Nainital

Nainital
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I rode in a share jeep down to Dharamsala from McLeod Ganj and then caught buses to Nainital via Shimla and Dehra Dun.  When I left McLeod Ganj I was planning to stop at Shimla, but the end of my trip is approaching and I've already stayed at a couple of hill stations, so I decided by the time I reached Shimla to carry on to Corbett Tiger Reserve as soon as possible.  En route to Ramnagar however, I discovered that there was a strike on at the park (known locally as Jim Corbett Park) and that it was closed.  I was only 2 or 3 hours away from Ramnagar, so I decided to carry on to Nainital.  Had I known about the strike earlier I probably would have preferred to stay at Rishikesh.

The view to the Himalayas from Tiffin Top, the peak on the western side of the lake
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So by the time I arrived at Nainital I'd been traveling by bus for a continuous thirty six hours.

Family seeks suitable alliance

It was pretty tough.

I can cope with the potholes and the lack of leg room; I can even grit my teeth and put up with the suspension of all notion between seated passengers of personal space; but really, must the bus driver honk so much?!  Continually!  And the volume of the horns on vehicles in India seems to be exponentially related to their size; the pulsating siren wailing of the horn on the bus from Dehra Dun was like a machine gun to my ears.  It was with only an hour or so to go that I could correct my mistake of sitting at the front near the horn, and find a place at the back.

The lake looks like it's only just being held into the valley. (Taken from the cable car that goes up to Snow View.)
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One idiosyncrasy of bus travel here is the salesmen:  when you stop at a station boys and men walk along the length of the bus offering at the windows water, peanuts, fruit, other snacks, or newspapers.  Quite often they will come onto the bus itself to sell the same.  The real treat though comes when a man steps into the front of the bus, and begins a presentation on the miraculous properties of the yoghurt drink/hair tonic/shoe polish that he happens to have just enough of - at a bargain price! - for, maybe... the number of people on the bus.

For wha- Oh. You're a dustbin.
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Actually I can't say much more about it as I don't think I've ever witnessed this happen with an English-language sales pitch.  Here, for once, the tourist isn't the target.

I did get through a couple of newspapers on the way to Nainital, and I have to mention the section from the Sunday Hindustan Times entitled 'Matrimonials':  We have in the West an increasingly popular practice of placing 'Personal ads':  where one, more often older, adult advertises his or her interest in meeting a new friend, for dinner, long walks, 'maybe more', etc.  The Indian version, where each ad is placed by a family, goes something like this:

'Gursikh Industrialist Family seeks suitable alliance for their Exceptionally Beautiful, Fair, Talented Daughter, 25 Years / 5' 4" / 58kg, Degree in Fashion Design from NIFT Delhi, Diploma in Int. Mkt. from reputed U.S.A. University.  Looking for well settled Dynamic Industrialist Business / Professional Gursikh match.  Email:rsingh1133@hotmail.com'

The Matrimonials section is divided under headings 'Grooms Wanted For' and 'Brides Wanted For', and is then organised by caste, i.e. social group.

I'd like to see the Indian version of speed dating:  successive meetings between family committees - consisting at least of mum, dad, and daughter, with granny and granddad wheeled along of course - and five minutes at each to assess family status and breeding, just to see if there's enough chemistry... for marriage.

Could be a new arena spectator sport?

Nainital is a nice place to spend a couple of days - very similar I thought to Mount Abu in Rajasthan.  I went on a long walk through the woods to the top of one hill, took a cable car up to the top of another, and went boating on the lake.

From Nainital I took a bus to Haldiwar, and from there I caught a train to Lucknow.  Later the next day I caught the train from Lucknow to Gaya, and then finally a bus to Bodhgaya.