Up the Valley

Yesterday, Monday I had some time off. After lunch I went for a long walk up the valley. That's right, UP THE VALLEY! I started by going down into town and then took the road up to Dodabeta (?). I had to share the two lane highway out of town with trucks, buses, cars, 3-wheeled motorised rickshaw, motor bikes, other pedestrians, cattle, goats, and dogs.

The view was absolutely spectacular. The terraced gardens are everywhere. The land has been carefully tilled and the soil is quite fertile. There are potato crops, cabbage crops, and it looks like onion crops. There was a new batch of lettuce which will be ready in a few weeks. The warm climate coupled with plenty of rain at this time of year keep everything green and lush. Looking down I could see the water holes where the rain is stored in the ground with the various pipes coming out of them. There are pumps to move the water around.

I walked up until I saw the sign for Dodabeta - 5 km and figured I had gone far enough as I still had to walk back to town. In all I was gone about 2 1/2 hours. The view was spectacular and I will do the trip again by taking a motorised rickshaw to the Tea Factory which was just a bit further up. The view from there will be great and I will wait for a clear day so that I can take some good pictures.

I found out yesterday that our internet connection for the school is what we would have at home. It goes down frequently. Pictures are a problem to send, so I will probably burn a disc and send it to you.

Last night 7 IG's who were healthy, not suffering Deli-belly, went out for dinner. We took a rickshaw up and up. It cost us 60 Rs and then had dinner overlooking the city. The city is quite spread out on several hills. The meal was vegetarian and I have no idea what I ate. We had both Roti and Chapatti as breads, some kind of spinach, sweet and sour vegetables, and other stuff. It was good! The ride back down cost us 80 Rs as the guy had to come up empty. We got back to school at about 10:00 P.M. not a bad evening.