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On Saturday I visited a town (if you can call it that) called Mussoorie. (Think Missouri with a Hindi accent). It is tucked away in the hills (foothills… of the Himalaya’s). I went with my co-traveler Matt, and two college students from Indiana who are also staying here. At our highest point of elevation we were about 7,500 to 8,000 feet in elevation. This “town” is really a series of hamlets, or villages build into the side of really steep mountain slopes. The roads that connect these villages are a little wider than one lane back in the states and somehow they are two land roads here.

The first picture on the left is of a small slum along a river not too far from the college. There are slums here in the North but they are not like what you find farther south.

Some of the unique things that we saw on the roads from Darhedun and these mountain hamlets were cows, monkeys and guys carrying massively heavy loads on their backs and shoulders using a kind of sling that is tied to their heads.

The Most common Monkeys in this part of India is called the Rhesus monkey in English. In Hindi they are called Baghndar, there is no generic word for Monkey.

Monkeys are as common on these streets as squirrels. I made the observation that there was hardly any road kill on the streets - in fact there was none. I figured it had to be because monkeys are much quicker than squirrels and maybe a little smarter too.

The guy in the picture to the left is carrying a comparatively light load. I saw one guy who had just lifted what looked like a dresser onto his back / head.

Cows make their way up and down the streets like pedestrians. Cars will wait for oncoming traffic to ease before trying to pass a cow in the street, or a driver will honk his horn to let the cow know that he is trying to get by. Mexico has street dogs, but India has street cows. You will occasionally see one simply lying on the side of the road; even way up on these narrow windy mountain roads.

This statue of Shiva stood about thirty feet tall.

Another unique sight while we were on our way was a large statue of Shiva, the primary god of this region. Shiva is always holding a trident and always has a snake on him in some form or fashion. There is a massive Temple complex to Shiva, the largest in North India here. There are many other smaller ones around as well. I was told that as big as this one is, it is expanding. This region has been hit by Muslim extremists over the last ten years (the kind of stuff that does not get reported in western media) and as a result there has been a nationalistic movement towards Hinduism.

You are just barely able to see part of the complex in the picture on the left. It was take from a road as we passed by it. If you look closely you will see tridents throughout the architecture.

There is no official national religion in India; on the books India is a secular nation. But if you ask anyone, they will tell you that to be Indian is to be Hindu. Terrorism has created a resurgence in the popularity and practice of Hinduism here.

The windy narrow roads were at times breathtaking and a testament to Indian engineering was how they were able to get buildings to stand on these steep slopes.

These windy roads led us to our first stop; a British graveyard on the side of steep mountain slope...