Friday June 17 (local bus to Mahabaleswar)

On Friday, I took a bus to Mahabaleswar at 2 pm which is a hill-station 3 hours on the local bus. It’s funny how when I tell ppl that I want to visit Sevagram (an ashram that Gandhi stayed for over 7 years), I always get this question as to what is there in Sevagram. However, everyone knows the attraction of Mahabaleswar. My roommates joke that the bus driver might think that I’m on the wrong bus if I’m taking the local buses from Pune to Mahabaleswar because number one: I’ll probably be the only foreigner since there will hardly be any tourist this time of year and number two: no one goes to Mahabaleswar during the monsoon from June to the end of September, not even the locals. I read in the guidebook that during the 100 days of the monsoon, the heavens could dump rain of biblical proportions--up to 7 meters of water. They also told me that riding in the local buses can be quite an experience, esp. the smell. I was not too thrill when I heard it but then again it’s going to be a new experience for me whether pleasant or unpleasant. Fortunately, the bus to Mahabaleswar was practically empty. The seat that I was sitting for some reason was kinda damp and after suffering in a wet seat for 15 minutes, I asked the conductor if I could change seats since there were less than 6-10 ppl on the bus. I didn’t want to ask at first b/c I thought every other seats were going to be damp and that this was probably one of the many downside of traveling in a local bus. Luckily, all the other seats were dry.

 The drive to Mahabaleswar was very pleasant. The air for a change was not polluted but fresh and re-energizing. Now that I’ve been in India for over a month, I can safely say that the air in the cities can be very polluted wherever you go...it’s not just in Delhi that the air quality is bad...even Pune is pretty bad too. Since I take an autorickshaw pretty much everyday, I must have breathed in my fair share of car smog...and carbon monoxide. I feel like I might have shorten several days of my life-span breathing in all that carbon monoxide and cigarette smoke from my roommates who like to smoke a few times in the morning and evening. My roommates who smoke have terrible coughs...sometimes too terrible...but it doesn’t dawn on them to give up smoking...not sure the reason why. Then again, Vikas doesn’t think he’ll make it past 65, even though I told him that at that age Americans think about retirement...not their deathbeds. I also think that pollution definitely has something to do with the short life-span of people who live in the city compared to the villages. In Pune, I’ve seen a lot of women covering half of their faces with handkerchieves to reduce the carbon monoxide fumes.

But back to Mahabaleswar. The scenery was very green with a lot of overcast conditions. It kinda reminded me of my trip to Utah when I helped Carol moved from San Francisco to Boulder, Colorado. There were dappled settlements and villages but mainly the low regions were dominated by farmlands with the higher-regions mainly uninhabited with lots of greenery. On reaching Mahabaleswar, it was like being lost in some kind of fantasy world that you only see in video games....seriously. I can’t imagine any place in the US that comes closest to it. It was very misty when I got there and was like that pretty much every day...it rained too. And the rain with the combination of heavy mist produced a really strange sensation. The temperature probably did not go above 60 to 65 degrees. It took me a little bit of trouble to find my hotel...and had dinner, but Mahabaleswar is a very small place because all the restaurants and shops and hotels are clustered in a 10 minute walk from one end to the other end.

Sometimes it was so misty that you can't see for more than 10 feet ahead