Yesterday we trekked to Bijli Mahadev temple. This “trek” turned out to be basically a 2-mile stair climb to the top of the mountain. Tripura in all her finery didn’t break a sweat while us flatlanders plodded along behind. After a while we got tired of the stairs and went off-roading through the sparse pine forest. When we finally got to the top it was quite windy and clouds were moving in.

(I took a terrible video but can’t seem to post it here)

Brighu explained that people from the surrounding villages bring butter to add to the Shiva ling inside the temple. He said that every year it is struck by lightning and breaks apart. Right about then the rain started….We waited out the storm in one of the tarp dhabas outside the temple, drinking chai and eating maggi while lightning flashed in the distance. When the rain stopped and we ventured back out, the sun was glowing through the clouds with a weird brown light that made everything look like a colorized sepia photograph.