Morning cycling

Let me be absolutely honest. The sole purpose of this post is to provoke envy and longing sighs...

The topic is my morning cycle rides. Finally, it has become to cold for swimming. Instead, Im cycling 15-20 km in the mountains most mornings. The rides are absolutely fantastic and makes it very hard to imagine life without that habit...

 I usually start at 6.30 am along with the staff's exercise.

 First view point: The Wall - the greatest rapid of Ganga

 I love the bonmots along the way - not least the handpainted that often includes some Indian spelling variations..

 The monsun is rather brutal and every year some parts of the roads are washed away.

 Point of return most days: Daniel's Dip (rapid) and Kaudyala (village)

Yup, it was me.

 Another sign - how would anyone want to rush through the beauty of this valley.

Breathtaking part 1

Breathtaking part 2 

Cows doesn't need much space as long as the got a good view... 

Some mornings I stop at a dhapa for a nice cup of morning chai. 

Steamingly hot and freshly made

Downtown Byasi means almost home at Atali.

 And of course - monkeys. It's been a while since I found them fascinating - they're basically just a hazzle.

On the top, behind the trees, Atali's hiding and Im back home...

The End - jealousy begin!

Christmas

You can't really say christmas has reached Atali - but christmas decorations certainly have. I've never been the biggest christmas maniac, but it seems a lot easier to live with, when christmas is coming in the company of fortysomething rather clueless Indians (when it comes to christmas that is), who still find christmas rather colorful and would like to put up decorations and lights everywhere.

I held them back, so decorations didn't come up till 1. December. They were in charge of that part, I had my own contribution. In the huge box with last years decorations, I found 4 christmas hats. I promised some of the boys a present if they wear them till christmas eve... They were rather reluctant the first couple of days, but as the cold weather has set in (yes, cold!), 4 pixies have joined the staff at Atali and turn up the oddest places. Gotta love it!

Putting up decorations

 Choda Umesh (Small Umesh) put on the hat already on 1. December, most likely because I told him to do so... (in a very nice way).

 Mahendra wasn't either a completely volutary pixy, though, he did surrender for a couple of minutes.

10 days later and 5 degrees colder, Shivpu, Rohit and Rakesh has turned into voluntary pixies. What's not to like? (Jahindra is the fourth wearing a christmas hat, but he wasn't around at picture time).

Actually, Ranaji was the first to go. He got the hat from his son and has been wearing it since some time in November.

PS: Nifle brought me a present, which is waiting for christmas eve to be opened.

Visit from Denmark

Somehow, time suddenly went by without any blog posts. It feels like I've been busy, though to be honest, I haven't. Unless a friends' visit, hindi practise and communication with chaotic India can be considered being busy...

Now it's time to catch up a bit with a couple of posts in a row. First Nifle's visit. Nifle is my very very dear old friend. She used to be my study partner throughout university and the number of hours we've spent in eachother's company is endless. As we've taken almost all exams together (group exams in Denmark allows you to do that) we also write the same way, (though, Nifle has always been in charge of commas). And the most amazing is - we've never ever had a fight. Not even during our 8 months thesis writing in which we spent every single day together. And now it was finally time to show her my India.

Nifle had been permitted 8 days leave from her family and I could pick her up in Delhi airport, where she laughed the first time (not the last) of how integrated I've become. The reason was that I was wearing a down jacket, though, the sun was shining and the temperature on it's way to 15 degrees (Celsius). I was freezing!

We started out with a couple of days in Delhi to give Nifle a quick introduction to some of the major clashes in this country. The clash between noisy chaos and quiet harmony, between poverty and rich extravaganza, between ultra modernity and extreme backwardness side by side. Clash, clash, clash. Some prejudices were eliminated, some confirmed.

Next stop was Atali. The drive up got Nifle's fright in India (almost) focused to the traffic. Ok, it can be brutal. And it is definately completely unpredictable. I had made sure that we got a good car and a reliable driver, but, nonetheless, Nifle found it best to keep eyes and ears shut most of the journey.

The mountains - and Atali - turned out to be a very welcome clash to the traffic. Even if I've tried to explain how immensely jaw dropping this place is, it's still hard to comprehense without having been here. Nifle got the point pretty fast and everytime we left the room or she turned her head, a spontaneous "wauv" slipped out.

Atali is absolutely perfect for getting away from most things and forgetting about hazzles elsewhere, so most of the time, we simply just enjoyed to be, to raft, to hike, to look at the river and the mountains, to visit Rishikesh and to talk about nice things. Way too soon, she had to go back. Søren, her husband, sent me a text politely asking me to send her back home...

Velcome! The staff had recreated the carrying chair for Nifle's introduction brief. This time with an added throwing of flowers - please notice the yellow flowers on her lap.

 Indian school kids are objectively speaking extremely photogenic. And they look good with Nifle.

Early evening by the Ganga - a cow, a monk and a little mermaid.

Lights are send of at the evening Aarti at the Ganga to secure health and good luck.

Find the girl, who isn't an over exided Indian kid aged 3 to 6 years...

Who can understand, what Im doing here - and like it?