We are now in Mussoorie. The trip for Delhi to Mussoorie was unnecessarily long, about 12 hours. We hit two hours of traffic on the way where we were basically at a stand still. And for no apparent reason. I guess some things don't change in different countries. But the bus was air conditioned, I could sleep, and I had a book so I was okay. Andrew couldn't get to sleep but he seemed to be amused by watching the traffic. Once we got to Deradun we switched from the tourist bus to the taxis. Andrew and I had to strap our luggage to the top of the car. Then we started to climb up and up and up and up. Then it started to rain. Then we realized our luggage was on top, and that all of our stuff was getting soaked. But the drop off the side of the mountain and the switchback turns were enough to make us forget about it. I took a video for your viewing pleasure, but it doesn't do it any justice. Once it started to rain the windshield fogged up and for some reason the driver did not want to put on the defroster. So then he was wiping down the inside of the windshield and driving at the same time. I couldn't even see the road in front of us. There was a point when the road got too narrow and only one car could pass at a time. Of course, a car then turned a corner and we were head on with it. Our driver refused to back up and let the other guy through, so we waited in a stand still for three whole minutes until the other guy backed up and let us through. It was rather ridiculous. *EDIT* okay, no video now, it would take about half an hour to update on this connection (at 20 Rs a half hour). So when we get a better connection I will upload videos, and I have a tour of the hostel video that I will upload later.* Then we got to the hostel and Andrew and I got a room to ourselves because nobody else wanted to share a bed (pictures). It's pretty nice, except we wake up to the sound of monkeys running across the roof. Our "cottage" is across for the kitchen and once we got settled in we walked out of our room and the cook called us over. He kept saying "dinner piazza." We had no idea what he was saying "piazza?" Then he pulled pizza dough from the oven and said "piazza." Then we realized we were having pizza for dinner and we were very excited. Sunday we met with the principle of the Landoor Language School (which is a three minute walk from the hostel), and got our books. It rained a lot and we didn't do much. It turns out the only access to internet we have is a 10 minute walk from the hostel (which is the reason for the lack of updates). Today was the first day of Hindi classes for us. It was very... intense. We have class from 8:20-12:10 with a break for chai and cookies from 10-10:30. We switch between grammar and script every hour. The script is very difficult, but kind of fun once you get used to the curves and stuff. Well I want time to upload pictures so I'll end it here. I'll try to update again soon. Oh, and Andrew is sitting right here and he says hi.
We woke up at 6 am to catch the 7 am taxi (170Rs each). They obviously weren't kidding about the taxi being booked. Even at such an early time the taxi stand was packed with people yelling for a taxi to Pelling, most looked really frustrated and we were glad that we had our tickets the day before. The taxi was packed full, at one point we had 18 people crammed in there (two were kids). The kid sitting on his mom's lap next to me would fall asleep and collapse onto my lap. Although it was kind of cute, it became annoying towards the end of the 5 hour jeep ride. Finally I put my small backpack on my lap and leaned forward to try to sleep. Andrew and I both joke that after the 36 hour train ride to Silliguri and all of these share jeeps, the plane ride home will be a snap. We got to Pelling at 12:30 pm and checked into the Hotel Garuda (300 Rs a night for their best room). It was clean but the toilet had to be jiggled in order to work. We ate lunch at the café in the hot...
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