The Everest House and Diwali Pictures

The Everest House and Diwali Pictures

I think I forgot to mention it in my blogs, but George Everest, the famous British surveyor for whom Mount Everest is named, had a house in Mussoorie. I went there on the Monday after my trek. Here are some pictures from the property.

You can walk all around the property.

 This is the wishing well.

One of the views from the house.

 Unfortunately, the house itself has fallen into disrepair. It's really rundown with graffiti all over it. However, the scenery from the house is gorgeous!

 There is a small hill outside the house decorated with Tibetan prayer flags. It's really beautiful!

Here are the streets of Mussoorie decorated for Diwali!

As I mentioned in my blog, the sweet shops were packed!

I have two quick monkey stories for you.

On Monday, Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god, came after me. I'm not sure what this is telling me. Anyway, I was walking from my house with a bag full of buckwheat flour when I ran into a few monkeys on the path. They apparently wanted to make some roti because a monkey (with one arm) came at me with one and tried to steal my flour. Luckily, I moved swiftly, yelled fiercely, and got it away managing to hang onto my flour.

This morning I had a much scarier encounter. I was on my way to school and not carrying any food in my hands. All of a sudden, I came across a huge group of monkeys (the macaques which I hate!). I decided to walk past them as usual but got scared when I got up close. I backed away and picked up a rock which most people use to scare them. I through the rock in the monkeys' direction in an effort to make them run down the hill and away from me. My plan backfired because they all started chasing me! I ran away screaming and trying to hiss (not very effectively). Fortunately, they retreated but were still blocking the path. I didn't think I would be able to make it to school, especially because I was hiding right inside my neighbor's gate. After a minute or two, they moved on down the hill to pester someone else, and I made it to school.

I am back to carrying my umbrella now. (However, I think the monkeys are especially aggressive these days because there are so many fireworks going off all the time. Plus, people probably throw directly at the monkeys. I would probably attack too.) I am was lucky though because none of them bit me. I am saved from the rabies treatment for now. =)