In early April I had another homebrew fest with my fellow homebrewers. Mike Citrino upped the game by adding homemade grilled pizza to the menu. The pizza was amazing – he used a special dough that he made 24 hours earlier with special ingredients and then we put together a wide variety of toppings, my favorite was pesto sauce with artichokes and japapenos! The beer was awesome as well – we called this edition of the fest “yeast fest 2014”.
We almost got rained out though – we made a last minute move to the school canteen, which worked out great. We had three different bands playing – which was another new addition. What an awesome time – I hope my fellow homebrewers keep up the tradition!
On the next 4 weekends I went biking with Zoë in the Himalayas for three days, went to Jilling with Robyn, Zoë and four other families, went to Kasar Devi near Almora with friends and went for our THIRD trip to see the world’s oldest known zero in Gwalior!
On April 11th, Zoë and I joined six other teachers on a Jan Zabinski organized bicycling trip from Musoourie to Rishikesh. It was so beautiful and so much fun! I was a bit worried about Zoë being able to hack it, but she was amazing! She used a tag along to attach to my bike. Brent’s high end tag along was much better than I anticipated – Zoë had gears so she helped push us up long and steep hills in the Himalayas. By the end, we had done 160kms of awesome rural roads, mostly downhill (but a lot of uphill as well.) Here’s you tube video of the trip.
On April 17th we headed to Jilling with four families. It was my 6th and final trip there! As always, it was beautiful and very relaxing. We had fun hiking during the day and playing games at night. I was sad to leave!
The next weekend (three weekends in a row now!) I took the exact same train back to the same area, but this time I headed, with 7 guy friends, up to Kasar Devi, outside Almora and closer to the mountains. It was my first time there. We had fun hiking, playing guitar and playing games. We had great weather.
The first weekend of May (four weekends in a row!) we returned to Gwalior to see the world’s oldest zero for the third time. We were lucky to travel with 4 other families which meant lots of kids and lots of pool time! The Taj Hotel we stayed in is great, especially the pool. The last day I did a “one-zero” km loop up the bottom of the plateau to the big fort in town, past the temple with the world’s oldest zero, across the plateau, down the other side and back to the hotel just in time to beat the serious heat.
Now we have three weekends left before we leave. I’m happy to spend them all at home as we sort ourselves out before leaving India.
Click on a picture to open a slide show.
At the 9th century temple with the zero in it (in Gwalior).The world’s oldest known zero! (In Gwalior)The Urhsa Khan Hotel in Gwailior. It’s a sweet heritage property built to house King George(?) when he visited the local royal family a hundred years ago.On my morning run past the zero.Hanging out in Gwailior.It took five cars to move the 19 of us from the train station in Gwalior to the Hotel.Ryan and I near Mandir Kasar Devi.Ryan and I cool our feet in a brook on a day hike in Kasar Devi.On a hike with Ryan near Kasar Devi.Big hole in a viewing platform 3 floors above the ground at Kasar Devi.Views from Kasar Devi.Having fun playing guitar.Our porch at Kasar Devi.Lunch at Daya’s house near Jilling.Zoe and Hannah hiking near Jilling.Robyn at Jilling.I love this ridge- we visit it every day every time we are in Jilling. The views are incredible!Great reading spot outside our hut at Jilling.On the ridge near Jilling.Beautiful view from the ridge in Jilling.Hanging out at Jilling.The tag-along.THHotel room in a government hotel on our bike ride.Bicycling near Musoorie.My last trip to my favorite spot in Delhi – Nizzamuddin’s Sufi tomb on Thursday nights.At Nizzamuddin.
A gecko offs himself in the outlet of our room – poor thing!aka “the Vagina Temple”
When Shiva dismembered Sati, her yoni fell on this spot.I hung out with this exotic looking female pilgrim with dreadlocks. Zoe was a great ice breaker.The temple is a center of both tantric and fertility worship.A great recommendation from Lars.The rooms were charming.Wild Grass was very peaceful and had lots of birds! A great place to have coffee in the morning.Prior to being stored in a small museum, they were stacked outside the chief’s house. A plaque claims he took 80 of them. He converted to christianity shortly before dying in 2000.Zoë with the chief’s son. Zoë was a big hit in all these villages and literally opened a lot of doors for us, since the villagers are a bit jaded towards tourists, but all of them said they had never seen a foreign child.The longhouse has a dramatic location on a hillcrest – half of it is in India and half is in Burma!The man on the right is the chief of Longwa. The man on the left is a visiting chief from a village in Burma. His facial tatoos mean that he is (was) a headhunter.Each hut we visited had a open fire kitchen in the hut – making many of the huts very smoky. No chimney!We stopped at a hut that the villagers were working on. The hut had lots of carvings depicting headhunting and opium smoking. Many of the hillsides were cleared of trees, so that rice could be planted.Helsa’s cottage in Mon was one of only two places you could stay. The rooms were dark and simple, but clean. I liked reading on the balcony looking over the town.The lonely planet said “power is not often your companion here” – true!It took us 10 hours to drive to Mon from Kaziranga- the roads for the last 100kms were uphill and terrible!A charming dining room. Wild elephants were fun to watch.Rhinos were fun to watch and easy to find. The best way to see them was on the back of an elephant – the rhinos just ignored them, so you could get very close.
