DARJEELING
I left the region the next morning for Darjeeling again by shared jeep changing once. The famous hill station is situated on a ridge an
d again the arrival is full of blaring horns, jeeps and traffic. There is, however, no room for traffic on the narrow streets climbing ever upwards and they are given over to Bazaars. There are stalls and shops all along every street selling everything imaginable. It is nice that the people here don’t beg you to buy so it is possible to have a look at the merchandise in peace. I arrived on a hot day and it was not much fun climbing with luggage on the cobblestones but I found an inexpensive hotel with a very kind owner. I had heard about him along my way. Rooms are a bit dingy as is usual with budget places but it does have hot water and electricity sometimes. It goes out about 4 times a day at least for around 2 hours each time although yesterday it was out for the whole evening. I am getting used to trying to read by candlelight, makes one realize how it used to be in our grandmothers time. I think that the power goes mostly when I go in to an internet place. Even when there is power it is not enough to upload pictures.
One is reminded at every corner that this is Gurkha land. They are the main political force here and they are insisting on a separate state. The compromise that was decided upon in 1988 granted them a large amount of autonomy from the state government but they want full secession. There are slogans and their green, white and yellow colours on every wall. There was a huge peaceful march here yesterday.
The c
ity is very vibrant, there are squares, little horses carry children around for a ride, there are a few cafes (western style) and every kind of person and shop like Tibetan, Nepali, Indians from Kashmir flogging Pashminas and all the myriad Indian castes. There are even a few little pubs. Tried one of them and met quite a few other travelers including 3 from Ireland. It seems odd to be in a place where most people are smoking as it has been stopped for quite a while in Ireland and Sikkim does not allow smoking even out on the streets. The Indian beer has a lot of preservatives in it because of the heat in the Summer and it gives quite a headache. We experimented by turning the bottle upside down in a glass of water and it all drained out while none of the beer spilled.
It is now my 3rd day here and unfortunately yesterday I skidded on the tiled, wet floor of the bathroom and had a very HARD fall on my back. It totally squeezed the breath out of me and took me ages to be able to get up. I was afraid that I had really done some damage, it is very painful but did get an x ray at the hospital here and there does not seem to be anything broken. I’m lucky that it was not my headJ It is still hard to get a deep breath and the back is not good but it will probably improve and I am lying a bit low. I did take a trip on the famous Darjeeling Himalayan Railway’s Toy Train, a two hour jaunt up to a high point but it was again misty so no views. It is listed as a World Heritage site It is a steam train and has been running since 1881, the tracks are only 2 ft wide
and they run right through the streets and the traffic. See photo.
The mist continued for the whole week unfortunately as the views here are said to be just splendid. I took nice walks up to the Japanese peace Pagoda, they have erected them in many cities, always on a height like the one I walked to in Pokkara.
Again met many interesting people. There was Anna, a twenty year old German girl who is studying Tibetan here as she is a Tibetan Buddhist and her course for that will take eight years. Really enjoyed our chats. Anna is trying to decide if she will become a Buddhist nun or not and she smokes and drinks to check if she is ready to give them up or not. Like most Buddhists she is cheerful, peaceful and kind. There was also an American Buddhist monk staying at the hotel for 6 months and he is also studying Tibetan, he joined in many of our discussions over coffee. Many of the people that I have met up in Sikkim arrived after a great trek up there. The views they had were amazing. It would be great to be younger and go off trekking in these high mountains. A young NZ girl I met realized that there were no places that baked good cakes here so she saw an opening and had become “the cake lady” after renting an apartment and buying an oven. She supplies her cakes in a Hot Pizza place that is owned by two French men and she takes order for cakes for many different occasions. I also met a nice Irish woman, Tina, who does lighting for stage productions. She is based in London and travels for about 6 months a year mainly in India. That’s the nice thing about travelling, all the different people one meets along the way.
Turquoise seems to be one of the most popular colours here for houses followed by terracotta with dark green trim. There are lovely homes but even very tiny ones have many planks of flowers around the front. There are blossoms everywhere especially Rhodos, Azaleas and all the spring flowers. Again it is most unlike the rest of India. Something that is not different is the awful, heavy, back breaking loads that people carry on their backs assisted by a band around their heads so that they trudge along these steep winding streets and many steps upwards while bent over with eyes on the ground as they cannot look up. What a destiny to have that as a job. Many of these people are elderly. How they can shoulder those loads of cement, gas bottles, bricks etc I just don’t know.
Of course there are many huge tea plantations around Darjeeling and the workers there are mainly women looking so pretty in their saris with their heads bobbing up between the green bushes of tea. It is very not work and it is not yet the heat of Summer, yet they are often singing as are many of the people here as they go about their work.
Tomorrow I am off for the border to cross in to Nepal again and start the long journey home on the 30th so I’ll take an early shared jeep from Darjeeling to Siliguri and from there on to the border town of Kakarbhitta which is close to the small airport of Bhadrapur. I hope to fly from there to Kathmandu on Sunday.
I left the region the next morning for Darjeeling again by shared jeep changing once. The famous hill station is situated on a ridge an
d again the arrival is full of blaring horns, jeeps and traffic. There is, however, no room for traffic on the narrow streets climbing ever upwards and they are given over to Bazaars. There are stalls and shops all along every street selling everything imaginable. It is nice that the people here don’t beg you to buy so it is possible to have a look at the merchandise in peace. I arrived on a hot day and it was not much fun climbing with luggage on the cobblestones but I found an inexpensive hotel with a very kind owner. I had heard about him along my way. Rooms are a bit dingy as is usual with budget places but it does have hot water and electricity sometimes. It goes out about 4 times a day at least for around 2 hours each time although yesterday it was out for the whole evening. I am getting used to trying to read by candlelight, makes one realize how it used to be in our grandmothers time. I think that the power goes mostly when I go in to an internet place. Even when there is power it is not enough to upload pictures.One is reminded at every corner that this is Gurkha land. They are the main political force here and they are insisting on a separate state. The compromise that was decided upon in 1988 granted them a large amount of autonomy from the state government but they want full secession. There are slogans and their green, white and yellow colours on every wall. There was a huge peaceful march here yesterday.
The c
ity is very vibrant, there are squares, little horses carry children around for a ride, there are a few cafes (western style) and every kind of person and shop like Tibetan, Nepali, Indians from Kashmir flogging Pashminas and all the myriad Indian castes. There are even a few little pubs. Tried one of them and met quite a few other travelers including 3 from Ireland. It seems odd to be in a place where most people are smoking as it has been stopped for quite a while in Ireland and Sikkim does not allow smoking even out on the streets. The Indian beer has a lot of preservatives in it because of the heat in the Summer and it gives quite a headache. We experimented by turning the bottle upside down in a glass of water and it all drained out while none of the beer spilled.It is now my 3rd day here and unfortunately yesterday I skidded on the tiled, wet floor of the bathroom and had a very HARD fall on my back. It totally squeezed the breath out of me and took me ages to be able to get up. I was afraid that I had really done some damage, it is very painful but did get an x ray at the hospital here and there does not seem to be anything broken. I’m lucky that it was not my headJ It is still hard to get a deep breath and the back is not good but it will probably improve and I am lying a bit low. I did take a trip on the famous Darjeeling Himalayan Railway’s Toy Train, a two hour jaunt up to a high point but it was again misty so no views. It is listed as a World Heritage site It is a steam train and has been running since 1881, the tracks are only 2 ft wide
and they run right through the streets and the traffic. See photo.The mist continued for the whole week unfortunately as the views here are said to be just splendid. I took nice walks up to the Japanese peace Pagoda, they have erected them in many cities, always on a height like the one I walked to in Pokkara.
Again met many interesting people. There was Anna, a twenty year old German girl who is studying Tibetan here as she is a Tibetan Buddhist and her course for that will take eight years. Really enjoyed our chats. Anna is trying to decide if she will become a Buddhist nun or not and she smokes and drinks to check if she is ready to give them up or not. Like most Buddhists she is cheerful, peaceful and kind. There was also an American Buddhist monk staying at the hotel for 6 months and he is also studying Tibetan, he joined in many of our discussions over coffee. Many of the people that I have met up in Sikkim arrived after a great trek up there. The views they had were amazing. It would be great to be younger and go off trekking in these high mountains. A young NZ girl I met realized that there were no places that baked good cakes here so she saw an opening and had become “the cake lady” after renting an apartment and buying an oven. She supplies her cakes in a Hot Pizza place that is owned by two French men and she takes order for cakes for many different occasions. I also met a nice Irish woman, Tina, who does lighting for stage productions. She is based in London and travels for about 6 months a year mainly in India. That’s the nice thing about travelling, all the different people one meets along the way.
Turquoise seems to be one of the most popular colours here for houses followed by terracotta with dark green trim. There are lovely homes but even very tiny ones have many planks of flowers around the front. There are blossoms everywhere especially Rhodos, Azaleas and all the spring flowers. Again it is most unlike the rest of India. Something that is not different is the awful, heavy, back breaking loads that people carry on their backs assisted by a band around their heads so that they trudge along these steep winding streets and many steps upwards while bent over with eyes on the ground as they cannot look up. What a destiny to have that as a job. Many of these people are elderly. How they can shoulder those loads of cement, gas bottles, bricks etc I just don’t know.
Of course there are many huge tea plantations around Darjeeling and the workers there are mainly women looking so pretty in their saris with their heads bobbing up between the green bushes of tea. It is very not work and it is not yet the heat of Summer, yet they are often singing as are many of the people here as they go about their work.Tomorrow I am off for the border to cross in to Nepal again and start the long journey home on the 30th so I’ll take an early shared jeep from Darjeeling to Siliguri and from there on to the border town of Kakarbhitta which is close to the small airport of Bhadrapur. I hope to fly from there to Kathmandu on Sunday.
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