I have mentioned a few times before how difficult the driving is in India, but the ride to Nainital takes the cake. We left Delhi around 6:30 to avoid the traffic and for the most part we were successful. I thought from there it would take about 5 hours and it would be a smooth ride up the mountains like it was to Shimla. Boy I was so wrong. We were not even half way when the local traffic started to pick up. Once again we were in the countryside and our driver was dodging trucks, motorcycles, cars, rickshaws, pedestrians, cows, horses and the occasional monkey! We started to notice more and more cows and bulls in the back of trucks, come to find out that we were going to pass the local livestock sale. Once we were past all that traffic, I thought we were in the clear. Wrong again! Our driver immediately busted a u-turn and went on the other side of the road into oncoming traffic! This is actually a common thing to do when there is a traffic jam, people just make their own lanes. So as we were going the wrong way, we bypassed about a mile of backed up trucks then we merged our way back into the correct lane of traffic. It was bumper to bumper and we could hear an ambulance behind us. But not one car moved to the side to make way. Instead the cars and trucks turned a two lane highway into a five lanes and were everywhere with only inches to spare in between. We were stuck and our driver told us that he was stuck in the same spot once for 5 hours! I was starting to get anxious because I had to use the bathroom and some of the trucks were over loaded and looked like they were going to topple over on us. Slowly we moved forward and weaved in and out and finally got to the toll booth which was causing the jam. I think in total we spent an hour just to go a few miles.
We stopped off at a McDonald's to eat and use the washroom and I was sure from there on we would have an easy ride. I have no idea why I kept thinking that because a while later we were driving through small towns with tons of traffic. At this rate it would take us forever to get to Nainital. The further we went, the worse the roads got, which slowed us down even more. The potholes where so bad that we had to slow down to either drive around it or go through them. I will never complain about a pothole in Chicago again, these as wide as the street and some were very deep. The scary part was watching the trucks drive over them, they looked like they were going to tip over. And the worst part of this whole situation? We had 50 miles of this crappy road! It was so unpleasent and I am surprised that our driver said he would take us knowing how bad the drive was! The moment we entered the next state the road instantly improved and we stopped off for lunch. We were now 6 or 7 hours into our trip, we thought the whole trip would take that long but we still couldn't see the mountain rage. We continued on and within 2 more hours we made it to the base and had 30 miles of curvy uphill driving. Once again we were whipping around hairpin turns up the mountain side, the views were spectacular. Along the way we encountered a few rockslides that were being cleaned up and only one lane of traffic could pass at a time. Finally we entered Nainital and it was beautiful....I guess it was worth the 10 hour drive! The clouds hung low over the the lake and hotels and houses surrounded it up and down the mountain. After stopping for directions a few times, we made it to the Nani Retreat! The room resembles a bed and breakfast and the view from our window is of a beautiful courtyard. Immediately tea was served to us and we all crashed after that. Mia is already sleeping and Jas and I are watching cheesy Indian movies! We are already dreading the drive back but we have 3 days to relax until we head back to Delhi.
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