Hot springs and algae surfing

Amazing view!

So, our first weekend in Tses. Saturday morning was spent sleeping and relaxing - which was made slightly more difficult than it needed to be, due to the fact that we had a whole load of random strangers staying in our house (there was a funeral going on in the village and therefore we had about seven people sleeping on mattresses in the main room!) At three O'clock in the afternoon Sachi, Daisy, Ruben, Anne and I were picked up by Cooper, the superintendent of the senior hostel and a teacher at the secondary school (and our next door neighbor). He then drove us to the local hot springs, which are only about a 15-20 minute drive down the road.

 So down the main road we went for about ten minutes, before turning off onto a barely recognizable road. Driving down this dusty and incredibly bumpy road we soon reached the conclusion that open windows were not a good idea - especially when another vehicle was driving in our direction, a cloud of dust following behind them. There was also the problem of the random hole in the floor, which let dust in constantly (this problem was solved by using a towel as a kind of makeshift plug!) As the road got more and more bumpy we were forced to question at times whether the van would be able to make it to our destination, and whether we would survive the journey (the likelihood of survival was reduced significantly by the fact that there were no seat belts in the van and nothing to hold on to in case of an emergency!)

But finally we reached it - the hot springs. Hidden from view behind a small village - basically a tiny collection of houses, it truly was completely picturesque. We saw old men sat in the shade of their houses talking to each other, goats wandering around the village looking for food, a random donkey standing in someone's garden, battered old houses which looked like they could be blown away by the smallest gust of wind and children running around barefoot and covered in dust - yet still grinning and waving at us with huge smiles on their faces. 

Cooper was the only one brave enough to get in!

And then suddenly we saw the hot spring. Once the locals had tried to make a business out of it, charging people to use the waters (since they're supposed to have healing powers - I suppose some local legends never change no matter where you are in the world!) But arguments over who should collect the profits and who technically owned the spring quickly put a stop to this. 

The spring water itself is incredibly hot - and since you're sat in the boiling heat it feels ridiculous that you're voluntarily putting your limbs into even hotter water. But we all just about managed to submerge our legs, and so we sat there for a couple of hours, chatting, drinking and eating as the sun went down. (Daisy and I had a very long conversation with Cooper trying to explain that people in England don't really have 'family farms' - something he simply could not get his head around!)The water from the spring constantly overflows (which makes it pretty hygienic) and so there's a little river created from the spring which goes down to join the main river.

At one point this little herd of goats came down to the river to get a drink and some of them wandered into the enclosure. There were these adorable little black goats and Cooper was telling us that they're called 'black diamonds'. The reason is because they're the farmers best source of income - but the reason is pretty sad. When the black goats have babies the kids are killed when they're just a couple of days old, and then they're skinned (apparently the skins are at their best condition when the kids are only a couple of days old). These skins are then sold to make designer jackets, bags etc. Such a sad story!

Algae surfing!

But there was also a LOT of laughter at the springs. Cooper was walking along the little river created by the spring, and he slipped. It's difficult to explain but he basically ended up surfing down the little stream on the algae - and thus the game of algae surfing was created! I have a video of everyone doing it - which includes a lot of screaming and squealing from Cooper!!! But for some reason the computer refuses to upload any of my videos - but hopefully i'll get a chance to put them up at some point!

So having finished our game of algae surfing (thankfully no limbs were broken in the process) we sat back down in the hot spring and watched another amazing sunset. For the first time it was a cloudy night sky, and so I couldn't help but think that it was like a sunset in England!