What an awesome weekend!
Friday afternoon our whole program took a trip to Aga Khan Palace, where Gandhi was imprisoned for two years by the British. It was so quiet and peaceful. The palace has become a national memorial for Gandhi. Inside, we walked through a few of the rooms where he stayed with his wife. The Indian people have so much respect for Gandhi. There's a reason his picture is on all the currency.
Then, from Saturday morning to Sunday night, six of us from the program went on an overnight camping/hiking trip with the outdoor adventure club at Ferguson College (where we are taking our classes). It was pretty random that we ended up going; one of the guys just saw a sign for it in the middle of campus. It was QUITE the adventure. The Indian guy who was running the trip said it was going to be a two hour long "pretty flat" walk. The hike ended up being up this huge mountain where you had to climb up these ladders and rocks at the end. But the view was amazing! The hike was out in a really rural area outside of Pune. We walked through the fields of a farm village on the way up. The villagers make money by selling snacks and serving lunch to hikers who come to do the trek.
At the top of the mountain was Fort Ratangad. We slept in caves that overlooked an amazing view of other huge rock mountains and lakes. We had some company up top- wild monkeys. They seemed cute until someone opened a packet of crackers and one monkey scrambled up to the group and jumped on one of the guys. Another guy kicked it and it ran away, but for the rest of the time we were all wary of getting too close to the monkeys. They were all over and came by the campsite frequently to grab little pieces of trash.
It was so nice to be outside and away from pollution! On Sunday we climbed around the top of the fort and explored other parts of the mountain. All the Indian students were so friendly to us. Indian culture is definitely more communal than at home. When people pulled out their lunch on the first day, everyone shared their food with everyone else. We hiked back down on Sunday afternoon (down the somewhat sketchy ladders) and ate lunch in the village at the bottom. I had the freshest rice I have ever eaten in my life. I'm pretty sure I was sitting about ten feet away from where it had been grown.
One thing that was not so great- the water situation. Me and the other Americans brought two or three bottles of water each because we knew we couldn't drink the water there, but it was not enough. The hike up on Saturday was really hot, so we drank a lot of water then. The Indian students were drinking water from a stream at the top of Fort Ratangad, but we were all worried we were going to get sick. We were also concerned about drinking the non-filtered water in the village on Sunday, so we all got on the bus home so thirsty. At the first town we went through we made the whole bus pull over so I could run out and buy six liters of water; one for each of us. When I got back on the bus, one of the Indian guys asked if I was sure I had gotten all the change back from the guy selling water. All together the six liters cost less than a dollar. I would have paid ten times that for each bottle. Moral of the story: Being dehydrated in the middle of rural India is not fun.
Other than the water, the trip was amazing! I realized I miss hiking and camping. Here are some the pictures:
Me and Harmony on the way up.
Sushant and Ashna.
Sunday morning sun rise.
Village at the bottom of the mountain.
Friday afternoon our whole program took a trip to Aga Khan Palace, where Gandhi was imprisoned for two years by the British. It was so quiet and peaceful. The palace has become a national memorial for Gandhi. Inside, we walked through a few of the rooms where he stayed with his wife. The Indian people have so much respect for Gandhi. There's a reason his picture is on all the currency.
Then, from Saturday morning to Sunday night, six of us from the program went on an overnight camping/hiking trip with the outdoor adventure club at Ferguson College (where we are taking our classes). It was pretty random that we ended up going; one of the guys just saw a sign for it in the middle of campus. It was QUITE the adventure. The Indian guy who was running the trip said it was going to be a two hour long "pretty flat" walk. The hike ended up being up this huge mountain where you had to climb up these ladders and rocks at the end. But the view was amazing! The hike was out in a really rural area outside of Pune. We walked through the fields of a farm village on the way up. The villagers make money by selling snacks and serving lunch to hikers who come to do the trek.
At the top of the mountain was Fort Ratangad. We slept in caves that overlooked an amazing view of other huge rock mountains and lakes. We had some company up top- wild monkeys. They seemed cute until someone opened a packet of crackers and one monkey scrambled up to the group and jumped on one of the guys. Another guy kicked it and it ran away, but for the rest of the time we were all wary of getting too close to the monkeys. They were all over and came by the campsite frequently to grab little pieces of trash.
It was so nice to be outside and away from pollution! On Sunday we climbed around the top of the fort and explored other parts of the mountain. All the Indian students were so friendly to us. Indian culture is definitely more communal than at home. When people pulled out their lunch on the first day, everyone shared their food with everyone else. We hiked back down on Sunday afternoon (down the somewhat sketchy ladders) and ate lunch in the village at the bottom. I had the freshest rice I have ever eaten in my life. I'm pretty sure I was sitting about ten feet away from where it had been grown.
One thing that was not so great- the water situation. Me and the other Americans brought two or three bottles of water each because we knew we couldn't drink the water there, but it was not enough. The hike up on Saturday was really hot, so we drank a lot of water then. The Indian students were drinking water from a stream at the top of Fort Ratangad, but we were all worried we were going to get sick. We were also concerned about drinking the non-filtered water in the village on Sunday, so we all got on the bus home so thirsty. At the first town we went through we made the whole bus pull over so I could run out and buy six liters of water; one for each of us. When I got back on the bus, one of the Indian guys asked if I was sure I had gotten all the change back from the guy selling water. All together the six liters cost less than a dollar. I would have paid ten times that for each bottle. Moral of the story: Being dehydrated in the middle of rural India is not fun.
Other than the water, the trip was amazing! I realized I miss hiking and camping. Here are some the pictures:
This looks so awesome Catherine!!
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