India: Day 42: Climbing back down the Himalayas

Despite the sewer smell around the beds, we slept all right. We didn't wake up at 6AM as we would have liked to but we did set out to do some hiking early in the morning. It was nice to be alone for a few hours and do what we wanted for the first time this trip. We didn't know where there was a hiking trail and when we found a trail leading up the mountains we didn't know where it took us. We just walked and walked and walked up the very steep hill and enjoyed the changing scenery (and weather!). I always enjoyed hiking and always wondered why I didn't do more of it.

After that we had some fast food at this Tibetan place outside the hotel, then we checked out, said good bye to Ruuma and her daughter, and we set out to return to Shimla with the driver who stayed (somewhere overnight, in the car?) and took us back. We had just under one hour in Shimla before heading to the bus stop, and we had to do a lot of "business" too (flight arrangements, printing bus tickets) so really not a lot of time to enjoy this city that, as I had said, was very charming. We both agreed it would be very worthwhile returning here and spend a couple of days walking around and enjoying that charm it had. There had been cities in I've visited in all my travels that I wish I had more time to enjoy upon leaving, and this was one of them.

Here are some other noteworthy points for the day:

A goat herder with four strange-looking goats; they all had very long hair. Jennifer thought they were for making pashmina. I was told that traditionally pashmina wool was made from hair left behind by special Himalayan goats when they scratched their bodies against tree trunks and rocks.
The Tibetan eatery was cute. It was the only place advertising Tibetan food that actually had Tibetan words written all over, as well as the Tibetan prayer flags and a photo of the Dalai Lama. Tibetans here, I think, are mostly native to the area and found themselves within the Indian border for reasons of British colonialism. But there were probably also Tibetans who fled Tibet in what is now China. So I don't know which group the owner of this place belonged to.
So may people carry things in their backs, both men and women. You'd see women carrying huge stacks of cut vegetation on their backs walking along the mountain roads as cars and trunks roam past by.
The roads in these mountains are surprisingly good. It again reminded me that Lucknow and the state it was governing were just really backwarded and indeed the second poorest place in India.
We stopped and bought a box of cherries for $3! It was not cheap, but cherries are never cheap. We just started eating it in the car in place of a real lunch. I was getting car sick anyway so no real desire for a sit down meal.
Lots of monkeys on the road to bid us farewell. There was a cluster of mommy monkeys and the little baby ones that were each clinging onto the chests of their mommies. It was like Mommy get-together or something. I wonder if they chat about Mommy stuff. Diaper changing?
A cow with an udder as big as her head was seen inside a truck and pooping at the same time (onto the truck). I can't imagine she was having a good time in that rickety truck with that huge udder.
The clouds at times enshrouded the roads and I felt like we were in some mystical place surrounded by barely visible, towering pines.