Saturday, May 28th: Off to Kalimpong

No one slept well our last night in Darjeeling. First there were the dogs who were barking and fighting outside our windows at about 1:15 am. During the day, the dogs are everywhere in Darjeeling, lying in the middle of the street or in front of shops or houses, apparently oblivious to everything happening around them. I have never seen dogs be so passive, and I asked Jo if they were drugged. It turns out that they are animals who “come alive” at night and form packs which are very territorial. Apparently there was a “West Side Story” interaction between two rival groups last night, and…Jo and David were so aggravated that they considered going outside and either trying to break up the fight or shoot one of the dogs; luckily neither happened. At about 3:45 am, our friendly monk who bangs his gong as he walks up the street came by, followed by the “before dawn” call to prayer for the Muslims…

Jim and Rita were up early and left at about 6:30 am for a walk up and around Observatory Hill where the Windemere is located. As they stepped outside, they saw that the mountains in the distance were visible and Mt. Kanchenjunga towered above the others. Mt. Kanchenjunga is the third highest mountain in the world (after Mt Everest and K2) and is 28,208 feet tall and snow-covered. Its name means “House of Five Treasures” named for its five summits. The sky was blue, there were come fluffy clouds, and the effect was glorious. We walked around and took some
pictures at several of the viewing sites.

After a last breakfast in Darjeeling, we headed out for Kalimpong, after a serious negotiation with the taxi driver contingent. We debated going first to the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, which is within the zoo complex, and the Refugee Center, but decided that the priority was getting to the Saturday morning market in Kalimpong which was only open until 12. Well, that wasn’t exactly how it turned out. The ride from Kalimpong was another exciting adventure, with lots of twists, turns, horns, and a stop at a tourist place where he probably visited with some of his fellow drivers. Because of the quality of the road and the traffic getting to Kalimpong, we didn’t even arrive in town until 12:30, so we headed off to the Orchid Retreat--where we were to stay for the next several days--a place run by Honey and Ganesh, her father-in-law. He had started the Orchid nursery 48 years ago, and still managed much of the day-to-day business.

Unfortunately they were not expecting us for lunch, so nothing was available. We had separate little cabins, overlooking the lush gardens. We pooled all of our food bars, but still things were pretty grim. David went up to the main building and pleaded with Honey to provide us something simple to eat, since Jo is pregnant! Soon grilled sandwiches and soup arrived and we sat on our porch looking out at the beautiful scenery – in the middle of a massive rain storm.

It cleared after about an hour, and we all just rested and relaxed. Dinner that night was at the hotel and, although not particularly memorable, it was fine.

Off to bed – at least that is what Rita and Jim did. David and Jo had yet another adventure which made the fourth wedding anniversary weekend one they won’t forget. (First one – not even in the same country. Second one – Rome to Florence and back to Rome; night spent on stone benches outside of the airport. Third one – their first night in the RV in St Louis as we headed out to Jon and Gita’s wedding; about 110 degrees in the RV because we found out that the Freon unit did not have any Freon due to the instillation of a defective unit at the Winnebago factory). Anyway, they went to their little cabin, Jo put the key in the Yale-type lock hooked through the door– and the key snapped in half with a portion in the lock. The Orchid Retreat did not have a spare key to their room (go figure!) and they had no way to get the door open. The windows above the veranda were not windows that could be opened. So David (carefully) walked on a ledge high above the garden below, managed to get a window open, and crawled through. Unfortunately he still could not open the door to the cabin because of the lock on the outside of the door. So Jo carefully walked along the ledge, and David hung out of the window, picked her up and pulled her through the open window. Luckily Jo was only in her 6th month of pregnancy and not at the end of the 9th month! What an adventure!

(note: these are photos of us recreating this!)