similar to Nainital with a small lake in the center but more remote and less crowded. I guess that up in this part of the mountians there are many lakes and all the town names end in "tal" because that means lake. This particular lake was a lot smaller but the drive was very beautiful. We stopped off to take some pictures and noticed that we were right next to a very small school and all the kids were out playing. I got out of the car and immediately the kids started to gather around the fence and were waiving hello. We asked the teacher if we could buy them candy but she politely said no, I guess they don't take candy from strangers! It was about lunchtime so we found a 5 star resort to stop off at. It was way up the side of the mountain and the road was so bad that we were joking and saying it was a 5 star hotel with a 1 star road! However, it was nice and the food was amazing, Mia got 2 juice boxes and everyone was full, happy and sleepy. (Kind of sound like the 7 drawfs). We got back to the hotel around 4 and I figured that since Mia didn't nap she would pass out. Well that plan got totally messed up when suddenly I heard this loud rumbling on the roof. It almost sounded like huge rocks rolling down the metal rooftop. And at first I thought that's what it was because we were in the mountains and on the roads I saw big rocks that had fallen all over the place. So I looked out my window and what did I see? Monkey's! They decided that now was the perfect time to play and chase each other around right above our room! This annoying activity went on for about a half hour so needless to say, none of us could sleep. We called it an early night because we wanted to get on the road by 5 am to try and make better time.
Our wake up call came at 4:30 along with hot tea and a thermos of hot milk for Mia. We packed up the car and were whipping down the mountainside in the dark. As we got further down, I saw a few cars on the side of the road and Jas said a lot of people get motion sickness in India. Literally the moment he made that comment, Mia started getting sick and we had to join the other cars on the side of the road! Thankfully she didn't have anything to eat or drink or our car would have stunk all the way to Delhi! We made it the rest of the way down with no other incidents and in no time we were on the pothole highway. We were not on it too long because our driver had found a detour that might take us a bit longer, but its better than being tossed around inside the van. Once again we found ourselves in the countryside with all of the farmers and truck traffic. We seemed to be going faster but once in a while things slowed down for trucks that were extremely overloaded. One truck in particular tipped side to side and we had to keep our distance because it looked so unstable! And this rounds up week 2 in India!
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