Princess Shannon has returned to India. I (sorta accidentally) decided to give her a taste of life as I know it for the first part of her trip. Darjeeling and Sikkim were two of the few places on my A list that I hadn't been to yet, so I roped Shannon into tagging along. In discussing these plans with my colleagues in Hyderabad, I miraculously acquired another 5 people: Gina, plus Kate and Angela; Anup, plus his friend Apu. It made for a nice-sized group to go and explore the wonders of India's northeastern provinces, and it definitely gave Shans a taste of what life as an expat has been like.
We flew to Badogra, which is the closest airport to both Darjeeling and Sikkim, and met up with a driver to take us up into the mountains. As per the Indian norm, it was not without problems. First our hotel was taken over by some visiting dignitary, so at the last minute, we were notified we'd be staying somewhere else. Then, once we got there, our driver somehow managed to be standing outside this very tiny airport for the better part of an hour and still miss the crowd of 5 occidentals and 2 NRIs clustered at the entrance. My expectation of and tolerance for these road bumps has increased mightily over the past year and a half. I think, in many ways, this is a gift of patience that India has given me. Forever more, I will roll with the punches just a little bit better, plan alternatives just a little more thoroughly, and know when I should insist that much more firmly.
Darjeeling was our first stop. Perched at the top of a series of very windy roads into the mountain, it offers mist-covered views of the tea plantations and unbelievably beautiful glimpses of the Himalayan peaks, especially Kanchenjunga. The ride up the mountain, though a little windy for those in the group who were on their first Indian road trip, was fairly uneventful. We climbed through the lowlands, up into the tree line, passing temples and prayer flags hung through the trees, eventually driving alongside the famous toy train as it chugged its way up the mountain. Amongst all of this peace and beauty, Shannon took a moment to wave at some kids by the side of the road. Normally, this type of gesture is greeted with smiles and shy waves back, but this time, oh no.... One of the little boys, probably about 7 or 8 years old, stepped into the road behind our car and proceeded to thrust his hips at Shannon, miming that he was stroking himself. Oh yeah, a little Darjeeling porn on our way up the mountain....super funny. We all about died laughing. Even the Indians amongst us said they'd never seen a kid do that in India. See the beauty that Western cultures bring to the Eastern world?
While I don't think that the Viceroy Hotel should have been the same price as our original booking at the Elgin, it was completely serviceable. Clean, neat, very helpful staff and a great location on the main mall. In Northern India, the proximity to Tibet means you'll find at least two things in all of these Himalayan towns - monks and momos. For our first dinner in Darjeeling, we decided to go in search of the latter and had an amazing meal of momos and thukpa at Kunga Restaurant, a Tibetan joint on the main road in Darjeeling. We then wandered into town for the cheapest drinks ever at a local bar. A weekend away in one of India's hill stations forces you to slow down a bit, enjoy the company of those you're with, appreciate nature and the much-cooler air, soak of the spirituality of its holy places, and just do everything at a much more leisurely pace. It is good for the soul.
For our second day in Darjeeling, we headed out to see the sights and eventually to search for the local speciality - tea, of course! We visited the Japanese peace stupa for some impromptu drumming practice and gorgeous views of both the stupa and the mountains in the distance. Darjeeling, like Leh has a heavy Tibetan influence, so we were able to visit one of the local monasteries; Shannon worked on spinning the prayer wheels and Anup got down with the people, the monk people, that is. We then moved on to the Darjeeling Zoo and the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute - highlights were the whomping leopard sex, which I heard but missed seeing, and the sherpa practicum going on in the courtyard at the Institute, which I also managed to just miss, being absorbed in all of the tales of men lost to Everest over the years. Gina assures me that both the sex and the sherpas were spectacular.
After our animal adventures, we spent a significant amount of time and joke material trying to find this restaurant called the "Hot Stimulating Cafe," which apparently exists, but we definitely could not find. In the meantime, we headed out to the tea plantations and the Tibetan Refugee Center. I think many of us, being native or imported Californians, were thinking that tea plantations would follow the wine-tasting model, but au contrare. We definitely got an up-close-and-personal view of the tea bushes, which look rather like boxwood, but there was no 'tasting room' to be had. The refugee center wasn't as spectacular as the Norbulingka Institute in Dharamsala, but we managed to amuse ourselves watching the little kids play, and Anup even found a pick-up game of basketball - again, one with the people. We hit The Elgin, where we were supposed to be staying, for high tea and had a very nice respite, along with our first taste of true Darjeeling tea. Inspired, we headed back to the main road in Darjeeling to Nathmull's, and spent the better part of an hour sniffing and sampling white, black and green teas. Apparently, one doesn't go to the tea, but rather has the tea brought to one. . . ah hah.
We hit the hay pretty early that night; matter of fact, Shannon didn't even rally for dinner. At 4:30am, we were headed for Tiger Hill to catch the sun rising over the Himalayas. There was much discussion as to whether the whole party would make it out at that ungodly hour or not, but we did. Out, and all the way up to the top of the hill. . . . the very foggy, prayer-flag-swathed, and overcrowded hill. As a native of Aptos, the fog made me feel right at home, but it wasn't so good for seeing the mountain range. Our conversation went something like this:
Apu: Look! There's the mountain range
(all of us squint in the direction he's pointing)
Anup: Dude, those are just clouds.
Apu: Triangular clouds?
Me: Well, maybe I see the mountains. . . maybe. . . Yeah, I think I do!
Apu: (to Anup) See?!
Me: . . . Or maybe I don't. . . ?
And so on, and so forth. . . .
In the end, even with photo-enhancing software, I got nothing, not even triangular clouds. I finally resorted to buying photos that were being sold from mornings where you could actually see the mountains. And, of course, the day before was much better, supposedly. But, hey - who can complain too much about an early-morning chai call with good company? We would have been bummed if we hadn't tried. After breakfast back at the Viceroy, our little party had to break up as Gina, Kate, and Angela headed back down the mountain and home to Hyderabad, and Apu, Anup, Shannon and I continued on to Sikkim.
The drive to Sikkim was beautiful. I have come to love the Himalayan foothills for all of their fog and greenery, and for the degree to which they feel like home. We saw a tourism poster for Sikkim that said "the Switzerland of the East," and that's a pretty fair description. Steep mountains with stepped fields cascade into gorges filled with tumbling rapids. In the lowlands, it is hot; up higher, it is misty and cool. All of the architecture is steeply vertical, made to shed the elements. Shannon and I only had a very brief day 24 hours or so in Sikkim, but it was still enough to get a taste of this lovely Indian state. Highlights include:
- Getting a passport stamp, even though this is still India (?!)
- The hotel hook-up from Apu's friend, that ended up being a definitely B-grade option
- Gambling in Sikkim's first-ever casino for Shannon's birthday (and losing...wahhhh!)
- The human traffic lights (seriously?)
- The boys and their 'over-under' madness and preferring to sleep on the loveseat rather than together
- The beautiful pedestrian mall in front of our hotel that my friend William's dad helped to design
- Buying Dad a Nepali hat in the market, and taking a picture of how to wear it
- Visiting Rumtek monastery
- Shannon almost wetting herself on the way down the mountain - when will that girl learn that in India, it is unwise to drink multiple liters of water on road trips?
And then we're back in Badogra, and headed off to Kolkata!
No comments:
Post a Comment