Silent Night, Silent Day

Well, things have been settling down, students have left, staff have gone for winter vacation some have flown back to their homes, some have left for warmer parts of India, but there are still some people left on the hillside including us. We decided that we would stay about a week extra and spend Christmas in our cozy house, and then leave for Goa the day after. It has been great sleeping in, going to bed late, having people over and working on randomn art projects. Here are some photos that I took when we went for a stroll in the bazaar the other day, usually I make short quick trips in and I don't look at the details.




Here's an attempt at trying to be in the Christmas spirit, I made this using ferns and pine, unfortunately, ferns wilt pretty fast.

When you walk into the Bazaar usually our first stop is the tailor shops, the ones that we like to go to are at the start of the bazaar. I find it a really inspiring place to go, with all the colourful material stacked on the shelves, clothing hanging outside of the shop that are waiting for people that ordered them to pick them up, you can have anything tailored to fit. The other interesting thing is that most tailors use hand-propelled sewing machines, it's convenient because of the often power surges. I inquired about a machine, thinking that I would like to do some sewing myself...I don't think that I will, I am on vacation. The sewing machine in the first photo is from Germany, about 90 years old, the tailor was a little reluctant to sell me that one.

If you walk down the steep hill further into the heart of the bazaar you pass some interesting shops, I think that my favourite one is the clock repair shop, it is about the size of a phone booth and an elderly man sits and tinkers with clocks and watches.

Then you continue down through the bazaar and if you are lucky the antique shop will be open, the good one on the left hand side. It is stocked with evidence of the British wealth, original paintings, glass chandeliers, teapots and cups, gold and silver bangles.... I could spend hours looking, but I don't. So, we continue through the bazaar passing old bajaj scooters, ambassadors and peeling paint that has seen the passing of time.

As we walk past the tea and coffee shop that also functions as a second-hand clothing store, we make our way to the touristy area, where things like Dominoes pizza and Cafe Coffee Day are. This is where I put my camera away, the details are just not there to photograph and have been replaced with fancy signs, fresh coats of paint and modernism...

To get a good cup of coffee can be difficult (if you don't want nescafe), so I do go to the chain of Cafe Coffee Day, I guess that you could say that it is kind of like a Starbucks... I think that the location is my favourite place, it is on second-story of a building, with a glass wall that overlooks the street. When I sat here a couple of days ago I watched a man get a shave on the street from a man that had a little supply box that said Body Massage...I don't think that I would like to get a body massage on the street.

The weather has been beautiful here, with amazing views of the mountain ranges that surround use, this is a view from our house...the flat prairies of Manitoba will be different someday. Anyways, we are awaiting more company and adventure.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

a quest.

so it feels like a long time ago when i was forced to say goodbye to my baby blue... we've moved on and life without her has become normal. life here at woodstock has kept us pretty busy, and with little free time to make the long journey... and not knowing if the road would be fixed has kept me from attempting the trip. i was a little worried to head back though, the first time we went there we were snowed out and sent home early, then last time i was sent home without the bike... what would be in store this time?

but i convinced kyle that we should head off on a good adventure before the end of the school year. so we were off at around 7 am on saturday. after a couple bus rides we made it to sankri at around 4pm, over the newly fixed wash-out that prevented my escape in summer 5 months ago. we found raju (our trekking guide-buddy) and there was the bike, looking a little dusty, but still there.


raju's guest house... heading off at the crack of dawn

here's kyle at the washout. it's fixed, not smooth, but fixed.

so this all probably seems to easy... well, it wasn't so simple. one of the beauties of indian petrol is that there is usually quite a bit of water in it, so after cleaning it all out we only had around 2 litres to get us 50 kms to the nearest pump. most of the trip was downhill so we figured we'd coast as much as we could, drive a bit, and then when we ran dry.... push. it felt like we were in "cool runnings". with helmets on, pushing and hopping on.... the locals had some good laughs.

after some tiring pushing we made it to the village where we hoped to find some fuel, but it turned out the gas-man was closed for sunday. so we hired jeep to make the rest of the journey to the pump.