Kempty Falls and Porn stars

Yesterday Beck (British gal Ive befriended) made it to Kempty falls successfully. I say successfully because of the inherent challenge of riding the local bus system. We had to figure this out, which really in the long run takes asking as many people as you can to find someone who speaks enough English to indicate that we need to go to a certain office at the end of a long line of shops. Of course the shop is not marked with a helpful sign, rather a gigantic Coke billboard....

What we found out though is we were on the wrong end of town to catch the local bus that goes to the falls.  So, we took a taxi over to the other busstop.  The taxi cost us $2.00 and saved us 4km of walking up hill.  He dropped us off at a booking agency instead of the bus stop - or so I thought.  I am sure he would get some commission if we had decided to book a trip instead of taking the local bus which is why he did so...but the guy running the agency was kind enough to indicate that if we just wait there the local bus will come by. - soon.

It took about 30 minutes or so waiting and this bus with only Hindi words splattered across it comes blaring up the hill (horns are used  constantly).  The booking guy runs out yelling at us that this is the bus we need to take he is waving his arm frantically to indicate the bus should stop.  The bus "stops" sort of.  I have found out that the bus never really stops here, you just have to hop on and hop off and hopefully the drive will slow down enough....but maybe not, only when traffic slows will the bus slow.  It cost us 35R for both of us to ride the bus the 25km to the falls.  Thats not quite $1.00

To get to the falls we wend down in elevation

changing the vegetation slightly to more pine trees and oak shrub looking things.  The guy taking our money for passage tapped Beck on the shoulder indicating we needed to get off.  This was our only indication we had arrived at the falls.  There were no signs, no labels anywhere.  So we got out and were in this little market place and just decided to go with the flow of traffic – traffic including cows, goats, people, and sewage.  We passed a bunch of corn stands and more cows to get to this bridge.  Since this is the off season lots of things were closed.  We took photos a the bridge and since going down was not an option (everything was closed) we hiked up.  There were multiple tiers of this waterfall.  It was pretty, but not as amazing as everyone makes it out to be.  I suppose if you have saved up your $$ and never seen a waterfall before, or because 90% of Indians do not live near large bodies of water, these pools and tiers would seem impressive.  I know that sounds snotty, but I was far more enthusiastic about surviving the bus ride and getting myself around than by the falls.

We hiked up quite far, and at one point were accosted into taking photos with a family.  I have later come to find out that not many people in India see white people and therefore think that we are all celeberties. Which explains the staring that people do, however, I have now been educated that if single men, or group of men decide that they too want pictures with us that I should deny them and leave immediately.  It is OK for a family to take photos with us but concerning the men, I should be aware that I may now be a porn star on the internet.  Both Beck and I did not know this, and we were amiable and slightly baffeled.  We even joked about charging 10R per picture - so if you see photos of us on the internet...well, now you know why.  Those Indians are good with computers after all!