Mt. Abu

Upon entering the town of Mt. Abu it was pouring rain and so we were once again at the mercy of the taxi drivers (few rickshaws here). We weakly negotiated a price for the ride and headed off to a row of hotels where we bargained like crazy for a good deal.

Mt. Abu was beautiful - a green, mountainous town popular with Indians as a vacation spot. The town encompasses Nikki Lake, which is named because, according to legend, it was scooped out by a god using his nakh (nails).

There were also plentiful hiking trails and a surprising abundance of ice cream stands. The streets were filled with vendors and it took on an almost carnival feel. We strolled through the small town that night and turned in early. That night the rain poured like crazy - not the best when hiking is the sole activity in the area.

We awoke determined to do some trekking. We started by circling the perimeter of the lake and finding a marked trail that led up to the top of some rocky hills. As we began hiking we were accompanied by one of the many stray dogs in India. While this concerned me at first, as we both did not receive our rabies vaccination due to the worldwide shortage, I soon learned that this was a quite well behaved dog that thankfully always remained at least 5 feet away from us.

We continued hiking toward the famous Toad Rock, which is a large rock formation that appears to be a giant toad jumping into the lake. Our early morning jaunt was well placed, as later it began to rain hard and we decided it was time to continue on to less rainy pastures.