David and Jo’s fourth anniversary! Today the monk with the gong went by around 4 am, so everyone was up early.
David and Jo were out by 6:30 am and found the area in Darjeeling where the morning exercise contingent gathers. People were jogging, walking dogs, stopping to use exercise bars by the side of the road…Jo thought this was very different than what is seen in Delhi.
Dave thinks a view like this of Kanchenjunga could motivate just about anyone to hit the pavement!
Jim and Rita also went out for a walk at 7 am and saw a number of men carrying 30 kg sacks of goods to the stalls next to our hotel. Incredibly heavy; many of the men had a head strap that distributed some of the weight but it still looked like a miserable way to earn a living.
After another breakfast in Jo’s and David’s room, Rita, Jim and David headed out to Ghum. We stopped at a monastery along the way and listened to a drum hit by a curved stick, as well as bells.
Rita turned back and David and Jim kept going to Ghum, and then on to the Aloobari monastery, which was between Ghum and Darjeeling. 6 foot high massive prayer wheels of bronze that one turned by hand. So many beautiful monasteries!
David and Jim had quite an adventure. They walked about 7 miles, initially along the Tensing Norgay road. They saw one small monastery, and then walked to the Aloobari Monastery, after some retracing of their steps since they had gotten directions to the town of Aloobari (potato field) rather than to the monastery. This was very small, with only four monks – the village could not afford to pay them very much so they did not live in the monastery but came each day to work in it and maintain the building.
David and Jim continued now to Ghum, the site of the train station we had passed through on the Toy Express several days before. It started to pour so they took brief shelter at the train station, had a snack, and continued onto the largest monastery, which was a large building decorated with gold and red. There were many monks in residence, all wearing crimson robes. There were young and old monks alike. After this long trek, Jim and David were tired so they returned to the town of Darjeeling and the Hotel Shangri-La by cab, just in time for our next major activity.
In the meantime, Rita and Jo had done a little shopping at the Fairtrade store across the street, and bought two frames made by women who were trying to start businesses from their homes and communities. Rita had also gone to a fancy tea store on the main square and bought a tea infuser, so that we could try the fancy tea from the Happy Valley tea plantation the day before.
The high point of the day was High Tea at the Windemere Hotel. We all spiffed up and went to visit this grand old hotel which was decorated and ran as though the British were still occupying India.
There was a large veranda, as well as a number of rooms where one could have their tea served. We had freshly brewed tea (of course), along with raisin scones (hard and dry), Devonshire cream (yum!) and some strawberry jam. There were also tiny bread and butter and cheese sandwiches, and also sandwiches with cucumber. There was a marble cake as well.
Many framed letters from (I am sure) notables hung on the walls. The only name I recognized was “Nelson A. Rockefeller”. The furniture was overstuffed as one might expect, and all decorated as though we were in the 1930’s rather than 2011. It was lots of fun and when Jo and David look at the pictures, they will remember their 4th anniversary with fondness.
On the way back to the hotel, we saw a large group of monkeys, including some babies. Jo gave us tips to avoid making eye contact with them or stare at them or they might bare their teeth and make aggressive noises. Apparently one of the Vice-Ministers of India died when he was having breakfast on his patio, and a group of monkeys dropped onto him. As he was trying to get them off him, he lost his footing, fell off his veranda and died!
David adds that there was an amazing fog and both the mist and the crowd outside of their room was so thick that he barely could walk.
We then walked around a little, and Rita bought several scarves from the Fairtrade shop, including one for Gita. Back to the hotel to pack for our early morning departure to Kalimpong. We had a memorable (for its terrible quality) dinner of tikka chicken and off to sleep..
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