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!)

Friday May 27th, 4th Anniversary!: High tea and high mts

Notes from the traveling desk of Rita Meek

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..