Late yesterday afternoon, Guru showed us the village. Here's impressions of the kind that speak louder than words.
Ok, a few words. It just is crazily exotic with the camels in Rajasthan.
Saturday, March 9, 2013
The village next to the farm in Rajasthan
Right next to Ayesha's farm (as it is now named by me) is a small traditional Rajasthani village. The employees from the farm all come from the village as do more people - the village were here first.
Late yesterday afternoon, Guru showed us the village. Here's impressions of the kind that speak louder than words.
Ok, a few words. It just is crazily exotic with the camels in Rajasthan.
Late yesterday afternoon, Guru showed us the village. Here's impressions of the kind that speak louder than words.
Ok, a few words. It just is crazily exotic with the camels in Rajasthan.
Walking... with sticks...
On our (Laila and me) way back to Delhi Wednesday, India showed herself in her most Indian way. Thousands of people - mainly men - walking with decorated sticks over their shoulders. Thousands. Over more than a hundred kilometres. We never met any at our breaks, but here's s few, clicked out of the window of the car. Why not?
Location:The road from Haridwar to Delhi
Is there such a thing as knowing too much Hindi?
While Laila was visiting the camp, we went out for some day hikes. One of them to the mandir (temple) right at the top of the hill in the valley you see from camp. Actually, we never made it to the mandir. Three hours of climbing on a very steep trail completely emptied me for energy as well as my legs couldn't cope with the trenour (my adventures and old fashioned clumsines has made my left knee and ankle rather fragile and I wasn't wearing my support bands). This is where we turned around:
On our way down, we met quite a few people. Theywere curious to know whether we'd been to the mandir and several places we were offered water and tea. In Hindi of course.
One of these encounters are quite memorable. This is our conversation (translated from Hindi).
Man: You've been to the temple?
Pernille: Yes, almost and now we're on our way down.
Man (obviously impressed): You've walked all the way from Mala Khunti (the village by the river) to the temple and now you're on your way back down to Mala Khunti. Two fat ladies like you and without water??
Pernille: Actually, we do carry water...
On our way down, we met quite a few people. Theywere curious to know whether we'd been to the mandir and several places we were offered water and tea. In Hindi of course.
One of these encounters are quite memorable. This is our conversation (translated from Hindi).
Man: You've been to the temple?
Pernille: Yes, almost and now we're on our way down.
Man (obviously impressed): You've walked all the way from Mala Khunti (the village by the river) to the temple and now you're on your way back down to Mala Khunti. Two fat ladies like you and without water??
Pernille: Actually, we do carry water...
Location:A hillside in Garwhal
Visit at Badri's
From Atali you can see to a village on the other side of Ganga a bit up on the hill side. It is Nakutshi. I've been looking at the village lights many times and have been invited to visit the place several times. By Badri, one of the Aquaterra drivers, who lives in Nakutshi. He usually suggests me to stay for the night. Still it was only for a lunch, I finally made it to his home in Nakutshi and not least to visit his mother and wife.
Badri had instructed us to ask for his house, when we reached Nakutshi, and soon the entire village was involved in giving us directions. Badri's wife had been looking out for us so she met us and took us the last bit up to their house that is situated with a wonderful view of the valley.
We were Laila and me and I handled the Hindi conversation (I know, mentioned too often). Including the mandatory questions of our marital status and their concern because of two unmarried women in their mid thirties. That part Im used to and can easily cope with (nodding and smiling at all their suggestions usually helps). It was much harder to convince them that we wouldn't be staying for the night, but had to head back to camp on the same day, and that we had to because we were leaving for Delhi the next morning (and not able to postpone our departure).
Badri's family is as nice as him, which - as expected - made the visit a pure pleasure. No shyness at all and we were allowed to participate in/watch the cooking.
Besides visiting his house, I'd also promised Badri to visit his kids' school. So we did after lunch. Badri had called his wife in the morning to tell about our visit and had done so before the kids had gone off to school. Therefore, all the kids knew very well who we were, when we walked into the school. We arrived in time for afternoon homework at the porch in front of the classrooms. The kids tried to stay focused on their homework,but couldn't resist finding us way more interesting than anything their teacher preferred them to do, so we only stayed for a cup of water...
Badri had instructed us to ask for his house, when we reached Nakutshi, and soon the entire village was involved in giving us directions. Badri's wife had been looking out for us so she met us and took us the last bit up to their house that is situated with a wonderful view of the valley.
We were Laila and me and I handled the Hindi conversation (I know, mentioned too often). Including the mandatory questions of our marital status and their concern because of two unmarried women in their mid thirties. That part Im used to and can easily cope with (nodding and smiling at all their suggestions usually helps). It was much harder to convince them that we wouldn't be staying for the night, but had to head back to camp on the same day, and that we had to because we were leaving for Delhi the next morning (and not able to postpone our departure).
Badri's family is as nice as him, which - as expected - made the visit a pure pleasure. No shyness at all and we were allowed to participate in/watch the cooking.
Besides visiting his house, I'd also promised Badri to visit his kids' school. So we did after lunch. Badri had called his wife in the morning to tell about our visit and had done so before the kids had gone off to school. Therefore, all the kids knew very well who we were, when we walked into the school. We arrived in time for afternoon homework at the porch in front of the classrooms. The kids tried to stay focused on their homework,but couldn't resist finding us way more interesting than anything their teacher preferred them to do, so we only stayed for a cup of water...
Location:Nakutshi Village, Gawhal
Sunday, March 3, 2013
10 years of adventures with Aquaterra
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| Chopta 2010, the invention of the sexy wide angle photo |
10 years ago, I went on my first rafting trip, which also was my first trip with Aquaterra Adventures. I was going for a weekend trip to camp Silversands close to Rishikesh and my main purpose of the trip was to meet new friends in Delhi. I'd never even considered rafting previously and expected it to be a one-time activity. Boy, was I wrong....
Here's a bit of what I wrote back home after the weekend:
"On a scale from 1 to 10, how cool is your life, when you've been rafting on Ganges for a weekend – on the holy river that washes your sins away. Whey you've been drinking the holy water while body surfing and falling out of the raft in the biggest rapid. And when you've even stayed in a camp on the beach, sleeping in good comfortable dry beds, while hearing the raging of the nature during the nightly thunder storm. Having delicious food served thrice a day. Living childhood dreams while swimming in the waves and being surrounded by the Himalayan mountains. Having long and peaceful hikes in these same mountains, reaching remote villages by small trails. Even the toilets had views to the river and the mountains. On that scale, I believe it ended up as 11. Only con was that we'd only had a weekend, but no doubt this has been the main highlight so far of my stay in India. (I even liked falling in to the water in the middle of the rapid called The Wall)."
As you can tell from the blog, I didn't only raft for one weekend. I've been back on trips with Aquaterra at least once a year since (usually more than once) and over the past 10 years, I've spent more than a year in their company... Meeting Aquaterra and not least the people in and around the company has changed my life in several ways:
- I've become outdoorsy. That kind of girl who loves staying in tents, not showering for a week and hence having an odeur of smoke and sweat.
- I've become sporty and approximately 25 kg's smaller. I've so sporty by now that it affects my mood when I haven't exercised for a couple of days.
- I turned out to be adventurous. New experiences, new people, new adventures, preferably fairly regularly. A week on a beach in Southern Europe really just isn't the thing anymore.
- I've learned a lot about life by the numbers of wonderful people, I've met over the years on the trips I've been to. Not least the staff of Aquaterra - their smiles and respect is probably some of the most valuable I've ever deserved. In spite of our differences, we've found some sort of (in my opinion) magical relation.
- And perhaps, I've even found more peace with my self. I've definitely become better at being present and not having my mind somewhere else. One thing is for certain: I've smiled a whole damn lot with Aquaterra.
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| Brahmaputra 2004 - I've still got this smile on the wall back home. I like this smile. I always turns up, when Im on the river. |
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| The by far coldest ducky trip on Alaknanda - christmas 2005 |
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| My first real trek. Ruinsara Lake. With Kristian and Laila in 2006. |
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| Turning 30 in camp over Holi. |
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| Above Dodital 2007. A day after a terrible climb, where I could hardly breathe. Pretty much forgotten when we woke up to sun and 360 degrees views. |
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| Ladakh, Zanskar river - 2008. I bought the hat in Darjeeling and still use it... |
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| Subansari first time, 2010 - wearing the famous t-shirt: the rivers in the mountains. |
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| Grand Canyon, 2011 - 13 dage through one of the greatest wonders of the world. |
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| Subansari second time, December 2011. |
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| Futaleufu, Patagona, Chile 2012 |
Last evening in camp with Vaibhav and Solil, the two founders of Aquaterra, who've given me the options of all these great adventures.
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| The guides in 2010 - my beloved boys! |
And if anyone should have gotten curious - Aquaterra's website is www.aquaterra.in. Be careful, though, it's kind of addictive...
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Batman or something...
Sitting in camp and realising that a bat had chosen the dining area for it's sleeping spot today. The nosiest spot in all camp... Good choise.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
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