Tourist Week: Saturday

On to Saturday! We did the official "tourist day" on Saturday. It was especially nice because Chris could come (he's still having to work, poor man!), and we got to do some things that he hadn't even done yet! First stop, Garhwal!

As part of the tourist trap that is Mussoorie, there are rows of photo booths with traditional Garhwali outfits (Garhwal is the region of India that we live in). It's the Indian version of the black and white saloon pictures that everyone takes in America. :) None of these are the "official pictures", but you get the idea.

I LOVE this one of Chris! Chris' mom has created a tradition where she brings back some sort of weapon for the boys everywhere she goes - swords, daggers, pocket knives, etc. Therefore, I found it very fitting when the photographer handed the current King of Garhwal his sword.

Silly sisters.

Isn't he so handsome?!

We rode rickshaws to Happy Valley. It was CRAZY (it's high tourist season in Mussoorie right now, and although it was fun to see how intense it gets, it was NOT fun to be in the traffic!)

In front of the Tibetan Buddhist Temple

Amy turning the prayer wheel

Looking out on the valley from Flag Hill #2

Flag Hill is COVERED in Tibetan Prayer Flags...it's really neat. :)

And then, on to the man-powered ferris wheel! I had posted pictures about this before too, but they were in a small slide show and I wasn't sure it was CLEARLY COMMUNICATED how AWESOME this is. :) The men evenly distribute the weight of passengers, and then move around on the ferris wheel to make it go - and it goes FAST!

Amy and I at the top...

The guys walk on the spokes to keep it moving

Sometimes they'll grab on and ride it all the way around, upside down. and sometimes, they'll grab onto the back of your cart and ride yours down to the ground...it's seriously so neat!

Funniest part of the day: having 3 white people in the bazaar during tourist season (2 of which are young blonde girls) did attract attention. Amy and I were videotaped the entire time we were on the ferris wheel and Chris actually had a father come up to him to ask if his son could shake his hand! My favorite though was this guy below. He asked Chris if he could take a picture with him because he looked so much like Tom Cruise (yeah, that's my husband!)

It made me feel happy though, that even being a white person in India who know almost NO Hindi, we still weren't as "bad" of tourists as the native Indians. :)