Monday May 30, 2011: Leeches!

Today was action-packed, from beginning to end. We started off with breakfast with a grits-like cereal, eggs, pancakes (much doughier than the ones we are used to), toast.

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.

Dave checking his crocs for leeches
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.

Dave turning the prayer wheels...

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…

Fennec Fox Fun

"What IS this adorable creature?" you may be asking yourself. Well, you should be. It's a fennec fox, Vulpes zerda, possibly the cutest animal I have ever come across. Weighing in at only 1-1.5 kg, the fennec is the smallest member of the canine family. It's got a mostly white-to-light-orange colored coat and has a black tail tip. The soles of its feet are furry. Its giant ears are adapted to allow it to hear prey scuttling around underground. And it looks like a Gremlin.

You are probably expecting the fennec to be a native of South Asia, given our current location. In fact, it's not. It's a Saharan animal found from Morocco to Egypt. Why, then, am I writing about it here?

Well, it turns out that the fennec is one of only two species of fox that are fit to be kept as pets. The other is the Russian Silver Fox, native of Siberia. I spent probably an hour and a half this morning procrastinating by educating myself about fennecs as pets. Supposedly, they combine all the best traits of dogs and cats. They make little cooing sounds when they're happy, like to dart around like a cat with the evening frenzies, can be litter trained, and can dig up to 6 feet underground. They're undoubtedly wily.

This all sounded wonderful until we learned that most fennec owners describe their pets' dispositions using phrases like "ferret on crack". Combine that with the fact that you have to have a fence buried 6-10 feet UNDERGROUND to enclose them, and I began to feel resigned. My heart sank even further when I learned that they're highly social animals who mate for life and live in burrow communities, kind of like prairie dogs (another of my favorite animals, incidentally). I don't think I could bring myself to isolate a fennec.

Sigh. Another adorable animal that will never be mine. Perhaps this is all just my mothering instinct coming out, and I won't even want a furry friend once the baby comes?

(Dave's notes: Hopefully (for it's sake) the baby won't have such disproportionately large ears as the fennec fox)...and no, we will not be hoisting off said fennec foxes on any grandparents-to-be, unsuspecting relatives,or friendly friends!

Sunday, May 29th

However, in the morning they had to exit the same window and traverse the same ledge in order to get to breakfast.

They were told that the lock would be removed in the morning after we had returned from our first activity of the day--a hike up to a viewpoint, so off we went.

There was a long road up to the top of a mountain where the views were fantastic. We all set off about 7:30 and began the walk. We saw some very interesting homes, and a number of children sitting outside of them or playing in the yard. It was Sunday and we saw a number of cars heading in the other direction, carrying people obviously on their way to church.

House with prayer flags on the roofs

We passed Doctor Graham’s School, which was started in the early 20th century.

It was initially started by him so that orphaned children of tea plantation workers and other orphans could receive an education. It is primarily a residential school, but some people from Kalimpong go there as well. Ganesh, his son (Honey’s husband) went there, and Honey’s two girls so there as well.

It was pretty far up the road, and Jo and I were wilting a little under the heat.

We kept going for about another 30 minutes and then decided to head back. Jim and David continued on for what turned out to be at least another hour hike (going much faster than they could have with us).

Some photos from their hike:

Jo and I went back to the Orchid Retreat to check on the lock. Not good. The handyman could not get the lock off with his tools. He went back and got a crowbar. Nope. He then got a hammer. Nope. Finally he got a hacksaw, and started…and continued…and continued. By this time, Jo was getting pretty despondent. Finally he got it off, and Jo was able to get into their cabin.

Now off to breakfast to wait for Jim and David. There was one other guest whose name was Martin. He was from approximately 30 miles outside of London. He was travelling alone, and this was his third time to the Orchid Retreat. He asked where we were from and I told him from Delaware, a state in the East of the USA. He said he had worked in Delaware. I said we lived in Old New Castle –and he said he had stayed in New Castle. No kidding. It turned out his company made software for bridge ticketing and he had worked at the Delaware Memorial Bridge and at the Cape May-Lewes Ferry. And we were in India; this was truly unbelievable.

David interjects: apparently he also had an interaction with Jo that went like this, read it in a heavy British accent

Martin: "Does your husband frequently play that banjo?" (referring to my 2 hours of practicing the day before)
Jo: "Why yes, he does"
Martin: "Oh dear God..."
(yes Martin, may God take pity on your soul {no, in all seriousness the banjo retreated until I figured out that my Croc strap functions as an excellent mute!})

Jim and David returned, and after breakfast, we sat on our porches, relaxed (which I don’t do very well!) , and David and Jo went off for a rest. After they got up, we decided to take a taxi into Kalimpong to check out the markets and get some fruit and snacks for our trip back to Delhi. The market was incredibly crowded, and there was yet another opportunity for a hair-raising adventure in a taxi cab. Once we got there, David and Jim proceeded to have a truly unique experience – a shave and a haircut. Part of the haircut includes some “cupping motion” of the scalp, followed by a head massage! Jo and I found a fruit store and got some mangos, chocolate, and Nutella and then Jo and David got ice cream bars to finish out our exciting adventure! Back to the Orchid Retreat for dinner and bed – this time David and Jo could actually get in their room.

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..

Thursday, May 26th: Exploring Darjeeling

Notes from the traveling desk of Rita Meek

Note from David: Hard to believe, but I don't have any photos from today, so this will be a text-heavy post!

As usual, Jim and I woke up multiple times during the night and stayed up for good at about 5 am. Soon thereafter a monk was walking down the street, ringing his gong. Another unusual start to what will undoubtedly be an amazing day!

We had breakfast with David and Jo in their room which looks out on the street scene in Darjeeling.We were all fascinated by the number of children who were beautifully dressed in uniforms, obviously going to one of a variety of schools. We saw the people putting up their stands and arranging their goods for the day. Also, foreigners strolled by wearing ‘interesting’ clothes (on Friday Jo and I saw a gentleman wearing Coca-Cola pants). We set off for the zoo, and along the way, my stomach began to give signs and signals that it was very unhappy. We found out that the zoo was closed on Thursday, so we decided to head off to the Happy Valley tea factory. Along the way, I got to visit the Mayfair Hotel since we thought that was the most likely establishment that would have an American-style bathroom. We walked down the slope to the Happy Valley tea plantation after a fairly long meander, passing a number of older women picking tea leaves.

At the factory entrance we were greeted by a guide. As opposed to the tea tour the day before, this one did not allow any photographs of the inside of the factory. We were taken from room-to-room, and one of the things that I thought was particularly interesting was that the workers are divided into three groups: around 18 - ?, over 50, and inbetween. The oldest group was assigned areas to pick which were the closest to the factory; the youngest were given areas farthest from the factory, and the middle were inbetween. It seemed like the group worked as a team, so that the weight in kg they were supposed to pick was significantly more than anyone could pick on their own. We went into a special building where we met a woman who proceeded to give us a lesson in how to tell the different qualities of tea by blowing on the tea in your hand to release the aroma. She also gave us a cup of the fanciest tea they produce at Happy Valley. The Happy Valley tea is sold only by Harrod’s. By the time we were done with this adventure and bought our obligatory package of the fanciest tea, we headed back by taxi because I was very sick and Jo was very tired. I then went to bed for the rest of the day. David and Jo had a lunch which was “unusual” and then took a nap. Jim went out for an explore and went around Observatory Hill, went to a monastery below Darjeeling. Dinner at a bakery/restaurant and then to bed.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011-Trains and Tea!

Notes from the traveling desk of Rita Meek

Yet another jam-packed day. We started off with breakfast, and then packed to leave, and headed off to the Makaibari Tea plantation, located within walking distance.

We just didn’t know it was all downhill, meaning that it would be all uphill on the return. (We actually bailed at the end of our tour and took a cab back to the hotel). We were not sure what we were going to get as our “tour” but this far surpassed any expectations we might have had.

We were met by Panong who was a volunteer who worked in the tea factory. It was a complicated story, but as best as we could understand, he grew up in the area and still lived here. He was a mountaineering guide, but joined a group of people from the community who volunteered on a regular basis at the tea factory.

We learned about the process of planting, harvesting, and preparing tea as well as about Rajah Banerjee, the owner of the tea plantation.

We were taken into the factory and told that the first step was called ‘withering” where approximately 70% of the water was removed from the leaves for water evaporation.

However, if the tea was to be green tea, this step was eliminated. Then the leaves were “rolled” which basically put the leaves through a conveyor belt and opened more of the leaves.

The leaves then went through a “fermentation process” which in fact as not fermentation but increased oxygenation. Oolong tea is made up of both green and black tea. The green tea has a different length of fermentation process. After the fermentation step is completed, the tea is “sorted” which separates out sticks, dust, and other debris.

The leaves are then packaged for retail distribution.

The best tea is the “first flush”, followed by the “second flush”, the “autumnal flush”. We learned that the lowest quality tea goes into tea bags. Perhaps we shouldn’t wonder what type of tea goes into those little Keurig cups!

David then met Rajah Banerjee who is the owner of the factory.

He was quite a character to say the least...stories about how the secret to the universe could be discovered by cutting open a cow horn and observing the repeating geometric patterns inside....hmmmm...

Dad laughing along with Mr. Banjerjee following some funny insight

Classic Mr. Banerjee



His great great grandfather started the company in 1859 and it is apparently the only tea plantation that has remained family-owned. He started organic tea farming this area, and brought a lot of ideas about ecoagriculture to the world of tea farming. He also has a strong sense of a living community and is obviously very socially conscious. Seven villages are part of the Makaiberi tea plantation environs. The tea plantation offers nursery and child care and education to the children of the workers. Additionally, the women do most of the tea leaf picking. They earn a decent wage, will get a pension when they turn 58, get extra money if they pick beyond their target for the day (i.e. pick 10 kg and needed to pick only 5 kg). The community has started to offer homestays for tourists who want to get an in-depth experience; they can accompany their hostess to the fields the following day and pick tea leaves. Women start working for the company at the age of 18 or above. The tea from Makaiberi is one of the tea that is used by the TAZO brand of tea which is what is sold by Starbucks and is the tea provided at the Inn at Montchanin where, of course, David and Jo went on their honeymoon night.

Afterwards we took a walk through the tea estate.

Then a brief stop at the tea factory store and the purchase of a few wooden crates of tea (the boxes are made on site by other women), we returned to the hotel for our last meal of chicken tikka, raita, roti, and a chopped vegetable salad.

After a taco-style roti, we got ourselves ready, took a cab to Kurseong, and took our seats on the Toy express.

A brief foray into the stores nearby while we waited for the train to leave, and peanut butter, KitKat bars, and Cadbury chocolate in Jo’s pack, and off we went on our next adventure. The train ride was “memorable”, but not one that we would likely repeat. The fog made it impossible to see the scenery next to the left=side of the train, and the right side view was basically of tin shacks with stores selling the same items, and men and children standing or sitting outside of the stores when we came into the little towns along the way or stone walls.

The engineer blew his horn almost continuously, and the smell of the diesel fuel filled the car. The ride took three hours (with some prolonged stops at stations) to go 30 miles/13 km from Kurseong to Darjeeling.

Our first glimpse of Darjeeling was a city built on a hill with some of the houses painted with bright colors. Then the tin shacks appeared, and we chugged into the station – and as David and Jo would say “the controlled chaos of India.”

Off to find the Shangri La, the hotel David had arranged for. (He has done a simply incredible job of organizing our trip.) We got in a cab (after Jo did a little negotiating of the price) and wound our way through the lower portion of Darjeeling until the driver pulled over and said he could go no further. We would have to walk the rest of the way because the streets were not accessible to cars. Well, not a lot of options there, so we headed off up the hill with our four bags, computer bag, backpacks and banjo case. We got to a very busy and congested street == and had no idea where to go. Jo asked several people for directions but they were not particularly helpful. After some more wandering, we asked a store owner to lead us to the hotel, which he graciously did through the chaos of a smaller version of Times Square and there we were at the Shangra La.

As soon as we walked through the door, a feeling of serenity came over us, and we proceeded up to our rooms, which were large and spacious, decorated beautifully, and with large windows overlooking the square. We could watch people buying scarves from a stand just below the window.

Off to dinner at the restaurant in the hotel, and a dinner of Tibetan soup and stir=fried vegetables. My chicken soup was flavored with cilantro, scallions, and a few fresh green beans—a pretty far cry from the chicken soup with matzoh balls I made for seder one month ago.

Jim went out for a late=evening explore and came back with Cadbury chocolate and bottled water. The town closes down around 9 pm, and we collapsed into bed.