Initially it goes downhill, about 5 degrees C but feels colder, and my hands turned purple. I put one at a time in my pocket.
The beautiful scenery more than makes up for it. The road winds along the mountain. A stream at the valley floor is rock strewn peaceful and audible. The green monkeys seemed scared which is a nice thing compared to the aggressive antics experienced before.
It winds along like this all day. Traffic is reasonably light and easy to avoid. At a servo, there is a pump where the pressure can be set precisely via digital readout, v nice.
A man I meet invited me to have a cup of tea and lunch. I declined as I need to make progress. A car load of young guy stop to ask where I'm from, where I'm going, do I have Instagram, Facebook etc. Lunch was at a roadside stall. The cook comes from a poor family. His dad is sick so he has to work here. I think he was from Shimla? He asked about migration to Australia and working as a chef there. I gave him the usual advice, to go for a study visa. But I don't think that he has any money to pay for the airfare. He would like to work in my home but I explained it's too small. He should check the au-paire ads. All this is via translator and is the most substantial conversation today.
The hotels en route looked rubbish but I ended up at the HOTEL OJAS & RESTAURANT!, MAIN MARKET, Kalka - Shimla Highway, Kumarhatti, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, India. It is excellent, apart from working out the shower (I ended up using the bucket and scoop), and the doona had a dirty line where it touches people's necks. The pillow looks clean. Dinner was Aloo Mattar, Dahl and 5 rotis, very good.
Before dinner I bought 300g of sensational sweets 130 rupees, ate a couple. This is an instant mood changer. I love this place although it is situated under the NH5 flyover, just like in the Blues Brothers but with more dirt, uneven pavement and shops higgledy-piggledy around the round about with the major support structure in it.
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