Day 84, 85, 86

I've escape Chandigarh! I was expecting to stay for a few days, but the temperature was too hot, so I left after one night. I met in the train station dormitory there an English guy who has been living in the city (in the dorm) for a whole month. "Nothing drew me to Chandigarh," he said to me, "I just happened to be in this city when I felt the need to stop moving around so much." The guy hopes to write some travel books, and has the crazy (interesting) idea of buying his own motor-rickshaw and driving all around the country in it.

I left the big-C on a ten a.m. train, switching engines in the tiny town of Kalka. There I boarded a cute little toy train (maybe ten cars, each seating about 30 people) that runs on a narrow gauge up to altitudes of about 2200 meters. The landscape on the train was, as usual, really stunning, with big tall trees unlike what I saw in Tibet and Nepal. Also, India has an overcrowding problem that doesn't exist in those countries, and along the way I spied lots of homes and even cities running up and down the side of the mountains. Quite different from the settlements in the mountains of Tibet, which run along a single street that snakes along the side of the hill.

Here in Shimla about 150 000 residents cling to the side of the mountain in that "up and down" way. It's quite a sight, all those boxy concrete homes on a crowded diagonal incline. The city itself is a treat. The weather is blissfully cool, and in the places I have visited so far there are no touts, no taxis, no rickshaws and no hash dealers. Walking around without any hassles I am reminded of distant China! There are also big fines for littering and spitting in the streets. There are even garbage cans with the words "USE ME" painted on them in neat letters.

But while the streets don't have any annoying PEOPLE wandering them, there are some annoying simians. The town has a monkey problem. Rather brave, sometimes viscous, hundreds of monkeys roam the streets, looking for food and making an occasional grab at a tempting bag or purse. Each night I have spent here I've been woken up by monkeys banging on my windows, trying to get inside. It can actually be a little frightening to be woken up by a crazed monkey...

Humorously enough, the monkeys also terrorize the stray dogs of Shimla, which are almost as common. It's very funny to see a tough, scrappy looking dog cowed by a monkey barring his teeth.

The food here is wonderful, if expensive. I sat in a nice chain coffee shop for a spell, alternately writing in my journal and gawking at the beautiful people passing through for drinks and snacks. Hanging out at yuppie coffee shops is a habit I picked up in Suncheon during that fateful "year two" (really just the last eight months) and is one of the many habits that I hope to kick (along with many feelings, ideas, mannerisms, successes that I will throw over my shoulder). Going to be my old self, you know...

...

Back on the home front, my dear friends X and Y are having a baby! X sent me an e-mail saying "Good news, Mike, you're going to be an uncle! Yahoooo!" This makes me happy... you have no idea.

But back in Korea, Z is feeling really bummed out. This makes me sad, because Z is very important to me.

...

Couple more days in Shimla, and then I press further north.