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“Mmmm, momos” |
Ron sez:
I feel like I have given a bit of a false impression – it is a bit cathartic to rant about the bad/difficult things. So now I want to talk a bout some good things. This is a bit out of order as we are still here, but I want to talk about Darjeeling which has been my favorite place in India to date. Darjeeling is in the Himalayan foot hills near the border of Nepal. Instantly on arrival I felt some of the stress of India release, and I have been really happy here. The place is still a bit fume filled due to all of the jeeps which travel the very windy mountain rodes to get here, but overall it is a bit cleaner than other places we have been. Also it has fewer touts and shop owners are less aggressive which makes walking through the markets really fun—and makes people like me MORE likely to buy stuff.
The town is fascinating to see as it is really terraced into the mountain side with very narrow streets lined with tall (4 strory) bldgs on a steep slope. Tibetan, Nepalese, British, and Indian influences everywhere and the people are a really beautiful mix.
Last night we had climbed into bed and heard drums beating, AM convinced me to get out of bed and check into it with her (last time we did this we met an elephant!). On our way out we passed some random ponies walking through the streets- then met the only person out besides ourselves. The lovely gentleman explained there was a muslim festival going on (which they had kindly delayed from the night before so as not to conflict with the hindu festival for the goddess of knowledge). He proceeded to take us far out of his way to show us the procession. There were hundreds of men, with beating drums, and torches marching down the street—then several men performed a martial art type dance with sticks (explained to us as representative of beating away their sins)—amazing to see, and very glad we got out of bed.
This morning we got up early and the sun was shining the clouds dissapeared and we had a great view of Khangchendzonga – only a few metres shorter than Everest. We walked to a temple which is both Buddhist and Hindu—picture yourself on the top of a mountain, monkeys climbing through the trees strung with thousands of Tibetan prayer flags of all colors flying in the sun light, incense curling in your nose, bells ringing, and the deep bass of the buddhist monks chanting reverberating in your chest. . . really an exceptional moment, the reason I travel.
I’ll write more later as we have a few more days here, we are hoping to see a view of Mt Everest in a few days. . .
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A-M sez:
Well, we made it here despite the crazy travel comedy of errors that brought us here (see previous entry). This was partly due to our ambitious travel plans, flying from SW to Mumbai and then to Calcutta in the NE, then another flight to the Bengali hills, then a packed share jeep clinging to mountain sides for 3 hours, all over 2 days. Nevertheless, I'm still continuously amazed at just how screwed up things can get when they get screwed up. Won't even tell you the details of our journey out of Darjeeling, when our jeep driver decided to try a "new road" that turned out to be a hiking size trail clinging to (and leaning away from) the side of the mountain.
Yes, this is the Darjeeling of tea fame. The town is piled upon itself on a hill, in a part of India that juts up between Nepal and Bhutan. It amazes me that everywhere in India, even where there are miles of open space around, people still live haphazardly on top of each other, something I haven’t seen in mountain villages in other countries. There are many Tibetans here, with fun clothing, crafts, and, our favorite, the food. We must have eaten 3 meals per day of momos (Tibetan dumplings), thakpuk (thick noodles), of course all made with fresh chewy dough and finely herbed broth. Just the thing for a crisp evening. We also discovered bhayal, a sweet, chewy Tibetan bread.
When it was clear, the views of the mountains behind were beautiful. The most spectacular place was the combined Buddhist and Hindu temple on the top of a tall hill. It was literally one temple with both types of statues and symbols, with one small ‘altar’ with a Hindu priest sitting on one end, a Buddhist monk sitting at the other, and a crowd of people of all kinds chanting, waving candles, throwing money, and reaching for blessings from the holy men. We also did a day trek, walking from Buddhist gompa (monastery) to gompa. We stayed in a great lodge with, again, a ‘roomboy’ (still a “budget” place!) who brought us Darjeeling tea in the morning, built us a fire at night, and brought us hot water bottles for under the covers at bedtime. Aah, just chill.
previous travel blog entry
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