Desia Kondh Tribe

Part of our breakfast at New Hope.

Namaste.

Women of the Desia kondh tribe.

The road between villages.

Our local lunch stop.

My thali lunch.

The switchbacks down to the plain.

Road hazards.

A group of devotees as we drove by.

The beach across the road.

Thursday, April 5^th.

Happy Birthday Carol

We packed up our stuff and loaded the truck before breakfast. The New Hope staff fed us a traditional meal and then we left. Today was a long driving day. We drove for three hours before stopping and catch two tuk tuks to visit one more remote village. This one was quite small, only about eight families who were from the Desia Kondh tribe. In this tribe the women tattoo their faces to make themselves more beautiful, as part of their culture. Interestingly, the government has banned this practice as they believe it is backward and not suitable for the modern age. However, as Pulak pointed out, the people in the towns and cities can get as many tattoos on any part of their bodies. So, is it really about destroying the tribal culture?

Having Pulak with us help tremendously with the interaction and puts the people at ease. We talked to a couple before wandering through the fields, where we saw a many up the palm tree collecting the liquid, and another man gathering fallen fruit from a tree. Then we found another small village of the same tribe and had an opportunity to take photos there too.

Then we took the tuk tuks back to the truck and drove for a half hour before finding a local restaurant for lunch. No sooner had I sat down than the waiter brought me a tray of thali, see the photo. This is a very traditional meal and consists of rice, roti and a few bowls of cooked and seasoned veggies. It was a fixed menu and we all got the same. It certainly speeds up the process of ordering with a group.

The rest of the afternoon was a long tiring drive for Euan. We descended down from the hills via 20 to 30 switchbacks. It was a lovely drive though, as it was through forests, where one could imagine tigers back in the day, and a few little villages. At one point there was a sign that said ‘Elephant moving zone, drive with care.’ 

When we got down to the great Indian plain, we drove for a couple more hours through the larger, dirtier towns to the coast. We arrived at the town of Gopalpur on the Bay of Bengal. At 5:30 we checked into the Motel Mermaid, a rundown little motel where we still have no wi-fi. I walked across the street to the beach and saw a lot of local people on the sand or in the water. There were also numerous dogs and even a few pigs who were rooting around in the garbage. Liz went out to clean and mop the truck floor and was watched with interest by four young local lads. They said they were interested in the truck, but I think they were more interested in young, blonde Liz. So, I hung around and kept them at bay.

Later, we all met up in the lobby, except for Euan who had told us before that he was going to lay low. I think the day of driving really knocked him out. The five of us, Pulak, Tomo, Nico, Liz and I walked into the town of Gopalpur to a local restaurant and had a good meal. On the way back we sat on a concrete platform by the sea and enjoyed the ocean breeze. Back to the hotel everyone went to their rooms and Pulak and I sat outside and had a talk about guiding and tipping and the like.