A few weeks ago a friend from the lab organized a day trip to a temple site called Amarkantuk. His friend picked me up early in the morning and we headed on our way, stopping by the JSS clinic to pick up the rest of the people, 11 of us jammed into a van. Shortly after this we stopped for tea.

On the way we made a roadside stop for firewood which we gathered in the woods, and after another 80km, we stopped again for tea.

We wound through the forests for a total of three or four hours and then as we approached a gate, we turned off down a dirt road. I thought we were going around some toll, but we were headed to a lunch spot at an "ashram" (basically a hut in the woods by a stream) where they cooked a lunch of mixed veggie curry, dal, and rice, served as always on leaf plates. Also, they made tea. A short distance from the where we ate was the edge of a cliff at the center of a horseshoe-shaped valley, which gave us nice views.

After lunch, which probably took 2 hours in total, we went to a waterfall, about 120 feet high where there was a path to the bottom and you could walk under and behind it. Most of the men bathed (their daily bath). I went in, not to clean myself, but because it was a chance to get under a waterfall. It was cold water on an already chilly day, but it was an invigorating dip.

By this point it was late in the afternoon, and we visited a few temples. The men are all religious, to varying degrees, and so they acted devout and respectful. Temples are to India as churches are to Europe, and after awhile, you've seen enough of them, and in Amankartuk there are dozens of temples of different sizes. The scenery was very nice, as many of the temples were along the edge of the cliff.

The ride home was long and windy and most of us slept.