Pictures from yesterday and adventures from today

Here are some pictures that would've gone in yesterday's post, as promised. Today's post is below the pictures.

Sunrise at Tiger Point Hill (the sun has finally come up!)

Mount Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world. Everest is apparently somewhere in that view, as well, but I honestly have no idea where.

Really cute white wolves! Mu got a great shot of them emerging from their house.

Asiatic black bear, posing for the crowds.

Cuddly langurs. These guys are apparently considered sacred in India.

Mu (and a random lady) in front of the peace Pagoda.

The Ghoom Monastery, with a huge Buddha wrapped in cloth.

Tea garden! Look at all those tea plants!



And now, on to today. It was rather a weird day for me. Mu has gotten my cold, and being more sensible that I was in similar circumstances, decided to spend most of the day in bed. He has emerged now to join me back at the tea house from yesterday (the one with internet!), but until now, I've been meandering on my own. Hence, there are few pictures from today (it rarely occurs to me to take pictures, I've noticed), and the ones that I've taken aren't up yet, because it's usually Mu who uploads them.

In some ways, it was maybe a convenient day for Mu to be sick, in that he didn't have to suffer through my traipsing through tea shops and other souvenir stalls. I meandered happily around, smelling teas and looking at beautiful teapots and shawls and other things. There's a Tea and Tourism festival currently going on, which turns out to mean a whole host of random things. There were tea tastings, which was to be expected but also a "fun archery range" (I paid 20 rupees, approximately 40 cents, for the privilege of shooting 3 arrows badly and one reasonably well, to the laughter and applause of the people hanging around), an exhibit of photos and paintings of Darjeeling, another somewhat inexplicable exhibit of military-ish things related to the Gurkhas, one of the local ethnic groups, and lots of performances, including lots of heavy metal (very strange to be listening to people screaming while I'm sitting here drinking tea) and very bizarre dance/fire-breathing performances. The area around the tea tasting also blasted Scorpions music, for reasons known only to them. I like the Scorpions, mind you, but it was rather random.

I had heard that a local heritage hotel, the Windamere, had a daily high tea, so I went in search of that (and got lost and found the festival, so that was a happy accident). They turned out to be up a very steep flight of stairs, which I trudged up when I finally found it, discovered that the tea was served between 4 and 6 (it was around 1 at this point), and trudged back down. On the way back, I acquired a very pretty warm shawl, as well as a few more souvenirs. I also encountered a monkey, just hanging out on a path. I hadn't realized that they live this high up! This one was chilling, so I took some photos, but was careful not to get too close -- a lot of them have rabies, which would be distinctly unfun.

After checking in on Mu, I went out again, first for a small lunch (momos, soup, and masala chai for 30 rupees!), and then for that high tea I had originally searched for. I brought, appropriately, an Agatha Christie to read. :) The tea was served in a very quaint sitting area, with cushions and lace everywhere, and it was very good. I had an entire pot of tea, two sandwiches (cucumber and cheese, as you might expect), a piece of coffee cake, two cookies, and a scone. For those of you from the Bay Area, think Lovejoy's but with no choice of tea or sandwiches at a third of the price. Who needs choice when you've got super yummy, high quality Darjeeling tea? I also chatted with some people there -- a British man and his Indian wife, whom he had met years prior at that very hotel, where she had then been working. The man told me that I should give Kolkata another chance and that "after a few days, it grows on you." I smiled politely and nodded. I have no intention of doing this, of course, but I didn't need to tell him that. :) After they left, I read a bit more, and then meandered back down the hill to meet up with Mu and have yet more tea.

So now, we're internetting here, with a cricket game on the TV and more rock music being played outside to a large and enthusiastic crowd. Tomorrow, we will have a few more hours here in the morning, and then we'll get on an overnight train to Varanasi!

I'm not sure when we'll next have internet, so if I can't communicate 'till then, I hope everyone has a happy and wonderful New Year's!

"I never thought I'd say this, but I miss the cleanliness levels of US gas station bathrooms."

Just in case you're only here for the pictures, due to the time-limited nature of our wi-fi, this post won't have any. We hope to have some tomorrow, but given India, heaven only knows what will actually happen. Anyhow. Moving on.

I don't think either of us have ever been more glad to leave a place than we were to leave Kolkata. This was not a good introduction to India, though we're kinda feeling like the fact that we survived it (and even had 3 meals without any unpleasant side effects!) means that we can survive anything. The train station (which was far more grand than the airport, by the way -- the international airport in Kolkata consists of several short, non-descript buildings with pretty much no services except taxi, bus, and atms) was horribly difficult to find, but had one thing going for it -- an "upper class" waiting area. As we had decided to be snobby Americans and get AC1 tickets, we were able to utilize it. It had chairs, bathrooms that were (only marginally) less gross than the ones in the rest of the station, and, in an unwelcome development, at least one cockroach that we noticed. We jumped. The Indian family near us laughed at us.

The train was actually pleasant and comfortable, with Western toilets that even had toilet paper! I know I spend a lot of time mentioning bathrooms, but that's because that's been one of the constant reminders that we're not in familiar places, and so, it has stood out. But anyhow, we slept reasonably well and arrived in New Jaipalguri, the transfer point to Darjeeling. We were picked up by a driver from our hotel (while we waited for him to deal with something or other, at least 8 cabbies came over, attempting to lure us to their cars. I stopped counting after that.) who took us to another train station so we could experience the famous Toy Train. The drive was...harrowing, to say the least, so the train was nicer in that respect -- I didn't feel like we might go off the curve, given that we were on tracks. However, it put-putted along at about 8-10 km an hour, which meant that the second half of our trip took 3 hours. This was made more exciting by the fact that we were in a car full of very celebratory 30-something Indian men, who spent the whole time drinking, smoking, and yelling joyfully, as if they were 18 and had just discovered alcohol for the first time. They also had small muffin cake things that they insisted on sharing with us. They also attempted to get Mu to drink or smoke with them (not me, though), but he declined. :) By the time we arrived in Darjeeling and got to our hotel, we were drop dead tired, cold, and hungry. Thankfully, our hotel had room service, a heater, and hot tea.

Our hotel here, in stark contrast to the last one, is very nice. The room is clean and comfy, there is actual hot water (though a limited amount of it), there's room service and tea, as mentioned above, a yummy breakfast, and hot water bottles for heating one's bed (and snuggling with). We were also able to arrange tours for today through it, so all in all, we feel very taken care of here. The downside is that it's quite cold -- the room is away from the street, which is good for noise, but bad for getting sunlight. Also, the electricity situation in Darjeeling is...fascinating. There are seemingly random power outages, which Mu thinks are due to the place being under capacity for the amount of power it uses. So, our lights went on and off multiple times last night, and the heat with them. The blankets were quite warm, though.

Darjeeling itself is pretty nice, as long as one doesn't mind car horns. It's smallish (110, 000 people is Lonely Planet's estimate), and very crowded because the area it's in is rather small. There are narrow, winding roads everywhere, and it's super hilly, with some rather steep streets and stairs. There's lots of tea growing all around, and a million tea houses (one of which we're in right now, in fact). There's also a mix of cuisines -- Indian, of course, but Chinese and Tibetan are also common. I've discovered Tibetan dumplings, called momos, and have been convincing Mu to share some with me at every meal (not that he needed much convincing, they really are delicious!). Today, we saw the sunrise at Tiger Point Hill (pretty, but super crowded and, obviously, early), went to 2 monasteries (very different feel from Thai Buddhism, less gold and more fabric, but still very neat to see), drummed with a nun at one of the monasteries, and visited a tea garden (briefly, since it was the end of the day and we were getting hungry). In keeping with our "wats and animals" theme, we also went to the zoo, which focuses on endangered local species. It was small but mostly well done -- many of the animals had quite extensive habitats, and there were only a few that seemed really cramped. We also saw red pandas, who are adorable! They look like stuffed animals running around, all cute and fuzzy, with awesome markings on their faces (I lied, there's one picture in this post). The zoo also had the Himalayan Mountaneering Institute museum, which had a lot of neat stuff, including a bunch of things owned by Tenzing Norgay, the sherpa who first summitted Everest with Hilary.

Now we're taking it easy, and tomorrow will be a day of meandering, souvenir shopping, and relaxing. I've already had approximately 4.5 pots of tea, and Mu even had some, and I plan for this to continue tomorrow. :)