Saturday, May 28, 2011

The Best of India.

Darjeeling, India

Lying in bed with the blankets pulled up and tucked under my chin, my nose is the only cold extremity left.  After months of sweltering heat the cold is a welcome reminder of home. My body has been rejuvenated by the cold and participates happily in climbing the streets of Darjeeling, an incredible city built 7,000 feet up in the Himalayas with tea plantations crawling all over the mountains.

We climbed to the toppling height of Darjeeling in a shared jeep taxi and I was squished against the far back window with a lever jabbing my right shoulder at every bump along the way. The main road was closed due to a landslide and all vehicles were routed to the steeper (but shorter) route. 

As we piled into the jeep at the New Jalpaiguri train station in route to Darjeeling, I honestly didn’t think my body could handle any more rides like this. New Jalpaiguri was the stop-over city we came to from Varanasi and was about equal to the heat of it as well.  After a few harsh words to the driver and his helping touts when they squished four people on the three-seat bench in back, I realized that, again, I could do nothing but bear it without a grin.

That was the tail end of a horrific journey from Varanasi which tested my patience and tolerance. Our train was scheduled to leave Varanasi at 6:30 pm and once we arrived, happy to be leaving, we were hit with a six hour train delay. ‘What could we do? Where could we go?’ we thought. After a search through the station we settled in the second class waiting room with fans to help better the humid heat. All along the concrete floor, the locals had strung out blankets and were sleeping, which made me think delays were a regular occurrence.

Being a western tourist, you seem to attract other western tourists and we befriended an Italian girl, upon our arrival to the station, who was sick with a virus that left her incapable of helping herself.  It just so happened that she was booked on our train as well so we took the liberty of making sure she was settled and comfortable with plenty of water and a promise that we wouldn’t leave without her. She was so ill that she puked behind my bench in the waiting room catching the attention of everyone who then scrambled fast away. Their lack of concern over her vomiting led me to believe that this, also, was a regular occurrence among westerns.

Six hours turned into twelve and we finally caught the train at half past 7:00 the next morning. Heath and I sat on hard, metal benches for those long hours in the station, numbing our behinds and trying to deaden our sense of smell, as the only benches left were next to the bathrooms. Luckily, I had bought Jane Eyre at a book store in Varanasi which mentally took me away with its 509 pages.  The book was finished within 24 hours.

All this trouble and pain disappeared when we finally threw our bags on the floor of, yet, another hotel room. Victory comes at the finish line.  I was mentally depleted and landed face first on the bed but that still didn’t take away the feeling of success. We made it, finally.

Darjeeling’s beauty overwhelmed me. We spent our sunny, brisk days visiting the Zoo, the Tibetan Refugee Center, walking the steep and windy streets and eating delicious Tibetan Momos and Thupka (steamed pot stickers and noodle soup). It was a welcome change from the overly spicy Indian food and didn’t have monstrous side effects.  

The three days in Darjeeling was our prize for such a treacherous journey and it was well worth it.

A kid sweeper taking a snooze at the train station.

Tea planation

Darjeeling market and a guy moving electrical wires out of the way.

A very happy snow leopard at the Darjeeling Zoo.

An Indian family wanting to take a photo with me.

A foggy day in Darjeeling.

On the way to the Tibetan Refugee Center.

More tea planations.

On the Darjeeling Toy Train.

1 comment:

  1. I LOVE your blogs! You are an amazing writer. Happy you survived Varanasi ok. good luck with the rest of your travels..... keep the blogs coming. Miss you

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