Jon and I had our hearts set on doing a Himalayan trek. We asked around Rishikesh and discovered that there was a hill town, only about a ten hour bus ride away, with trekking. We arrived at the Haridwar "bus station." Which was a gravel lot filled with buses labeled in Hindi. We just stood there, laughing. Clueless as to what to do. We passed a few identical food stands and came to a tin shack. The information counter. Luckily for us, the men there spoke a little bit of English and instructed us of the next steps we should take. The bus to Nainital didn't depart for three hours, so we found the nearest restaurant, set down our packs, and waited, over chai. The workers spoke very little English. We took pictures with them. People love to have their pictures taken with westerners. It's funny. We will be stopped on the streets, exchange introductions, have our pictures taken and continue on. We boarded the bus, and it seemed like we had an entire row of seats to ourselves. We were early. Minutes later, more people boarded and our dreams of a spacious ride were crushed. The ride was terrible. It was a night bus, so we were exhausted. Whenever we dozed off, we were violently awakened by a bump in the road that sent us flying forward. The brakes squealed loudly with every application. Our only defense against discomfort is laughter. At 6:00am we arrived to a lake illuminated by the lights on the hillside. Nainital. It was beautiful. But we were freezing so we took the first hotel offer and were ushered off in a jeep to the Hotel Maharaja. The weather that first day was dreary. Showers for hours. We walked around for a short while but were back in our room by the afternoon, where we remained for the day. It's funny because Nainital is a romantic vacation getaway so Jon and I are treated as newlyweds. Given special treatment and special rooms. The next day was beautiful. Sun and clear skies. We took a trolley to Snow View, a point with a view of the Himalayas. Clouds loomed low over the giant peaks in the distance, but we had a view of a small string of mountains. The teaser view was enough to inspire us to go closer. Trekking was out of the question due to inclement weather, but a town called Kausani only a few hours away promised a panoramic view of the Himalayas. Sold.
The next day, we loaded our packs and hopped in a cab to Kausani. Although only around 120 kilometers away, the winding roads made for a long journey. We left at 10:00am and didn't arrive until around 3:00pm. We made stops along the way at various temples, bridges and waterfalls. When we arrived, we were shown to our room...the sunrise room. It had a huge window overlooking the Himalayas. Absolutely breathtaking sight to wake up to. We watched sunset, played multiple games of gin rummy and had a "complimentary dinner" of Thali (a full course with rice, dahl, curd, and other Indian delights) and unlimited chapati. The next morning, we awakened bright and early for sunrise. The view from our balcony was gorgeous. Neither of us could break our stares or stop smiling. After our sunrise and complimentary breakfast (not quite as hearty as dinner...a chai and a small piece of white toast) we returned to the road for the long ride back to Nainital to catch an evening bus.
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