Mountains and Temples

For most of monsoon, the walls of fog around us felt a little suffocating. In rare moments, we caught glimpses of India beyond our small community, but most of the time, we stayed on campus and adventured only to the nearest bazaar for errands.

But soon after the fog lifted and our true horizons revealed themselves, we came to our first school break in the second week of October. Activity Week is a time for staff and students to get out of our comfort zones. The younger kids visit nearby villages and get gently introduced to hiking and overnight camping. In 10th-grade, all students cram into buses and vans for a 6-day overnight backpacking trip in the Himalayas, and this was the trip Leaf and I were assigned to.

Though our trek started only about 90km from campus as the crow flies, it took about 8 hours to get there on the winding roads we traveled. In the US, roads like these are legendary among recreational drivers - the Tail of the Dragon in North Carolina has its own website and boasts 318 curves in 11 miles - but that’s the norm for every road I’ve seen in India north of campus.

Leaf and I chaperoned 20 sophomores under the wise and charismatic leadership of Mr. Ben, whom we’re lucky to count as a new friend. We had great conversations and quality time, and our group formed a special bond in those 6 beautiful and challenging days.

Upon returning to campus, Leaf and I unpacked our tents and sleeping bags and packed t-shirts and sunscreen for our trip to Amritsar (in the northwestern Indian state of Punjab). We began and ended that week with visits to the Golden Temple, and we ate so much kulcha in between.

After Amritsar, we were back to teaching until the December holidays. One weekend, we went camping with students a short drive away from campus. A few weeks later, we took a day hike up to a Surkhanda Devi, a temple at 10,000 feet, and a quick weekend trip to Rishikesh, epicenter of commercialized Indian spirituality.

I hope you enjoy the pictures of these adventures below. Next, we’re planning to explore Rajasthan, Singapore, Malaysia, and more of Taiwan!

To get to our trailhead, we had to ditch our vans for jeeps and then ditch those jeeps for other jeeps where a landslide had wrecked the road.

Our guides welcomed us to our camp with marigolds. (pc: Leaf)

We caught our first glimpse of these jagged and rocky young mountains on day 1.

Swargarohini (20,512 ft) catching the first rays of morning sun

A couple of friendly mountain dogs tagged along and guarded our campsite at night in exchange for leftovers.

We stopped for lunch here (Ruinsara Tal @ 12,000 ft) on our third day before turning around.

Our trip to Amritsar started with a train from Haridwar, known for its access to the holy Ganga.

At the Golden Temple, one should cover their head and not show their back to the temple, which makes for slightly awkward photos. Alas.

The streets of Amritsar are full of tiny shops selling dry goods, spices, pickles, and sweets with recipes that are generations old.

Anthony Bourdain visited this place, Kesar Da Dhaba, because of its masterful craftsmanship of meals like these.

We visited the Golden Temple around 4 am one day, and this time we went inside. The lines were shorter because the holy book (Guru Granth Sahib) enters the temple a little later.

A couple weeks later, we went camping with the student climbing club to a great site with bouldering, top roping, hiking, and caving options (fun for all!).

One of our braver students going down the spire. Leaf and I stuck to bouldering.

— WARNING —

next picture is of a dead animal

— WARNING —

When we were exploring caves, we found some large mammal scat, and then we found this very dead animal. We’re pretty confident that a leopard lives around here.

Our campsite was on the grazing route for this herd of cows. We learned that in Hindi, the sound cows make is roughly “Baahn(g)”. It’s like the sound a sheep would make if they were congested and had a French accent. Ask me to pronounce it next time you see me.

My mom visited! Among other things, we hiked up to a temple with a few friends on the clear and sunny morning of Diwali.

Some monkeys win the housing lottery.