Hey folks,
I'll leave the "Location, Location, Location" thread in place, since I think there are quite a few options to consider. But I wanted to start a thread specifically focused on Igatpuri, since it seems almost too good to be true in some ways.
I wandered out of Sayagyi U Ba Khin (SUBK) Village today and took a 5km tour of the surrounding area. I'd already walked straight west yesterday and there is quite a bit of open land there, though it's not heavily forested. We were walking too quickly for me to snap photos of it, but I grabbed a few today.
The photos attached are the area east of Dhamma Giri, marked in red (the highest points, with relatively heavy forest) and the area west of Dhamma Giri, marked in yellow and a dead end. The western portion is completely open and more or less undeveloped. The eastern portion is apparently an old railway workers' village.
Igatpuri proper is more or less as you'd expect... too dense, too busy, too loud. It's not *very* much of any of those things; it's not as if it's a city or something. But it's a great deal more humanity than I'd want in a neighbourhood where I live. That said, it's probably just the right amount of village for shops, tapris, etc. People get Amazon deliveries out here almost every day but for bigger immediate shopping most people head to Nashik.
The east side and the area directly southwest of Dhamma Giri are both really beautiful, but those of course are only as far as I could get within walking distance of Dhamma Giri itself... there's quite a bit more property around on the far side of the hill, near the lakes to the north, and so forth.
-s-
Steven Deobald
