Life in the hills...

Hanging out clothes to dry

Tree climber

While this portion of the trek started with a long uphill stretch, we finally hit the downhill point through the high forests, beautiful valleys and delightful waterfalls, along with those never ending steps. Thankfully, this time we were heading down them instead of up. Amazing…I kept thinking how bad it would be to go up all of the steps, Tserig reminded us that we had already come up that far the first couple of days. I still think that the downside was a bit steeper than what we had but…I could be wrong. I was just thankful that we were heading down. We wove our way through the forests, along the mountain edges, past numerous waterfalls and down to the small river cutting its way through the valley. The bad news…our next tea house was on the OTHER side of the valley…at the top.  

On the way we passed people doing everyday things - everyday things for them at least. The young girl in the tree was cutting branches to bring back to feed the family water buffalo. She would stay out until she had gathered enough to make a HUGE basket and then carry it back up the hill (I'm sure she lived up the hill - everything was up the hill). She's also...barefoot!

Selling trinkets to the tourists

Satellite dish heading home

The lodge in Tadapani was not one of our favorites as far as our room went. The age wasn’t the issue – all of the lodges were older and in varying states of repair – it was the location…right next to the toilet. People hadn’t figured out that putting toilet paper in a toilet was a BIG issue – so it was plugged. The floor was covered with water…who knows what was in the water (we used the squatter downstairs, even though this one was outside our door). However…it had a wonderful dining room. Now, it was not wonderful because it was fancy or anything but great because it had this long table with blankets hanging over the edge. Underneath was another of those oil drums, this one a smaller version (maybe a beer keg size???). Inside they poured glowing wood charcoal that sent delicious heat out. Everyone in the place sat around the table where we ate and visited all evening long. It was especially nice when the storm started…lightning, thunder and hail! We definitely did not want to leave to go to bed.