Morning hike, afternoon wrestling

Those of you who know me know that I am not what is typically called "a morning person." When I wake up in the morning, I like to lounge in bed for a while and ponder my next moves. I like to have a leisurely breakfast and a nice, warm shower, and then get on with my day.

This tends to surprise "morning people," who don't seem to understand why a person would want to waste any time taking advantage of a morning. Kalden is one of these people. There have been a good number of occasions where I've woken to him hollering outside my window "Magda! Wake up! Let's go hiking!" I have tried -- and apparently failed -- to explain to him on each of these occasions that I need some mental preparation for something like a 6-plus-hour hike. Today he wanted to go to Triund. I told him straight out that I wasn't up for it; it was nice to hear Brij say the same thing. Eventually we regrouped and after a few false starts, the two guys, Marie, and I set out for a "little hike."

We wound up taking the long way to Dharamkot, which involved navigating a very, very muddy stretch where there had been a landslide recently. We got pizza at this restaurant that is generally regarded by people in the area to be one of the best around, and then we tried to beat the rain at least to Bhagsu, after which point we could head back to McLeod Ganj.

Some of the only flat space I've seen since I got here.

A nice, small, well-kept house. I think I could live someplace like this.

 Navigating the slippery stone path from Dharamkot to Bhagsu. No casualties.

Brij wanted to be back because apparently there was mud wrestling as part of the fair that's been going on lately. We decided that sounded like fun, so we made sure we were back in town before 2pm.

We found this!

A marching band!

As it turns out, they were on their way to the wrestling match as well. We just followed them, found seats, and hung out for a while.

Indian wrestling is somewhat more interesting than American wrestling. This is mainly due to the fact that they have live music the whole time.