Monkeys, Motorcycles, and Hindu Temples (Oct. 2)

Well, Sunday morning sometime between our 2^nd and 3^rd loads of laundry our good friend Raj Pitta stopped by our room to chat with us. He’s does that on occasion but today he wanted to see if we were interested in heading to a village about half an hour from Nuzvid to see this Hindu Temple. The temple was on top of a hill but started at the bottom with a small temple and then from there were 1300 steps straight up the mountain with 5 smaller temples equally spaced up the 1200 steps on the way to the top! It was quite amazing! Now that was exciting but the ride there was even more exciting!

We started off from Nuzvid on 2 motorcycles, Raj and Zach on one and myself and Johnson, another friend of ours, on another. We zipped through traffic for 30 minutes weaving in between trucks, buses, cows, goats, other motorcycles, etc. I thought all my scary moments on roads had been used up while teaching drivers ed but I was sadly mistaken… It was definitely fun but none the less a bit nerve wracking. I think that was mainly because I was simply a passenger, not the driver.

Anyway, we made it there and climbed up to the top of the hill. It was really amazing seeing the village below and all the surrounding countryside, which is normally hidden from view. The Hindus know how to build sweet temples! I love the architecture and thought that goes into making these impressive structures but at the same time it’s humorous to me to see their gods and realize how ridiculous the religion is. I want to respect these people’s religion but I don’t think I’ll ever understand it.

One great thing about this temple is the fact that it is home to hundreds of monkeys! They were hilarious! There were monkeys of all sizes, mothers with little baby monkeys riding on their backs and hanging from their stomachs as well as full-grown adults swinging from trees. We got close to one adult monkey who was close to the edge and he turned and leapt to a tree branch about 30 feet downhill! They were super entertaining to watch!

After we climbed to the top and chatted with the police radiomen stationed at the top next to the temple we headed back down. While we were waiting for Johnson to catch up (turns out he has bad knees after a motorcycle crash almost killed him 7 years back), we were looking out over the village when all of a sudden the power came back on and all the lights in the valley turned back on! It was amazing to see the entire village come back to life just as the sun set and power was restored.

We got to the bottom and headed into the village for some street food. Now up to this point I haven’t had any problems with the food disagreeing with my stomach or intestines but I wasn’t sure how this was going to go… We had battered and deep-fried chili peppers and these deep fried dough balls with chutney. I wasn’t worried about the deep fried stuff but the chutney was cold but absolutely amazing! I decided to tempt fate a bit and so far it’s turned out all right. Raj told us to slowly start eating the street food and in a couple weeks we would be totally fine. I hope he’s right! At this point I think Zach and I are getting braver with the street food and so far it’s going well and is absolutely amazing! Fingers crossed!

We also had some chai, which is made right on the street by tea and coffee vendors. That is something I may become addicted to by the end of our time here. It’s only 6 rupees for a cup the size of a shot glass but that’s all you need! It’s sooooo good!

Power had gone out again right as we were getting food so once we finished eating we hopped on the bikes and started out for Nuzvid. Now at this point Johnson hadn’t really talked to me while driving because I thought he needed to concentrated on the driving but evidently once the sun goes down the driving is easier so he was able to chat the whole way back while weaving in and out of the same traffic…(Sarcasm) He also thought this would be the best time to tell me about his motorcycle accident and 32 minute 4 AM motorcycle runs to Vijayawada. (It normally takes at least an hour) I definitely enjoyed the ride back but it was more nerve wracking then the ride in the daylight. I really do love how they all use motorcycles over here. It really easy and super fun! I’m thinking I need one for when I get home! Haha!

Anyway, that was our Sunday activity. I wish we had a motorcycle of our own so we could explore more, we’ll see how that goes in the next couple of weeks. Raj says he’ll help us get one for cheap! Hopefully that works out!

Blessings, J and Z