My Diwali Break

Over the vacation after New Years, my host family and I took a trip to Valsad, Gujarat.  While we were in Valsad we took quite a few day trips to near by towns, and sight seeing places.  For example, one morning before it became to hot we took a hike up to three temples on top of a mountain.  It was lots of fun!!

There were three temples at the top of the mountain, the first picture is of one of the temples.  The second picture shows the people inside the temple praying, and the third is at the bottom of the mountain where the hike starts, the entrance!

The same day, we went directly to the family farm where we watched my host Grandfather water the mango trees, etc.

In the first picture my host Grandfather and his brother are preparing the fertilizer for the mango trees.  Since there is no electricity to pump the water on the farm, the second picture shows a worker pumping the water up from the bucket into the tube, so as you see in the third picture, the water the plants with a long metal tube.

The next day we visited a botanical garden, a waterfall and a small villiage where they make items out of bamboo to sell to people!!!   :)

The first picture is the map of the botanical garden.

The second picture is of the area where people have picnic lunches inside the garden.

The third picture is of a flower in the garden that I thought was very pretty.

The fourth picture is of cows drinking at the top of the waterfall.  We walked to the lake at the top of the waterfall, which is why we saw this.

The fifth picture is how the people in the villiage get their flour, they put raw wheat into the hole in the center, and use the handle to spin it around, and that grinds the wheat!

The sixth picture is how they make stripes on the bamboo.

The seventh picture is a lamp that was made at the villiage.  It has animals all around it that are made out of roots  :)