Chale!!! Our trip started off with the nineof us, all rushing, still stuffing towels and shirts into our backpacks, to pile into one suburban (with a driver who had crazy bright honey and green eyes and henna maroon hair). We were off to Pachmari, a hill resort in a jungly mountainous area of Madhya Pradesh. The six hour drive was crammed but fun. We ate snacks (not to be confused with snakes as Vikas did many times throughout the trip. then there was the famous kitchen-chicken debacle..), blasted bollywood jams (kuch kuch hota ey is the besttt) and put our heads out the windows as we zipped through the countryside. Outside of Bhopal (we were heading south) it was all farms and the occasional little village or town, jampacked with life and commotion and neon colors as our car was with sweaty people. The sun set over the fields in a blaze of orange and red as round and sundar as jayshree’s chapattis and alizarin and I knew this weekend was about to be incredible.
After dark we reached the area around Pachmari, and you could tell cause suddenly the car was dipping and reeling at the most unlikely angles, defying physics with every turn, and headlights were shining at thick tangles of trees, brush and vines. We rejoiced all the way, making us tired out and starving by the time we got through about a million bamboo-pole toll stops and to our hotel. We quickly set up in our room, which was the physical embodiment of a longtime fantasy for alizarin and i, literally a BED room. all of it save for a narrow path bisecting it lengthwise was one giant Indian cotton patterned bed, perfectly conducive to a 2 night slumber party of the best kind. We shoveled malai kofta and chana into our bodies in the silent, zombielike manner of some tiredass clinic workers then went on a Roopa-inspired post-meal walk in a tight circle around Pachmari’s little, relatively bare streets. We treated Biju to an icecream and grilled him about his life story while Vikas tried to convince everyone to go to a “night club” to dance (which sounded to us sensible gori goris like the everyday experience of having tons of Indian men standing around leering creepily at you except intensified +techno bollywood and like 2 colored lights… essentially hell). Back at the room Biju and I donned turbans and we all played cards- bullshit or, as Indians say, bluffmaster. It was hilarious because Roopa, Biju, Jay and especially Vikas were hilariously inept and kept trying moves like ’15 tens’ or putting down a 9 when they were supposed to put 8 because ‘that’s what i have. i have a lot of 9’s”. We laughed a lot, had a brief and destructive ladies vs. gents pillow fight and then went to sleep.
The next day was 100 percent amazing site seeing. We got in the suburban and didn’t stop til we had traversed pachmari’s wonders to the max. the itinerary went…
-a shiva temple carved into a deep, narrow, rocky ravine complete with old ladies kissing and worshipping smoothed stalagtites believed to be shiva lingams (aka the holy penis of hinduism’s “great destroyer”) and men in just their skivvies bathing in holy mineral water (that had a hindi sign in front of it specifically prohibiting swimming!). littering the steps leading down to the temple were tons of carts full of ayurvedic treatments and spices- all plants from the surrounding forests including gigantic jungle onions and some suspicious red, bony things that alizarin and I are convinced were dried monkeys’ hands
-a brief stop at a 19th century Anglican church built for the british officers of the hill station. it was funny how foreign and impressive the place seemed just because it was so outlandish in landscape of asian-influenced mosques and temples. we sat outside on an odd reclining stone bench with vikas and had a few bites of his parathas then briefly entered the cool chamber, again a world apart from the blinding Indian sun outside.
-went to ‘suicide point’ basically a high cliff overlooking gorgeous mountains, where we ate sitaphal for the first time. we had seen the mysterious fruit before on the bhopali streets and always thought it was some bitter vegetable, based on its resemblance to an artichoke, but now discovered that inside the spiky green shell there are tons of miniature white mangos around black overgrown watermelon-looking seeds.
-our next stop was at echo point, another cliff above gorges of jungle trees. biju immediately howled into the valley, which howled back after a moment, but when we tried the rocks refused to acknowledge our peeps as return-worthy. eventually dede's got reflected, but the rest of us got shamed.
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we returned to the vehicle and got psyched to hike the 2 km to the temple at the top of the mountain. unfortunately, we never made it to the temple. we stopped and got snacks of poha, vegetable patties, jalebi and kachori in the midst of a giant farmer picnic that was going on near the temple. we lost dr. jay and roopa on their voyage to find a bathroom so we decided to sit and wait for them. to our good fortune, we ended up sitting near the camping ground of a sweet lady who looked just like laura radigan. she insisted on feeding us boiled peanuts, something i'd only had in dong tee (like a chinese tamale) before, and delicious home-prepared masala snacks. by the time we decided to head back to the vehicle for our lost party, it was too late to see the temple.
-Bee Falls was our next stop, so named because when the British colonized this shit back in the 18/19th centuries, they thought that standing under the waterfall felt like being stung by thousands of bees at once. Vikas and Dr. Jay jumped in to the chilled upper-fall pools, closely followed by Biju and Dede (fully clothed, gleefully following Indian dress codes). Everyone else lingered around the edges of the water and Victoria and I started to dip our toes in, which turned out to be an AWFUL idea because it put us close enough to the thoroughly drenched that they grabbed me by all limbs and dropped me, jeans and all, straight into the rushing, littered-in water of Bee Falls. We dried out on the rocks before trudging back into the car, ready to head out for...
-THE TALLEST MOUNTAIN IN MADHYA PRADESH!
It was a victory to watch the sun set from there.
Back to the hotel, the four Amrikis singing Beatles and Simon & Garfunkle with Biju trying to join in even though he'd never heard the songs before packed into the rear of the suv, then Dede and Vikas battled yoga-style while we all tapered off to sleep after a long, glorious day of sightseeing.
The next morning Dr. Jay let us sleep in a little longer than the day before. Breakfast was served in bed to us (cuz there isn't any other furniture in that room!!) by the hotel chicken...whoops i mean kitchen, before we sat outside to wait for our tourguide.
Sight seeing day number two:
-some more rocks to climb.
-another gorgeous but more remote waterfall.
-a looong walk through a couple caves and back again. Dede and I spent a lot of our walking time appreciating a couple of our favorite teachers and appreciating the diversity of Chicago's cuisine.
-Dr. Jay stopped at EVERY POSSIBLE POINT to have someone take a serious nature photo of him.
-another cliff from where we could see the spot that the British used to execute people at by pushing them off, as opposed to hanging.
We ended the day with masala dosas at a little restaurant near the hotel followed by another 5-hour ride home, but what are close quarters among the greatest of traveling companions if not the optimal time to rejoice?
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