After uploading the photos I posted, I hopped on a train to northern West Bengal - Siliguri. Met some lovely Czech girls - also heading to Darjeeling who are nature nerds like me (2 botanists and a forest ecology educator) who shared some stories and some of their home-made "medicinal" slivovitska (a home-brewed plum vodka) before bed...supposed to keep the stomach issues at bay! I was on sleeper class this time, so no fancy curtains, bedding and more open windows on this one...but I snuggled into my sleeping bag up in the top berth, with my backpack up there with me and promptly fell asleep to the rocking of the train. In the morning, we took a Jeep up to Darjeeling where we crammed 10 of us into a jeep and headed from 119m up to the town of Darjeeling at 2134m...super winding roads but we were blessed with bluebird skies on the way up so we were able to see views of the lush, verdant hills surrounding us. In the little towns we passed along the way, people were all outside sitting in the sun, soaking up the warmth, doing laundry, drinking chai. The people here are noticeably of Nepali origin, as their facial features are much more Asian/Mongol...such beautiful lines in the faces of the older people.
Arriving in Darjeeling, it's a maze of little roads that all seem to go uphill. And the building construction! -- it's all on steep hillsides, so everything is stacked and is just amazing to conceive that it won't all come tumbling down. I'll have to post some photos as it's hard to describe. We found a little hotel and ended up meeting another couple from Slovakia/Poland so they were all able to communicate with each other. I shared a room with Sdenka and it was pretty basic! The thing here is that indoor heating is not common...one household may have a space heater for their common room, but it's not something that most places have. Thus, it's just as cool inside as outside...so at 4-10 Degrees during their winter here, things are frosty at night! I slept in my longjohns, toque, wool sweater, sleeping bag, plus the 2 heavy blankets they had there. Brrrr! (The Czech slivovitska helped warm me up a little bit!) And here I was thinking that us Canadians were tough...sure we can handle -30 Degrees celsius -- when we have a warm house to come back to! But here, people are out in sandals/flip-flops and some guys were even in t-shirts and then they come back to a house that's just as cold as the outside temperature. Monks are running around in flip-flops and robes. They are tough! We saw people warming themselves by burning garbage or little piles of wood on the street, but I think space-heaters are only common for those that have a bit of money.
We were up at 3:30 to head out to see the sunrise from Tiger Hill...so very chilly so we waited in our jeep to stay warm until the sun began to rise about 0600h. The colours were beautiful and the view of Khangchendzonga (~ 6691m) in the distance was astounding! When the sun actually peaked out we could even see Everest!! We walked back down into Darjeeling along this beautiful path, past little houses and gardens, people doing laundry and dishes...little kids would smile and say hello, and then giggle when we responded.
The three Czech headed off for a trek, so Jana & Krzysztof and I took a jeep to Kalimpong...winding road down, down, down...in first gear with the engine roaring. We stopped half-way to cool off the engine and have a cup of chai. We got down to the bottom of the Teesta river valley...quite a wide river which I imagine swells up during the rainy season. Got to Kalimpong and realized we had just missed the Dalai Lama by four days! But we visited his monastery and got to see young monks playing in the yard, beautiful paintings inside, prayer flags flapping in the breeze...so peaceful.
Then we went off on a mission to find the house of the disputed 17th Karmappa (spiritual representative of the Buddhists). We finally found it after much misdirection, and turned out he wasn't home...but his monks invited us in for a tour and some "holy" biscuits and tea! A beautiful house with flowers surrounding the yard and lots of flowers inside as well...such a peaceful place.
Before this goes on too long, I'll wrap it up! Had some Tibetan momos...these delicious little dumplings filled with cabbage, carrot and onion! 8 for 20 Rupees...the equivalent of $0.50...I could live on these things! I got the lady in the kitchen to show me how to make them so I can make them at home. So look forward to some Indian cooking when I get back! More on Christmas in Sikkim soon.
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