The last two days have seen the group hiking. Yesterday was a 9.5km hike that saw us go from 1600+ meters above sea level and rise to the highest point of our walk at 1950ish meters above sea level. The hike wasn't difficult, it was just humid and warm.. Even though I thought being that high would make it cooler, I was clearly mistaken.
At that high above sea level we were actually walking in the clouds. Which was totally amazing to experience. The views were breath taking.. Unfortunately I didn't take many on my phone, but the good camera managed to capture a lot of it.
Along the walk (on a Saturday) we managed to catch a lot of locals. Unfortunately no tea picking was going on (the tea is planted on the sides of the steep mountains, with workers working from bottom to top). I don't know how the tea pickers manage it as the slope is really steep and the have to be like mountain goats to get to some of the tea plants. Our local guides for the walk Shiva and Dubula were fountains of knowledge and they pointed out many of the local sites. The tea plantation pickers are quite poor and the villages are quite remote. They earn in a good month about 4500 rupees which is somewhere around $40 a month. Their accommodation is provided, but they tend to be in ramshackle buildings that house multiple families. For instance one building will have 7 families in it. They have one room per family for sleeping,with a communal kitchen and bathroom for all 7 families to share, some have two bathrooms if they are lucky.
The children travel around 3km by foot, up a mountain (not barefoot, but close in thongs) to school and then the 3km back. Intrepid asked us not to give the children any gifts, which disappointed me at first as I had packed some things to give them. After doing the walk now, I can see why.most of them would run out to see us (its a weekend) and the first thing they would ask is if we had pens or pencils to give them. Intrepid has noted that its not good to build their expectations, or to encourage them to not work for what they have. Its so saddening to see all their cute little faces asking for coloured pencils. Our guide also mentioned that some of the children were missing school on weekdays so they could 'meet walking groups' who might have something to give them. Not great, so now I can see why it was suggested we don't give them anything. Still it was tough just to say hello and keep walking.
On arrival to our accommodation for the night we had some free time. This saw the group breaking up for some preferred activities. The dorm style accommodation had no WiFi or tv so we made our own fun. One group played cards,another learnt a local game called carrom (a disk flicking game that's played on a small table, similar to pool, but played in teams with your pointer finger), and crossword puzzle solving. By dinner time, 4hrs later we were all starting to feel weary after a long hike. Dinner was fantastic and afterwards the group continued to lightly party on till the late time of 9pm. I myself was in bed by 8:30 after a cold shower, but did manage to enjoy listening to our two local guides playing the drum and singing some local tunes. The guides sounds lively and the group really got into the music, even pushing furniture out of the way to do some dancing... No idea where that energy came from!
The next day (today - Sunday) was an early start. We were on the road by 7:30am for our final 11.5km hike. Todays hike saw us completing the devils' staircase who has been turned from steps to a road.. It's super steep. It was only a short hike up today.. Around 200meters higher up over about 2km, so not that hard. The rest of the morning was spent walking down hill. I can tell you afterwards my calves are hurting and need a good stretch out tomorrow. The hike took us about 5hrs to complete as we had multiple stops for those who were struggling. Impressively one of our group has been diagnosed with MS and she managed to complete the 11.5km by hold Shiva's hand the whole way. She was really impressive and so was he for his patience! By the end of it she was in severe pain, but she made it. She had a few tears at the end,which made me tear up a bit to. Pretty amazing she had the willpower to do it with numbness in one of her legs for half the walk.
After 3pm we had some free time so Sarah and I showered (best shower ever after the two days we had!) and a short walk around town. There isn't much around so we were happy to chill out at the hotel for an hour before dinner. Tonight we treated our selves to a super fancy dinner! 4 courses at a swanky hotel down the road.. It cost us $18.
Tomorrow we head to the beach via a waterfall (I'm sure it wont be that grand compared to Scandinavia) and a elephant orphanage.
Until then,
A x
At that high above sea level we were actually walking in the clouds. Which was totally amazing to experience. The views were breath taking.. Unfortunately I didn't take many on my phone, but the good camera managed to capture a lot of it.
Along the walk (on a Saturday) we managed to catch a lot of locals. Unfortunately no tea picking was going on (the tea is planted on the sides of the steep mountains, with workers working from bottom to top). I don't know how the tea pickers manage it as the slope is really steep and the have to be like mountain goats to get to some of the tea plants. Our local guides for the walk Shiva and Dubula were fountains of knowledge and they pointed out many of the local sites. The tea plantation pickers are quite poor and the villages are quite remote. They earn in a good month about 4500 rupees which is somewhere around $40 a month. Their accommodation is provided, but they tend to be in ramshackle buildings that house multiple families. For instance one building will have 7 families in it. They have one room per family for sleeping,with a communal kitchen and bathroom for all 7 families to share, some have two bathrooms if they are lucky.
The children travel around 3km by foot, up a mountain (not barefoot, but close in thongs) to school and then the 3km back. Intrepid asked us not to give the children any gifts, which disappointed me at first as I had packed some things to give them. After doing the walk now, I can see why.most of them would run out to see us (its a weekend) and the first thing they would ask is if we had pens or pencils to give them. Intrepid has noted that its not good to build their expectations, or to encourage them to not work for what they have. Its so saddening to see all their cute little faces asking for coloured pencils. Our guide also mentioned that some of the children were missing school on weekdays so they could 'meet walking groups' who might have something to give them. Not great, so now I can see why it was suggested we don't give them anything. Still it was tough just to say hello and keep walking.
On arrival to our accommodation for the night we had some free time. This saw the group breaking up for some preferred activities. The dorm style accommodation had no WiFi or tv so we made our own fun. One group played cards,another learnt a local game called carrom (a disk flicking game that's played on a small table, similar to pool, but played in teams with your pointer finger), and crossword puzzle solving. By dinner time, 4hrs later we were all starting to feel weary after a long hike. Dinner was fantastic and afterwards the group continued to lightly party on till the late time of 9pm. I myself was in bed by 8:30 after a cold shower, but did manage to enjoy listening to our two local guides playing the drum and singing some local tunes. The guides sounds lively and the group really got into the music, even pushing furniture out of the way to do some dancing... No idea where that energy came from!
The next day (today - Sunday) was an early start. We were on the road by 7:30am for our final 11.5km hike. Todays hike saw us completing the devils' staircase who has been turned from steps to a road.. It's super steep. It was only a short hike up today.. Around 200meters higher up over about 2km, so not that hard. The rest of the morning was spent walking down hill. I can tell you afterwards my calves are hurting and need a good stretch out tomorrow. The hike took us about 5hrs to complete as we had multiple stops for those who were struggling. Impressively one of our group has been diagnosed with MS and she managed to complete the 11.5km by hold Shiva's hand the whole way. She was really impressive and so was he for his patience! By the end of it she was in severe pain, but she made it. She had a few tears at the end,which made me tear up a bit to. Pretty amazing she had the willpower to do it with numbness in one of her legs for half the walk.
After 3pm we had some free time so Sarah and I showered (best shower ever after the two days we had!) and a short walk around town. There isn't much around so we were happy to chill out at the hotel for an hour before dinner. Tonight we treated our selves to a super fancy dinner! 4 courses at a swanky hotel down the road.. It cost us $18.
Tomorrow we head to the beach via a waterfall (I'm sure it wont be that grand compared to Scandinavia) and a elephant orphanage.
Until then,
A x
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