We have been talking about seeing the ruins (the ruins of a village said to be 10,000 years old) for a while, but everytime we have tried to go, something always came up, and we weren't able to go.
So today, when I met up with everyone, I wasn't too surprised when they told me that we weren't going. But it was different this time, because it was kind of the last chance we had to go since it was Ameli's last day here at the resort (she leaves for Mysore tomorrow). I asked them why we couldn't go, and Bobbi handed me a newspaper with the ancient village on the front page!! It had finally been publicized! Bobbi told us that the place would be swarming with officials, and it wouldnt be nice to go. I started reading the article, realizing that I wouldnt have the chance to make it there. Suddenly, Bobbi, felt so bad he said, “come on, lets go!” “who cares, lets just try to hurry before sunset.”
I was so excited, we all gathered all of our things and headed out.
We took one of his jeeps first out to his cottage in the middle of the wildlife reserve (the one we had been to once before by the wetlands designed by Rico) Once we got there, the plan was to switch the jeep with a more heavy duty jeep (one of the old ones with no windows, not even a windshield!) at the wetland cottage.
Our first roadblock was that once we got to the wildlife reserve, Bobbi forgot the keys to the cottage! And the keys for the heavy duty jeep were inside the cottage.. Luckily, the car keys were hanging conveniently by the front door, and luckily there was a screened window with a hole in it adjacent to the hanging keys! Bobbi quickly made a contraption out of a long stick and some bendable metal to stick through the broken screen and grab the keys!! (Most windows here are barred with metal, to keep monkeys or people out)
Even though the keys dropped at first, he kept at it, until they were nicely on the metal hook he had made and we quickly went to the jeep.
The jeep had some trouble starting, so we pushed it around the cottage to get it jumpstarted and hopped in! It was a crazy bumpy ride, trekking through the jungle! Up and down and around huge rocks and boulders!! 3 of us sat in front while Rico and Bobbi's worker sat in back. Ameli had to continually hold on to my arm so I wouldn't go flying out of the vehicle. I continually got snagged and smacked by shrubbery, but it wasn't soo bad because Bobbi was trying to warn me and make sure that I wasn't too badly injured by the spiney plants! We kept a keen eye out for leopards and tigers, which roam wild in the jungle!
It was the craziest trip on four wheels I've had yet, and it took maybe about 45 minutes to trek our way up to the top of the bouldery hill.
We were greeted by a herd of wild cows! Cows I have never seen before in my life.. They were white with huge humps on their backs, and their ears were serrated with dangly leaf shaped pieces of skin hanging off of them. They had huge horns and they were surrounding us, staring. They looked equally as shocked to see us. Luckily they were peaceful.
Next thing we came across was a dam. On top of this boulder hill!! whoever lived here 1000s of years ago built up a dam with stone! It was beautiful, entirely covered in lilly pads!!
Beyond the dam, were the strangest buildings I have ever seen! They were made of granite, the structures were about 9 feet tall, and each wall was about 5 feet across. There were only 3 walls per structure, and for each structure one wall had a small circle cut out of it. How these people put together 3 upright walls, and a huge slab of granite roof for the top, is beyond me.
We came back to the resort after the sun had set and almost lost our way, since it was hard to find the return route in the dark. We finally made it back to the resort once again, where we chilled out by the fire and ate potatoe pancakes and paneer.
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