Amy Gajaria

22 June 2009

…on the path to Than Goan

Yesterday I hiked an insane 14 kilometers through the Himalayan foothills from the hill station of Mussorie (elv: 7000 ft) to the small village of Than Goan (elv: 4000 ft). The hike was at first invigorating. Walking out away from the crowds and honking horns in the quiet of the jungle was such a treat for my exhausted senses.

What a change to be in India and go an hour without seeing a single person separate from our small group of hikers. The mountain views as we walked were unbelievable: kilometer after kilometer of deep valleys and green rising peaks, occasionally punctuated by a house or two cut in jagged lines into the mountainside. For the first ten kilometers, the hike was grueling, but invigorating - the tough hills broken up by flat or downhill walks against such beautiful scenery it was easy to forget the pain in my legs. There was a point where we picked our way along a ridge path that couldn’t have been more than two feet across, on one side a steep drop into nothingness offered a reminder of how carefully I needed to watch my step. Each time I kicked a rock on the shale path, its descent farther down than I could track reminded me how a few wrong steps could send me down along with it.

During the last kilometer, however, even with the village in sight, felt impossible. As we walked straight down a steep Himalayan path, my water bottle long empty and the noonday sun beating down on my head, I became aware of how tired my legs were. Each time I would stop to catch my breath, they would wobble uncontrollably. Even though I could see the village coming closer and closer, it felt impossibly far away as my jelly legs and sweaty back struggled to make my way towards cold water. I swear that the fantasy of ice cold water was all that kept me going during the last sector of the hike.

But then we arrived in the smallest village, greeted by a glass of lemon water, chairs to rest our sore limbs, and the incredible peace of Than Goan. It’s a small village of 400 people cuddled by the Himalayan foothills rising above, and at the moment feels like heaven.

Though our accommodations are the most basic I’ve seen thus far, the serenity of the surroundings more than makes up for it. I returned from a short walk where I waited, perched on a cliff edge, for the sun to set behind the mountains. As I waited, I listened to the sound of an elderly woman calling down to her children who were herding cattle up from the river. In front of me, nothing but mountains and saala trees, their green leaves lit florescent by the falling sun.

Later, during the meditation session that followed, it was this image that
rested with me, and the visual filled me with a delicious calm. As I walked back to our compound, skirt fluttering in the soft wind, I followed two men bent double under the weight of huge packets of leaves. They wove in and out of the jungle trees, blending intermittently with the scenery, and despite their presence in front, and a herd of cows behind, it was the silence of the place that I was most struck by. It has been so long since I’ve been able to hear the wind, that I’d forgotten that it had a sound, feeling instead that it
was nothing more than a silent force.

Late in the night, I lay against a concrete bench and watched stars shoot across the dark black sky, the compound’s dog Sita nuzzling against my palm. The city lights of DehraDun flickered far off in the distance like magic, and despite its short distance, seemed like a different world entire.

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Amy Gajaria has just completed her first year of medical school at the University of Ottawa. She’s set off on a two month journey across Asia, spending one month of that doing a medical elective in traditional medicine in the north of India. Amy has yet to see a deadly animal in India, but will keep her eyes peeled in anticipation.
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Previous Posts

On the Road :: Appreciating the Small Pleasures– a list
On the Road :: Lonely Souls - June 17 2009
On the Road :: Unanticipated Detour - June 12 2009
On the Road :: Waiting for Love - June 10 2009
On the Road :: All Aboard Dehran Dun - June 9 2009
On the Road :: Hello India - June 4 2009