So, another volunteer, Nemo, and I decided to go hiking this morning. We were determined to hike the mountain that you can see from our home base (it's not very big, more like a giant hill). We struck out, leaving the road to take a dusty footpath that wound through rice paddies and ended at some concrete steps leading to a white suspension bridge (weird--it's this bridge that pops up in the middle of no where). Over the suspension bridge, we followed the path through a village and past a temple (picture #2 above). Then, we took a path up the mountain. Up, up, up, on dirt, rock-strewn road. We made a wrong turn and wound up in someone's yard. It was a dirt yard with a sheep tied to a tree (bleating). The owners, an elderly lady and her two sons, came out to greet us. They convinced us to come inside to their little sitting room, which was thankfully very, very cool, with low ceiling, blue walls, stone floor. On the television was Sesame Street in Hindi. They offered us cold water, but we said no (of course, our stomachs can't handle the water here--we have to have "safe" bottled water), and then they offered us tea (again, I said no thank you). One of the sons asked us where we were from, and we told him Green Acres iin Palampur. We told them we were hiking the mountain, but unfortunately, the youth thought we were saying that we were lost and needed to get back to Green Acres. He insisted on walking us back down the mountain and all the way to the suspension bridge to show us the way.
So, we didn't get to really hike the mountain, but we made a very nice friend. He's in the picture with me above, and the lady is just a villager who followed us.
I love this place!
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