I spent this weekend travelling to and from Yamunotri, the source of the Yamuna river. It is nestled at the head of a mountain valley, high in the Himalayas. You can take a car up the bumpy dirt road to a village about 6 km from the temple. From there you can walk, take a donkey or…
I woke up early Sunday morning and stepped out onto the balcony of my hotel. Down below, pilgrims were beginning their trek up to the temple. In the small plaza accross from our hotel, elderly people in litters were waiting to start their trips. Four coolies carry the wooden chairs up the steep 5 kilometers to the temple. All the pilgrims are bundled up in ski masks, gloves and coats over their kurtas. They are obviously from the planes and were not prepared for the cold mountain weather.
Other coolies carry people up and down the mountain in baskets on their backs. One of our group, an Italian guy named Fabio, got one of the coolies to get into the basket, and he carried him a bit.
On the drive home, a calf grazing by the road was startled by our car. She started running down the road, so of course we were following her. This continued for about half a kilometer, over a bridge and into a small village. In the village somebody ran out into the road waiving his hands to stop the calf.