Errands

As a rule, errands in India take on average three times longer than in the US. By errands I mean all things like groceries, getting shampoo, or, in this instance, going to the post office. When you first encounter it, frustration is either externally oriented (What is the backwards place doing?!) or internally oriented (Why am I failing at life?!), but after a while you just come to realize how it is, and adjust accordingly.

My errand running today was surprisingly smooth. After breakfast, I meandered down to the post office and the foreign registry, to inquire about timings. That is the first important thing to do; timings are notoriously irrational. But to my surprise, places opened before eleven o'clock. So I took my bundle of gifts to ship back to the US down to the post office (and smartly also my book), where I waited for about forty five minutes until the man came in to package everything. I was second in line, and got to watch the fascinating process twice. First, he unpacks and repacks everything, binds it extensively with twine, wraps it in paper, sews up the package in white cloth (yes, needle and thread), and then, what I least expected, wax seals the seams. By 11:45 or so I was done.

I went to the foreign registry for my permit to go to Sikkim. As Sikkim can at times be a contentious border area, they seem to want to keep track of who goes where. My permit expressly points out that I am not to cross into Nepal, Bhutan, or Tibet from Sikkim. I think it interesting they say Tibet, not China. Further, I am to remain in the southern areas of Sikkim, to listed cities, but in effect below a certain point. I suppose they don't want me trying to climb the Himalayas into Tibet. In the south there is a border crossing to Tibet, but only Indian nationals are allowed to use it. Unfortunately.

I've recently become quite obsessed with Tibet and am thinking of exploring some research area in Himalayan water issues between China and India, where Tibet is sandwiched in the middle. Or seeing if water issues plays into the great powers relations regarding Tibet in any way...well, I should read more before I start rambling about how things may be. 

Explorations!

Today was my first day of truly exploring all on my own. And for that, I'm rather impressed with myself, for although you can walk from one end of Darjeeling to another in about an hour and a half, I succeeded in going everywhere I wanted to, alone, and without getting lost.

I visited the Japanese Peace Pagoda, a buddhist temple of sorts, and saw some nice buddha sculptures and sandstone relief sculptures depicting his life. I was always moved by the scene in which, after deciding to sit under the Bhodi tree, is tempted by the full power of Mara, and sits unmoved. When she asks who will vouch for the Buddha's worth to receive enlightenment, only then does he move to touch his fingertips to the earth, which responds by an earthquake, the earth itself vouching for the Buddha's enlightenment.

In the afternoon I visited the local zoo and the Himalayan Mountain Institute museum. For a third world country, the zoo was quite nice, with a variety of local yaks, deer (barking deer are pretty much the cutest things ever), as well as black bears, tigers, leopards, and wolves. I'd be for giving them more space and more places to hide, but oh well. Though I have decided, apart from the barking deer, I want a red panda for Christmas. My God those things are cute.

And the Everest museum in the Himalayan Mountain Institute was cool, and I got to recognize portraits of George Mallory, Irvine, and Hillary.

And then when I got back to my room I had way too much fun trying on my tibetan dress. 

When I say a shitton of prayer flags...

Today was relatively quiet, as I woke up with a pounding headache, I stayed around Darjeeling, strolling abouts. I went to observation hill, which has no view to observe, rather it is a holy hindu and buddhist site, evidenced by the hindu temples and shitton of prayer flags. And when I say shitton of prayer flags, I mean:

That and I significantly contributed to the local businesses of Darjeeling. 

Everest and Kanchandzonga

3:45am, and I'm out of bed again. I didn't sleep particularly well, perhaps because I kept having dreams that I was at the airport with the wrong confirmation number.

I got up so early to go to Tiger Hill, which is a pretty popular place to go and see the sunrise. Its freezing in December at 4:30am. The stars were absolutely beautiful though. More rewarding than the sunrise though were the clear views of Kanchandzonga and Mt. Everest. Everest was a little ways off, but Kanchandzonga was right there, and its pretty cool to now have seen both the 1st and 3rd highest peaks in the world. My camera is not so cool to be equipped to take especially good pictures, but here we go!

Kanchandzonga

Me and Kanchandzonga

Prayer flags and a hazy sunrise

If this were a better picture, and I had skills with drawing arrows on pictures, you'd see that right next to the second dark mountain bump from the left side there's a white smudge...thats Mt. Everest...It was easier to see than to photograph

As evidenced by this pretty bad picture of Mt. Everest. Hey, its in another country. 

Today was a lovely day in Darjeeling. I'd put pictures up of the views I awoke to, but unfortunately that will have to wait until I'm out of Darjeeling and have a bit better internet connection.

I made friends yesterday with another traveler named Maggie, and so today we went to visit a nearby Buddhist temple (unfortunately it was closed, but apparently it houses the original tibetan book of the dead), the Tibetan refugee self-help center, where we got to see wood carving, weaving, spinning, and knitting all being done (and did a bit of shopping), then on the the Happy Valley tea plantation and a short tour of tea processing, on to the botanical gardens, and up a lot of stairs and hills to where our hotels are. Lots of walking, and I loved it. You don't really get to do that at all in Delhi.

I am very much enjoying Darjeeling, for the walking, the friendliness of the people, the ability to wear a sweatshirt and scarf, and the momos. Its also fun to meet other people traveling through. I'm lucky in that my hotel has a little common room where its easy to meet people (at breakfast today I met an australian who lives in Bejing who actually pulled out two tubes of vegemite, I was in awe). Its much more pleasant to travel around with someone, especially when your directions lead you down winding alleys/lanes/into people's backyards/across trash rivers, and then you end up where you needed to go. Its the kind of thing I would have turned around thinking I was going the wrong way, but with someone else you feel a lot more comfortable going on. I'll get used to it, and people here are very helpful with directions.

Well, I am going to try to wake up at 3:45 in the morning (again), this time to see the sunrise over the himalayas. And then more Buddhist temples/monasteries... we shall see. 

Darjeeling

Three forty-five in the morning and my alarm goes off. I’ve gotten maybe four hours of sleep, could have gone to bed earlier but so it goes. Today I came to Darjeeling, which is the most different part of India I’ve thus far encountered.

I proved what a good American I was even as I was boarding my 6:30 flight. Not by any outrageous act of ignorance, nor by creating an ingeniously effective solution, but by walking through the Delhi airport in jeans, a college sweatshirt and vans while balancing a breakfast pastry and an uncovered café Americano in one hand while fishing for my boarding pass on a moving sidewalk (travelator). I didn’t spill a drop, and by so doing, did my culture proud.

The flight traced the contour of the southern border of Nepal from Delhi to Bagdogra, and I had the good fortune of being able to see the Himalayas from the window on my side. They jutted out of the clouds high enough you would have though the clouds were the earth. From the Bagdogra airport I found my cab without any effort involved. Originally, getting in so early, my plan had been to find a shared jeep from Siliguri, but turns out it's a good thing I did order a cab, as the road from Siliguri to Darjeeling is closed due to a landslide, and I missed the taxi strike by one day. We took a little longer route, passing through the hill station of Mirik, with my driver pointing out to me orange trees and the India-Nepal border crossing.

The route started in a valley, but when it reached the hills turned immediately upwards. These foothills of the Himalayas are like their greater neighbors in style, being sharp and steep. The road went up so quickly I could feel the change in the temperature of the air, and did my darndest to keep off my sweatshirt for as long as possible, savoring the sensation of actually feeling cold. We passed by loads of tea plantations, and from where they were being dried you could smell the tangy flavor in the air. We passed through forests of tall upright pine trees with little more than a foot of undergrowth.

When we got to Darjeeling, it was cloudy, which it is this time of year, so I’m not sure how good of Himalayan views I’ll get. I went up about three flights of stairs with my bag to check in (everything is built on a steep hillside), only to find my heart racing and breath coming hard. I had forgotten all that climbing meant a change in altitude as well.

I’m planning on exploring tomorrow, something Buddhist related I think, and hopefully with a friend I just made downstairs at lunch. Functioning on four hours sleep and eight hours of traveling, I’m about ready to crash. But I’ve already decided I’m going to enjoy Darjeeling, having so many of the things I love: cold, momos, and tea. Actually, there was even a puppy I got to pet in the lobby, so that kind of seals the deal. 

Today, my uncle took me down to the end of the island that hangs out between the ocean and the backwaters to go see dolphins. We took the six rupee bus down to the end, a 5-10 minute trip, and then walked along a little jetty to go see dolphins play. It was very fun. Thats the whole story. We didn't get chased off my coconut machete wielding indians as apparently a few people in years before us have, and I didn't actually get any pictures of dolphins as they were hard to catch pictures of, but here are a few: