Indian stuff

More from Andrew:
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> Hey girls,
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> We're having a complete blast in Bir/Billing.
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> Bir started to grow as a Tibetan refugee village. Now it's a Tibetan community surrounded by elaborately gilded Buddhist monasteries ( you know, monks with round faces and shaven heads wearing purple robes, golden lions and huge gongs, all drinking yak curds? ) So being Tibetan, many folk have slightly Chinese features (it's a joke, so laughs here please), and different cuisine.
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> Bir's a hilly place at the foot of the Himalayas, rising from 1,500m at Bir through 2,400m at the Billing takeoff ( the first change of slope ) to 3,400m at t he crest of the ridge just behind takeoff. The next hills back get up to +4,000m and then into the PROPER hills.
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> Mornings are clear, with Cu's starting on the east-facing slopes around 9 bells. Base was varied today, from 2,400m to 3,100 m. So we don't see much of the topography after 10 or 11 am (see pics).
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> Everything works by taxi. Roads are v tight, between terraced rice paddies or tea fields. So the protocol is to hoot. At peds. At other cars. At dogs, sheep whatever. Continuous. No aggro, but plenty horn.
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> Taxis are mainly (very) small Tata's. Pilot travel is 3 wings on roof and one in back. Tight with 3 Sud Afri's on the back seat.
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> It's about 40 minutes up the windy windy to T/off. Virtually no overtaking. Hooting all the way.
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> The comp is smallish with about 65 entrants, mostly less experienced. The Indian superstars Vijay ( our gracious host ) and Guprid and the Russian National Champion ( forget his name ) are the best of the bunch.
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> Today's task was a 50k race up and down the ridge, then a few k's out for the end of speed section and back to landing. Pretty easy, but you need to get each climb first time to stay fast.
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> The start was fantastic. We all got 200 - 300m above base in the wisps. Strong fingers of lift shooting up at 6 or 7. Himalayan griffons, Lammergeiers and a host of other raptors showing us the cores. Have to be careful though as they easily fly into you if you join them the wrong way!
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> We (Indians and Sud Afris) were styling at the start. Only prob was that the Ruskie was 100's of metres above us and he could avoid the second climb, never to be reeled back in!
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> Sharp fingers run down from the back ridge into the valley, separated by bottomless gullies. Each finger works, and on both sides! Quite fun flying. And great racing. Never certain where along the ridge the climb will be if the vultures aren't about, so the advantage changed back and forth a few times. Guess we will understand the lines much better in a day or two.
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> By the second last TP, the Russian was a few minutes ahead with Nevil and Vijay neck and neck. Theuns gave them a few minutes and Guprid and I went to the wrong turn point, extending their existing advantage over us by a further 5 or even 10 minutes. We had been told which was the second last turn point but it was somewhere else!
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> And to compound matters this Jimmy couldn't manage to start his fancy (and nice) new instrument so had to guess the distance to some turn points. Ugly.
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> Unbelievable number of paragliders here. Free fliers. Bivvy artists. Tandems. Jockey and John Silvester coaching. Russians by bus load. French. Some Brits. Probably +200 in the sky today.
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> Culture & Touring
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> Amazing place India. Bedonered cultural diversity. Quite religious in general, the main beliefs being Hindu, Buddhism, Sikh and Islam. Vijay is Hindu so he's explained the significance of some of the temples we've visited and the importance of some of the 1,008 Hindu gods. An old temple we visited nearby, Baijnath, with the sacred/protected monkeys, dates back to about 750 AD.
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> On the drive up to take off, there's a small temple where you leave an offering to the flying god ( actually the goddess Matagi who rides a tiger and carries a trident and sword, protecting us from all things bad) make some gifts of food, ring the bell, light the incense and so forth.
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> The opening ceremony included a prayer ceremony on takeoff. Sit cross legged around the fire on which the priest sprinkles oil while chanting as those around repeat the chants and sprinkle spices into the flames. Then orange and black daubs onto the foreheads ( and temples and ear lobes ) - makes Catholicism look plain vanilla! We all receive marigold garlands for luck.
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> Food is Indian. Unless you hunt out noodles in the Tibetan quarter, and get a bit more Chinese flavour. So we have curries, rice, dhal, kidney beans etc. prices are low to ridiculous. Last night our meal for four (2 x mutton curry with rice, 1x chicken curry ditto, 1 x veg curry, 2 portions dhal, beans and plenty roti with 2 cokes and water) amounted to Rp 380 or R65!
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> Here education is taken seriously and the kids all attend school diligently. In neat uniforms, for long hours. An interesting observation is that while cellphones and TVs are omnipresent, the Indian culture remains strong - even kids wear traditional clothes. Not the Disney franchised pink barbies and blue Ben tens fed to our kids by American tv. Probably because Bollyhood is so strong and dominates the programming here - apart from cricket of course!
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> Sent from my iPad