Wow, what a day!
Last night, we had a wonderful dinner with our hosts and several of their friends. Fabulous food—too much of it, again!—and fascinating conversation on a wide range of subjects from local history, current events, and culture through to the beginnings of FEI competition in India. During the evening, it was decided that the entire group would meet for an excursion today.
Got up nice and early, and actually went for a little run (I’m trying to flog my aging and overweight body through one more SunRun, so I want to keep up the training program). followed by breakfast. Then we all loaded into several vehicles and headed off to the Jeypore Rainforest Festival, several long miles away. Enroute, we were treated to a detailed running commentary on all the sites we passed—through tea plantations and villages, past schools, temples, and army facilities. Probably the less said about the driving conditions the better! Many vehicles of all sizes and description, motorized and not, whizzing along at as high as possible a rate of speed through the pedestrians, obstacles, dogs, and cows…
The Jeypore Rainforest Festival is held in a dry (at this time of year) riverbed—no rain and no forest! There was, however, a festival! Lots of music, and many ‘stalls’ full of products for sale by the local people; textiles, wooden and rattan and bamboo articles, food, etc. There were a number of booths dedicated to the conservation and preservation of a number of threatened areas, especially the Jeypore Rainforest.(www.jeyporerainforest.com ) This area, and a number of other parks and places of interest in Assam is home to an astonishing variety of wild animals and birds; some of them found nowhere else on earth. As is the case in so many similar places, the habitat is under serious continuous threat; a lot of hard work is being done to preserve and protect the Rainforest, and several other Assam parks. There were also booths set up demonstrating sustainable agriculture, recycling, dry-land fish farming, and other ecological initiatives.
And…there were elephants!
Actually, it seems that for many people the highlight of the festival was…us! Apparently, they don’t see a lot of Canadians in Assam. People were taking pictures of us like mad, we were in huge demand for people to get their picture taken with us, we were interviewed by news people (twice!)…We felt like real celebrities!
After leaving the festival and a stop for lunch we drove to a village called (I think) Namphakey—at least that was name of the Buddhist Monastery located there.
This was a very interesting village—very old—of Buddhists who had moved into Assam from Thailand and maintained their traditional way of life as well as their religion. Visited the beautiful Buddhist temple and walked through the village (saw a monkey!)—it was very much like being in a National Geographic shoot!
Then back to home, with a brief delay enroute while the blocked drivers pulled a rolled car out of the ditch (hey, it was bound to happen); arrived shortly after dark. A shower, another delicious dinner (I think this food would be very healthful…if I could stop eating so much of it), a liitle blogging time, and we’ll be off to sleep.
Tomorrow we’re going riding.
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