Araku Valley Part 1

Last week was our week off. Most of the BYU students went to north India touring, but we decided to go somewhere closer since we knew I wouldn't have the energy for super long train rides and lots of walking. We chose Araku Valley, a hill station or resort town that was set up by the British back in the day. Araku is up in the mountains, about 10 degrees cooler, and a lot dryer than Vizag. Compared to American standards, it was certainly no "resort" but it was an escape into the countryside. 

We left early Monday morning. Our train ride took about 4 hours. In case you are wondering, the trains are pretty gross. I'm glad we weren't sleeping on them overnight. 

We got so excited when we saw all the hills and greenery!

Right when we got off the train, a rental car/taxi driver approached us offering to take us to our hotel for 50 rupees. That is a very good price, considering we pay that much and more when taking bumpy rickshaw rides around Vizag. When we got to our hotel, he offered to take us around to see the sites for the rest of the afternoon after we ate and rested. We agreed. We wouldn't have known where to go without him! It was a good investment. We used him again a few days later. 

This is our hotel room. While it may look similar to Motel 6 to you, this is luxury in India! I had never seen such clean tile floors. Oh, and the bed. It was big, comfy, and not on the ground. 

Check out that western toilet! And it was sparkling clean too! See that shower head? Hot water came out of it. Brilliant. 

The city of Araku has 3 main sites to see...and that is pretty much it. It was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. 

This is the first one. It is a tribal museum that showcases how people in tribes live. It was kind of weird, because I almost felt like it was a way of looking down on people here who still live that life...but India is like that. The whole caste system thing.

You could rent paddle boats and ride around this pool.

This is the main museum.

Throughout the museum were these displays of life-size humans made from clay and scenes of everyday life. They were kind of creepy because some of them looked real.

 Tribal instruments.

It felt creepy, but I had to take a picture with these statues.

Outside of the museum you could shoot arrows! It was a lot harder than it looks. Those bows are not like the bows you used during archery at Girl's Camp. They are very stiff and not flexible at all, so you really have to pull. I only hit the target once, and the arrow didn't even stay on. 

Next, we went to a beautiful river gorge with lots of mini streams and rivers you could wade/swim in. We opted for dipping our feet in, since we could see trash in the water. 

Later we went to a beautiful garden that was probably 2 acres. It was very nice and relaxing.

Had no idea what this structure was supposed to be...

But Craig went inside it.

Would you look at that termite mound! After closer inspection, we discovered it might not be fully real. There was cement molded to the sides. We wondered if maybe at one time it was real, but then to make it last they added cement? Who knows. 

On Tuesday we did some exploring on our own, without our taxi driver. These are pictures from our walk into the market/main part of the city. 

How would you like to do your laundry in a river?

Okay, so we went to a coffee museum. Apparently coffee from Araku is a big deal. We're not coffee drinkers, but it was something to do. 

Once again, I had NO idea what this was about, but before you went inside the museum, you went through this vortex thing. It was a room where the walls spinned around you so you felt like you were spinning, and strobe lights were going off. It lasted about 3 minutes. We literally looked at each other and were like, "What the HECK!?" I will never understand Indian tourism.

More displays of "tribals" planting the coffee beans. In one of the descriptions it said something like, "these tribals are socially backwards, illiterate, and economically poor." See what I mean about the whole caste system playing into this? Socially backwards...wow. I feel like this demonstrates the upper castes pointing out how much higher they are than these people. Sometimes they are not very subtle about it. I have seen it here in real life. 

Luckily for us, they sold plain chocolate bars instead of just coffee. We really enjoyed it.

In the afternoon, we went and explored some of the countryside near our hotel. We found these little paths that led to the train tracks. My camera is becoming more horrible by the day, but the hills and greenery were truly beautiful. You just can't see the full extent of it : ( 

By the way, yes, Craig now has one of those Kennedy Center backpacks. As a BYU student, I was ALWAYS jealous of people who had those, because it meant they had gone on a study abroad. Luckily he says he will share it with me, so I finally "have" one. : ) 

Well that's it for now! Stay tuned for Araku Valley Part 2.