Was this really a good idea? That was the question I was asking myself at the time, and I still ask myself today, long after the deal was done.
But lets rewind… the taxi was waiting, and my wife was hurrying me into it, to go to a remote village where we would be looking at some land which was for sale. This was in North East India, about as far from where I came from as you could imagine. For me, everything here is an adventure waiting to happen.
After a two hour drive along a narrow winding road, bouncing through potholes, narrowly avoiding collisions with oncoming trucks, passing through small villages where kids would shout and point excitedly when they saw me in the car (few foreigners venture here), crawling along through thick fog at times, we arrived at the village and piled out of the taxi. The owner of the land was waiting for us, and after some discussion in a language I didn’t understand, we set off on foot the rest of the way, as no car could go any further.
We quickly exited the village itself and hiked along a muddy jungle trail. There were clouds and rain at times, but nothing too bad so we kept going. There was a group of us now, including the taxi driver who also wanted to see the land, and several of them were carrying machetes. I was not.
What did they know, that I did not? What had I got myself into? I would soon find out…
The hike was easy at first, just a pleasant walk through the forest on a clear trail and a gentle slope, but after a while the path got steeper and the going got harder. But we forged on, well I forged on, mightily like a great explorer of days gone by, at least in my mind… for the rest of the group it was still just an easy stroll in the park.
At some point we turned off the main trail along a very narrow path that followed a valley and after a short while walking that path we stopped and hands were pointed at the mountain facing us on the other side of that valley - there was the land for sale!
There was bamboo growing wild as far as the eye could see, with old native forest trees growing amongst it. But otherwise I couldn’t make out much of anything.
By this time the rain had started falling more heavily, and we made our way back to the main trail and then continued to follow that again, until we reached a small farm hidden amongst the forest covered hills. There was a small bamboo hut and we made our way there, where to my surprise we were expected and food was already being prepared for us on an open fire inside the bamboo hut.
I could eat! After all the exertion of the hike, this meal was very welcome indeed! The food was served on banana leaves, eaten with fingers, and washed down with soup served in cups. It really hit the spot.
We sat in the hut during the worst of the rain, looking out over the farm from the open sides of the bamboo hut, which was raised off the ground a couple of meters. Thick clouds rolled past, thunder sometimes boomed, and raw nature embraced us. On distant hills we could see tiny trails of smoke rising from an open fire in other bamboo huts, mostly likely on other small farms hidden in the jungle. The sounds of birds and cicadas were all around us, the smell of the jungle filled our noses, and I found myself feeling like I was in another world..
this was not the city anymore… this was
something very different.
I could have stayed there for hours, days even, it was like a state of meditation for me. But we had to go, and at that point I knew not where, since nobody told me… I just followed along and absorbed the atmosphere.
We again reached the valley where we had turned off briefly earlier, but this time on the other side of that valley we turned off and followed what was allegedly a footpath, but was straining the limits of that definition.. we clambered over logs, crawled through a tunnel of bushes, passed an old abandoned bamboo hut and headed deep into the jungle.
Those in front hacked a way through the bamboo - aha! This was what the machetes were for!
The path was steep, the rain made it very slippery and old bamboo spikes sticking out of the ground made it treacherous. I clung to the bamboo and tree branches along the way, hauling myself upwards and forwards into the forest along the invisible trail. Others in the group looked at me and wondered if I even knew how to walk properly… they practically floated through the jungle while I stumbled and staggered and slipped and climbed back up over and over.
I had no idea how long we would be hiking like this, I was exhausted but also exhilarated.. this was a real adventure!
The path clearers ahead had stopped and soon I caught up with them. This was it, this was the edge of the land for sale! But all I could see all around was bamboo and trees, so not much to go by.
We took a rest and then turned around to start the hike back to the village.
I knew this jungle was filled with all kinds of death - cobras, vipers, giant spiders, scorpions, bears, wild hogs, wild cats, malarial mosquitoes and more. This thought was increasingly in my mind as the sun began to go down, and I stumbled and staggered on… but in the end the only thing that bit me was a couple of leeches which had hitched a ride along the way.
By the time we reached the village it was completely dark, and there was a power cut in the area, making it even darker. We sat on the porch of the land owners house and had a very short discussion… and decided to go ahead and buy the land.
That wild patch of remote jungle would one day become an organic farm, and our retirement plan, at least that was our hope!
Make sure to follow along to find out how it goes.. if it was a good idea or not.. no doubt there will be disasters along the way and more adventures to be had!
