Picture it: a beautiful lake in the foothills of the Himalayas. The lake is surrounding by brightly painted homes situated in the hills and every so often groups of prayer flags stretch across bits of the hill. Do you have it in your mind? Then the fog rolls in more quickly than one would think and your picturesque view has been swallowed by this slow moving creature and you are left standing in the mist with the monkeys. This is was Nanital. Beautiful lush forests, consumed by a lingering mist. It was quite gorgeous and cool compared to this sticky hot Delhi weather I am barely tolerating as of right now. The group of us spent two beautiful, but damp, days in Nanital this past weekend. It was a great way to close out my Lucknow stay with my friends and tour guides, Anand and Vikas.
A group of us packed on a sleeper car of a train headed to Nanital on Saturday night and 10hours later we were in a lush and beautiful mountain forest. I will speak more about this sleeper car and Nanital adventure later as I am dying of heat exhaustion in a non AC internet cafe in Delhi and must go before I pass out. Yet know this, I had a relaxing, picturesque time in Nanital with amazing people. Google Nanital as I can't upload any pictures and mine probably won't even do it justice. So coming soon, tourists in the mist, pedal boating, trekking, sinus infections, monkeys, momos, and sketchy train rides. Are you ready?
Oh and I'm off to Khajurho, Agra, Jaipur, Delhi, and Rishikesh. I will attempt to email more along the way!
Sleeper cars are interesting, sleeping in a sleeper car is impossible, standing by the open door of moving train staring into blackness and feeling the wind on your face is awesome. I'm am glad though I got to experience traveling through India on this car because it is something I wouldn't have been able to do alone. Once we got to Nanital we trekked the mountain side, observed monkeys on rooftops, ate some delicious Momos (dumplings), paddled around the lake on paddle boats in the shape of swans, and watched the mist envelope the valley at least 5 times a day. Despite the sinus infection it was incredibly beautiful and the company fantastic. When it came time to leave a short 30 hours later it was with a heavy heart that I left my friends to make my way back to Delhi to begin the rest of my holiday.
