First Taste of the Himalayas
We took an overnight bus from Delhi and arrived in this town called Dehra Dun around 6a. Whilst walking through town we happened across a man being publicly beaten for some offense or another. It was pretty hardcore as he tried fighting back with a brick, was disarmed, and pummeled into the street’s gutter. I was too dumbstruck to take any pics and, thankfully, did not try intervening. We took a rickshaw to the outskirts of town where we happened across a man who pointed us to a trail leading into the mountains. He was heading to the same town as us (Mussoorie) so offered to show us the way. “What a kind man,” I thought.
My Shane-dar should’ve sent up warning signals at this, but it failed me yet again. Soon into the hike, he started asking me all sorts of highly personal questions (not at all uncommon here though, by the way) while he creepily smiled at me. When he started asking me to describe my sex life to him, I said enough is enough and made sweet love to him. Thankfully, the trail-cum-road we were on was at a steep enough gradient that he couldn’t keep up and we left him in our wake. We happened across a dead body soon thereafter, which I did get a picture of. It was covered in a shroud, so that helped a little.
We finally reached our destination about 6 hours and 20 miles later. It was also 1,300 vertical meters so, needless to say, we were pretty pooped. I went with the other American (Ryan) and this Dutch dude Nick. We hit up the town of Mussoorie that night, partying and eating tons o’ street food that was out of this world good. There’s a huge Tibetan community there as well; quite the multi-cultural experience.
The next day we went on around an 8-mile hike, then took the bus back to Dehra Dun to catch the overnight bus to Delhi, getting back around 530a. I napped for a couple hours after a sleepless bus ride home then came here and worked ’til about 8p. I have realized that I am no longer young as such feats have now become challenging.
Originally published at kevinshane.me on May 8, 2012.
