The Easier Hike

September 7, 2009 at 10:09 am · Filed under Chris' Posts

So you may have read Nicole’s recent blog post about her LONG hike. I knew that the hike would be too long for me, so I didn’t even consider it. But I did have the opportunity to go on a motorcycle ride/hike to a small peak called Pepperpot. Our neighbors Casey and Christina have a motorcycle and another teacher Andrzej has a scooter. We rode for maybe 15-20 minutes to the trail head. The ride was beautiful, but I didn’t get any video cause I was still getting used to the bike (Casey drove, I rode). The hike was just my style, it was short, but gave me a good workout. It felt like we were forging our own way because the trail wasn’t clearly defined and at times we had to use our hands to scramble up the rocks. The view was amazing from the top and I even got a few glimpses at the snow-peaks (really crazy). On the way back some clouds had rolled in so the view wasn’t as good during the drive, but I still got some video. The video is the last minute before we got to our house. You get a view of the Hanifl Outdoor Education Center (part of the school) which is just around the corner from our place.

I put the 2-Wheeler (Indian name for motorcycle) ride first:

What an amazing view:

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India - A strange mix.

September 1, 2009 at 10:15 am · Filed under Chris' Posts

So I thought I’d give you a slightly bigger view of where we live. There are such stark contrasts between the beauty of this place and lack of respect shown toward that beauty in the culture. Near populated areas where ever you look there’s trash littering the ground. There is even a beautiful hillside between the school and Mussoorie that is covered with garbage thrown down by the locals. I always thought the EPA and other such agencies where just bureaucracy, but I have now come to appreciate the roll they play. Anyway, I digress, I have 5 videos that will hopefully give you a bigger view of life here. First is a view of the amazing scenery driving up the mountain.

The next video is driving down the mountain back towards Dehradun. Notice the Indianisms.

Now we start to get into mass population areas. The next video is of a field hockey tournament in Mussoorie.

This is a quick drive through the bizarre in Mussoorie on a Friday afternoon. The buzz isn’t very busy but you get an idea of what it is like.

This video was taken on our way through Dehradun the very first day. It’s still not the crazy overwhelming India I’ve experinced from time to time, but it does give you a taste. You also get to see the general cleanliness level. Not quite the same as the US.

I hope you enjoy these. Please leave comments to let me know what you think.

PS - All of these videos are in HD, but you have to go to watch them on youtube’s site to see them in HD. Just double click the video and it should open in a new window. Then click the HD button!

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