Then Ganesh, the father-in-law of Honey who runs the Orchid Retreat Hotel, agreed to give us a tour around the orchid greenhouses and the gardens that he started 48 years ago.
The land was his ancestral land, but he is the one who started the current business. Apparently, he challenged his daughter-in-law to see if she could turn the two guest cottages on the property into a Bed and Breakfast. Now they have ten cottages and she is in charge of the hotel end of the business. He talked to us at dinner last night and told us that the road the hotel is on is the road that has always been used for Tibetan travel. This road used to be the road that the Tibetan mule trains rode on.
We walked in the gardens, Jim asked questions, and Ganesh answered them. He knew a huge amount about all of the plants and their appropriate names and classifications. He explained to us about how they did hybridization of orchids, and discussed some of the many different varieties with us. They were spectacular in color and variety.
Some were very tiny, clustered many on a branch; some were very large and showy. The colors were so intense from white to brilliant deep pink to dazzling yellow and orange. The foliage in the garden is also spectacular with huge philodendron leaves, palms of many varieties, tree ferns, rhododendron trees. It was really like being in a rain forest in terms of the variety and size of the plants. As I mentioned to Jo, this is Jim’s favorite – to be able to spend one:one time with a true artisan is one of life’s true pleasures for Jim.
We had booked a jeep and a driver for our full-day explore. The intent was to go to Lava, which is the site of a National Park. However, one can’t get into the park without permits and the process for doing that wasn’t going to work. Martin told us that we could do a walk from Lava to Rishap which was about 4 km in each direction, but was muddy. We were going to do that until we heard that there was a tree canopy in Lolygoan, which was about an hour from Lava. That sounded good to us, so Rita, Jim, and David headed off. Jo decided to stay on the veranda and “chill”, and to enjoy the Nutella and chocolate bars and mangos that we bought in Kalimpong yesterday.
The road to Loligoan was nothing if not incredibly curvy, narrow, rocky, and perilously close to the cliff that it perched on top of. Apparently, no one in India sees automobile safety as a high priority since none of the cars we have rented have had seat belts, there are essentially no traffic lights, and two or three cars get to an intersection at the same time – and no one seems to have the right of way. Rather there is a lot of honking and, depending upon where you are and the philosophy of your driver, either one driver backs up and makes room for the other one to go, or neither “side” decides to move. Great fun, and certainly challenging for the ears.
After about an hour and a half, we arrived at Goliloan and the tree canopy walkway. It was pretty dark and gloomy due to impending rain, but we set out into the forest. We reached the tree canopy in about five minutes, and saw that the access/egress ends of the canopy ladder were removed, and “closed” signs hung on both ends. It looked pretty rickety so David and I were not sure that it was such a bad thing that we couldn’t get on it.
Also, it was only a few feet higher than we were anyway, so it would not have afforded much of a different viewpoint, as opposed to the one we did in the rain forest in Costa Rica.
So it was kind of wet and damp, and we were walking further into the forest when all of a sudden, David gave a yell, and started jumping around and saying “there are leeches here and one is on me – no, two – three –five – eight – ten!” By then he was trying to kick off his Crocs and get the leeches that had crawled through the holes in the shoes off his feet. I looked down and saw that there were tiny inch long wriggling things on my shoes too! I began to yell and jump around also. The leeches were crawling under the net covering of my walking shoes – and disappearing into the fabric of the shoe. Jim was wearing his new Chacos which are very much like Teva’s, and he said that none of the leeches were on him because they couldn’t get purchase on the material of the shoe. By now David and I were running from the forest, and I was stopped by an Indian gentleman who said he wanted to take my picture. I was yelling and said I could not stop to have my picture taken, but he took one anyway and showed it to me. I had my mouth open with a petrified look on my face, which made the “gentleman” laugh. David then started lecturing him with “Do you know it is very rude to ask people from the United States if you can take their picture?” In retrospect, this sounds like a sitcom so this would be a good place to take a commercial break.
So, we got back to the car, and there was a lot more jumping around, and we discovered a few more leeches on me, and one on the inside of the window of the car where it had probably landed when I was throwing my shoes around! It was now pouring, so we drove on, and then the weather cleared. We stopped and walked along this high ridge road back to town. went to the town of Goliloan and sat there and had lunch (yum – peanut Butter, (stale) bread, bananas, mangos, oranges, etc. ) It had stopped raining so we decided to go out for a little walk on the road leading to this little town, and off we went.
A few minutes later Jim noted that he had some blood on his foot, so he stopped to see what had happened. A BIG FAT LEECH FILLED WITH JIM’S BLOOD WAS ATTACHED BETWEEN TWO OF HIS TOES!!!!!!
Well, then we really started jumping around. Jim got the leech off his foot, and we noted that one half of the body was fat now but the other half was still very skinny. Jim took a stick and punctured the leech, and this pool of blood ooped out. The leech then slid away….We then went back to the village and had our fantastic lunch of peanut butter, (stale) bread, mangoes, bananas, and oranges that we bought in Kalimpong the day before. Well that was an afternoon that none of us will forget. We agreed that this would probably become the stuff of a family story, to be repeated for many years. David has decided that when he tells this to NoahBelle, he will start off by saying: One day when your mommy was carrying you in her belly, she was so smart that she decided to not come with me and your grandparents on a trip…”
By this time, the weather had begun to clear and get sunny. However, we decided to skip Lava and Rishap, and head back to Kalimpong stopping at some sites along the way.
Initially we went to the Tonza monastery where we saw the most amazing panels and pictures on the walls of the temple. These depicted Buddha in almost every scene with fantastic combination of colors.
There was also a panel that had the planned picture drawn in pencil in incredible detail but none of the colors had been filled in.
Some of the other panels were not completed so they were mostly finished but there were still large areas where the pencils lines were still present.
This monastery was very small, isolated, and quiet but it was quite lovely; at each of the outside corners of the building were explanations of different forms of meditation, such as walking meditation.
Our driver then took us on a harrowing ride through the narrow lanes of Kalimpong to try to find St. Theresa’s church (wrong church) and then to the Tibetan fabric store where David got cut-to-order red, green, white, and yellow prayer flags and Rita saw the beautiful Tibetan silks lining the shelf -- fabrics unlike any I have seen before. I wish I knew how to sew and could create a spectacular outfit that would show off the amazing fabric.
Then we went to the Durpin monastery, which is the largest monastery in Kalimpong. Little did we know that this would lead to one of the most outstanding memories of this trip. To get to the monastery, we had to drive and drive and drive through a military establishment, where the roads were in perfect condition (quite amazing!), the lawns were beautifully tended, the buildings all well-maintained. We began to wonder if we were on the road to the monastery, which sits at the top of spectacular Durpin Hill. Once we left the military compound, we were back to the roads we have come to know – bumpy, rocky, in poor condition…and then we came to this fantastic building. When we pulled into the parking lot, we began to hear this incredible chanting and beating of gongs and began to smell incense.
We walked up to the door, first passing by many prayer wheels mounted on the building.
The room was filled with monks, mostly young with a few older ones leading the service. One monk was at the end beating the gong with this incredible curved stick we had seen when we were walking in Darjeeling.
The room was filled with the smell of incense.
The walls were covered with amazingly detailed murals, all depicting Buddha or evils or other symbols important in Buddhism (sadly we did not have Hamsa or Jo with us to explain the meaning). It was such an out-of-worldly experience, that I thought it felt like we had turned a corner and found ourselves in the middle of an Indiana Jones movie set…A mystical, magical, spiritual experience.
As we left the building, we noted a row of gilded stupas next to the building. The stupas were overshadowed, however, by the large telephone tower positioned right behind them.
As we looked to the other side of the parking lot, we saw the dormitories for the monks, and right next to them was the playing field where the military were playing a game. A juxtaposition of ancient and modern India…
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