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My days are flying by. I'm less than a month away from my scheduled flight back home and there are so many places I want to be at once.
After my lavish trip south my parents, I came back to Delhi with the plan of jetting out of there as soon as possible. Delhi wouldn't have it...I wound up stuck in nasty nasty Paraganj for 5 or 6 days, trying to escape the heat. I had a flight canceled twice on me...the explanation for it was that I'm now in India, so flights don't necessarily fly. EVER. Had a surprising date in Delhi and eventually, Eleanor and I managed a flight out of there.
We spent four days wandering through the steep misty streets of Darjeeling. It felt sort of enchanted...like somehow we had wandered into a world suspended over reality. It's momo and tea country up there...so I got to try some of the yummiest tea that I've ever had.
There's a strong remaining British presence...it was originally one of the hill stations. The botanical garden was a great walk (once we lost the drunk man who decided he was going to be our tourguide). We also visited the Tibetan Self Help Center and watched women weaving carpets for an hour or so. I've developed a craving for carpets now...this was a really unexpected realization!
For most of the time that we were there, the mountains were hidden by the fog. We saw beautiful photos of the world's four tallest peaks which are visible in Darjeeling. BUT...on our last night there, at sunset, the fog lifted and we were able to see the mountains, just as the sun slid down behind them. It felt like some sort of gift.
From Darjeeling, we took a share jeep up to the capitol of Sikkim, Gangtok. While the town wasn't nearly as charming or beautiful as Darjeeling, we took two unbelievable day trips. First, we went to the monastery at Rumtek, where they were having a huge dance celebration. Somehow, we managed to hit the perfect day to be there by accident. We spent hours watching Chaam mask dances and listening to haunting chanting/drumming.
I met a man while waiting for food outside the dances who asked me where I was from. As soon as I said the US, he got very excited and exclaimed, "Well in that case, my hero is Tom Cruise!" For those of you who don't know, the most popular film heros here are Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenagger, and Tom Cruise...or so I've been told.
Our last day in Gangtok, we visited the nearby Tsomogo Lake. We were going to take a yak ride around the lake, but the rain meant very wet smelly yaks. We opted to walk around the lake instead and then hide from the rain and gorge ourselves with chai and chowmein (the real deal).
Now, I'm in Siliguri, planning my way into Nepal. I think it will involve two bus rides and a seven rupee rickshaw ride across the border. I also found out that I need US dollars to buy a visa...it turns out it's quite a challenge to get US dollars here. I was told I need to get them on the 'gray market'. This should be fun...
previous travel blog entry
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