The Far Side of Mussoorie and Sir George Everest

We've been keeping pretty busy recently. In addition to what we'd already been doing, Lynn and I have begun an hour a day of Hindi language study, and I've made several day-long trips to Dehradun--for dental appointments, motorcycle servicing, and such. Since I've been away so much, I promised Lynn I would spend today on an outing with her, and that I'd be happy to go wherever she suggested.

Lynn's suggestion was perfect. She said she'd like us to explore the far side of Mussoorie, which we've seldom visited in the past. So we drove our bike to the far side of Mussoorie and had a wonderful time. One highlight was our first visit ever to the crumbling remains of the "George Everest House". 

Sir George worked as a surveyor in India from 1818, and as the Surveyor General of India from 1830 to 1843. His home and "laboratory" was at a remote spot on the far side of Mussoorie. It was situated atop a ridge, with magnificent views. The views were clearly more important to Everest than proximity to neighbors because his home would have been a significant distance from town and from his closest neighbors. (It was the Royal Geographical Society that named the world's highest peak in Everest's honor in 1865. Apparently, Sir George was not entirely onside.)

Here's another slide snow to share a little of what we enjoyed today.

The New Suakholi

This afternoon, our trusty Honda Unicorn took us 10 km to a place called Suakholi where we each enjoyed a cup of chai. Our indulgence cost us a total of Rs. 20, or about 33 cents.  Suakholi was a fairly frequent chai stop for Paul when he was a boy in the 1960's, and for both us when we lived here in the 1980's. 

In both the 60's and the 80's, there was only one shop in Suakholi where chai could be had--in an aging mud plastered building. The situation has changed dramatically since we left India in 1990, and the new Suakholi at the junction of two roads, boasts at least a dozen shops where chai and other refreshment are available. This change reflects other significant changes that have occurred in the state of Uttarakhand.

Hundreds of kilometres of new roads have been built, connecting villages to towns and major centres. The vast majority of villagers still can't afford their own vehicles, but jeep-taxis, motorbikes and buses have proliferated. Villagers who formerly had to walk, can now travel great distances with relative ease, and for minimal cost. As well, the emergence of an Indian middle class, now more than 300 million strong, has led to exponential growth in the Indian tourist industry. The mountains of Uttarakhand are a huge draw.

There is still far too much desperate poverty, but on the surface it seems to us that standard of living and quality of life have improved considerably for most people here in Uttarakhand.

Just for fun, here's a set of slides showing the range of watering holes available in the new Suakholi.

Writing at GEMS

This week Paul has been back to GEMS, the school where he has the delightful privilege of helping out. He has now set up 4 laptops with special software that enable the children to listen to what they write. They can even listen in a special Indian English voice. 

Today, the 4 laptops with the special text-to-speech software were introduced to classes 6 and 7. The children in both classes are working on stories about their mothers, and the children are taking turns using the computers to write final drafts. They can listen to their work to help edit what they have written.

It is evident that the students of GEMS love their mothers very much. They are completely engaged in this project, and producing great work. Paul will visit the students' villages to take pictures of the moms, so the photos can be included with the stories. The finished stories will be shared online, and perhaps published on paper. Stay tuned...

Paul travels 23 km each way on his motorbike to get to end from GEMS. Here are a few pictures taken along the way to and from school today.

The Magnificent Garhwal Himalaya

This past week we enjoyed a marvelous opportunity to explore some of the spectacularly beautiful 'Garhwal Himalaya'. A major highlight was a hike beyond the tree line  to the summit of Chandrashila, above the Tungnath Temple. Chandrashila is at an elevation of 4090 metres (13,419 feet), and the panoramic view from the summit was awesome in the truest sense of the word.

The "trail head" for Chandrashila is the village of Chopta, which is the beginning of a major rock-paved walking road that has been built for Hindu pilgrims.The ancient temple is situated about a kilometre below the Chandrashila summit. Although there's an elevation gain of nearly 1,400 metres (4,600 feet) between Chopta and Chandrashila, the hike did not seem overly strenuous. The scenic payoff would have been worth far greater effort. 

We've included just a few pictures in the slide show below to give you an idea of the tremendous beauty we experienced--along the trail and on the summit. (You may need to view the slide show in full screen mode to see the captions, especially on a handheld device.)

The two minute video below shows just some of the panoramic view from the summit of Chandrashila. We were delighted to learn that the Youtube video editor allowed me to slow down my rather rapid video pan!

Oaklands Cottage View -- November 10

We're living in an apartment at Oaklands Cottage in the small community of Landour, which is just above larger city of Mussoorie. Oaklands Cottage is situated almost at the highest point in Mussoorie, at an elevation of over 7,000' (2,100 metres), We are right on the top of the ridge, and the views from our yard, to the north and to the south are spectacular. This morning dawned crystal clear, and we took some pictures before breakfast.

Looking south and down to Dehradun and the Doon Valley at 2200' or 670 metres.

Mussoorie's bazaars along the top of the Mussoorie Ridge.

Looking north and up to Bandarpunch ("Tail of the Monkey") at an elevation of 20,722' (6316 meters). Bandarpunch is a defining landmark, and we get a marvelous view from our yard when the air is clear. We've used an image of Bandarpunch we took on an earlier visit to Landour in the header of our blog. Here are three more photos of this beautiful mountain that we took from our yard this morning.

This final shot, showing Bandarpunch in its context, was taken from the road just below Oaklands Cottage.

GEMS is a True Gem

GEMS is an aptly named school. It's truly a gem of a school in the Indian Himalayas. Over 200 village children are receiving a high quality education. Today was Paul's first opportunity to visit this special school, and he was impressed. He's more than delighted that he'll have a chance to help out here while we're in India!

GEMS stands for Garhwal English Medium School. The school was founded 4 years ago by Lori and Kunwar Chauhan in order to "...offer a world class education so [the children of their area] might pull themselves out of poverty, and in turn help their communities...". The challenges are daunting, but GEMS is already making a significant difference in the lives of the children and families it serves.

As illustrated by these images taken yesterday morning, the children of GEMS are beautiful, and they are without doubt engaged and enthusiastic learners!

Here are the children of GEMS singing the Indian national anthem, and then a verse of the English hymn 'Amazing Grace' during opening exercises.

At Home in India Again

Paul has always felt as though he's come "home" upon arriving in India. Almost everything feels, sounds, smells and tastes somehow "better". Much has changed in the 23 years since we last lived here, but It still feels like home! There's a big part of Lynn's heart that is at home here, too. We've been back "home" for a little over a week now, and it's been a very full week!

Getting to India from Canada went smoothly, but the trip was not without adventure. After a delightful few days with Paul's parents and the rest of his Ontario family, we boarded a Jet Airways flight from Toronto to Delhi on Oct. 28th. It was 18 hours from the time we took off in Toronto until we landed in Delhi, but there was a brief stop in Brussels. That's what led to our little adventure. We were required to go through Brussels Airport security, and Paul neglected to return his laptop to his computer bag after the security check!

It was a bit of a shock to discover there was no laptop when Paul opened his computer bag in Delhi. Thanks to the brilliant efforts of Jet Airways staff, the missing laptop was located in Brussels Airport security's lost-and-found, put on a flight to Delhi, and then on another flight to Dehradun, where Paul picked it up. Jet Airways could not have done a better job for us!

After 3 busy days taking care of business in Delhi--changing money, establishing new cell phone connections, shopping to set up our apartment, etc.--we hired a car to drive us and our piles of luggage to Mussoorie. In the clips below, we share typical traffic conditions along the road between Delhi and Mussoorie--in a small town, and then in the country.

Since arriving in Mussoorie, we've spent time connecting with longtime friends and establishing connections with new friends. We've made a start on cleaning and setting up our apartment. We've also picked up our new motorbike. Tomorrow, we'll have our first major bike challenge as we navigate traffic to visit friends in Selaqui, which is about 50 km from where we're staying.

Today, Paul will do some final preparation of laptops that will be delivered soon to GEMS, the nearby school where he will spend some time be helping out. 

Til next time...