Saturday, November 10, 2007

Cuppa teeeeaaa!

We went on a six hour trek with a local guide called Kali. Another woman, named Amanda, joined us for the trip. It was really hard work, partly because of the high altitude. It was very overcast, misty and rainy, so unfortunately, after our 1 1/2 hour hike uphill, we couldn't see a thing. Then we started walking through very thick jungle on a track that evidently hadn't been trodden down by many before us. There were some amazing, peculiar plant life to see. Kali made us two bracelets each, using one of the plants. When he was making the first two, he kept suddenly stopping and staying dead silent, trying to work out what the rustling, treading sound was, quite close by us. We were a little apprehensive as about 5 minutes before this he told us about the tigers who live in the jungle but don't like to go near humans. If it wasn't for the fact that we were having to be quiet, I was going to ask whether this applied to all tigers, including those who were hungry or having a bad day, for example.

It was very slippy and muddy and Amanda and Briony went over on their arses several times during the day. I didn't fall over but was concentrating so hard on not doing so, that at one point I walked smack, bang into a tree branch, banging my head an shattering my teeth together!

A little light relief from the intense exercise and concentration, we arrived in a small village next to a tree plantation. All the children knew Kali by name. Word got round quickly that we'd arrived, and all of Kali's sweets he'd brought for the children disappeared just as rapidly.

Then Kali took us right inside a plantation and we watched two workers cutting the tea leaves. The best quality tea leaves apparently used to be picked by hand from the top, but now it is done by machine. The next stop was a tea house where I had a divinely beautiful cup of tea (as well as a scone and half a brownie!) After scoffing ourselves we had lost momentum somewhat, so when faced with the choice of hitching a ride back to town with one of Kali's mates, or another 1 1/2 hours of vertical climbing on a different route, in the rain, we opted for the sensible cop-out.

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