Of course I’m exaggerating! We did not trek the entire Himalayas – only the foothills near McLeod Ganj to see a few antennas. In fact it was quite civilized except for the appearance of rain showers and a few lightning strikes during the afternoon. We began from TCV, the site of all AirJaldi activites, and hiked up above the TCV and across an upper trail where we had great views of McLeod Ganj below and the entire valley way below us at times. Most of trekking was on narrow trails that follow water pipes. Water is extracted high on the hills and piped down to where it is used thus creating a natural pressure. It’s enough pressure to be perfectly usable.
When I travel to India, I actually filter my water using the same micropore filter that I used when camping in California’s Sierra mountain range. It’s quite effective and relieves me of the necessity of always finding and purchasing bottled water, which is what all visitors do. I can carry a litre of my special brew with me in my backpack at all times.
After a sumptuous lunch at Milap’s Ashoka Restaurant in Bhagsu, we went downstream to cross the river and then up several hundred metres in elevation to follow narrow trails to three antenna installations that are part of the Dharamsala wireless mesh. 
Our first stop was a cluster of houses inhabited by families way up on the hillside where three solar cells, an omni-directional antenna and wireless router were installed. They’re mounted on an abandoned BSNL tower that also sports a TV antenna. We had chai tea with milk while we got an explanation from Aurelien of the reasons the antenna are over here on the side of the valley opposite Dharamsala (so they can relay line-of-site, of course).
The highlight for me was a visit to a Hindu temple on the side of the hill where a mesh node had been installed. It’s a temple dedicated to the Japani Baba who has been in India for some years. And here they had a laptop computer which was hooked into the mesh (by connecting into the mesh node mounted on top of the temple). There were three kids there who were mesmerized by a simple slide show on the laptop computer. 
Here is technology truly reaching rural areas where it otherwise could not penetrate. We had chai here and rested a while before continuing down the very slippery slope (it had been raining lightly all day) to the end of our journey.
Resources:
Be sure to check Wireless Networks in the Developing World
Be sure to check the AirJaldi Summit web site
And the AirJaldi video stream online
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