So here we are in tea land (no longer just me here, Dan joined me just over a week ago :). Darjeeling is a nice town, once you get away from the unbearable diesel fumes of the jeeps, which are the main form of transport on these hill roads. We're about 2000 metres up so it's cold! We've been having coal fires in our hotel room and I've even bought some woolly socks and long johns. Will make the return to UK a little less of a shock I guess. We've ended up staying here longer than expected as the predicted Indian stomach issues have finally reached my body. I'm sitting waiting for some results now so we'll see... We were all ready to go on a 6 day trek yesterday, to the Singalila mountain range from which you can see Everest and other high points of the Himalayas. We may still start this trek tomorrow depending on what the doc says. Feel lucky that we're here where the hospital has a gastroenterology specialist, everyone speaks good English so talking about medications and things is straightforward, and we're in a nice clean hotel room.
Yesterday was a wipe out, just watching films and clutching my stomach while Dan ran around for me, and most of our time here has been pretty chilled out - drinking tea (of course), taking short walks, visiting the zoo - which actually seemed more humane than some British ones and eating Tibetan food. The culture is very different up here to the parts of India I've been in. Buddhism is blended with Hinduism - great to see two religions tolerating each other and combining gods, worship and celebrations. Below you can see the Buddhist prayer flags at the temple on the highest spot of Darjeeling, where there are Hindu temples alongside monkeys, sadhus and Buddhists reading their thangkas.
People also look very different and speak Nepali and English along with Hindi. Many people here are of Tibetan and Nepali origin, although there are also Indians running restaurants, hotels and shops too. It's amazing to see the weights that people carry - huge gas cylinders, pieces of furniture, all sorts, attached to the head with rope. Sherpas are the original descendants of the Everest area, and are famous for their mountain climbing and for carrying weights such as these. We had a look around the very random but interesting Himalayan Mountaineering Institute's museum, which placed pictures of famous mountaineers from the 1920s next to a model of a Tibetan bride, a very modern looking headtorch and statues of Hindu gods!
The hospital have been really helpful but we were shocked yesterday to see a dog running around and today to see the receptionists chewing on paan while smiling and confirming we'd be able to see the doctor later on.
Before coming here we spent a few days in Kolkata, enjoying the street food, getting Dan acclimatised to crazy Indian city life (and me after being in the more chilled rural south!) and doing a bit of shopping. We decided to take a trip to the Sunderbans, a mangrove forest and river delta area, for a 3 day tour with the knowledgable, incredibly friendly and hospitable guys from www.tourdesundarbans.com - highly recommended if you're ever in Kolkata and have a couple of nights to spare. The area is known for its Bengal tigers, and they had actually spotted quite a few this year. We werent so lucky but saw about 50 types of birds including massive Caribou storks, monitor lizards, baby crocs and just generally enjoyed sitting back on a boat, chilling in the village and seeing a cock fight and a night market.
Stomach depending we hope to get going on our trek tomorrow, and then onto Sikkim for some monastery and lake visits. It looks like a beautiful place and will be good to see more of this chilled out Buddhist hill country before heading to Assam and Varanasi, which will be far from that!
Yesterday was a wipe out, just watching films and clutching my stomach while Dan ran around for me, and most of our time here has been pretty chilled out - drinking tea (of course), taking short walks, visiting the zoo - which actually seemed more humane than some British ones and eating Tibetan food. The culture is very different up here to the parts of India I've been in. Buddhism is blended with Hinduism - great to see two religions tolerating each other and combining gods, worship and celebrations. Below you can see the Buddhist prayer flags at the temple on the highest spot of Darjeeling, where there are Hindu temples alongside monkeys, sadhus and Buddhists reading their thangkas.
People also look very different and speak Nepali and English along with Hindi. Many people here are of Tibetan and Nepali origin, although there are also Indians running restaurants, hotels and shops too. It's amazing to see the weights that people carry - huge gas cylinders, pieces of furniture, all sorts, attached to the head with rope. Sherpas are the original descendants of the Everest area, and are famous for their mountain climbing and for carrying weights such as these. We had a look around the very random but interesting Himalayan Mountaineering Institute's museum, which placed pictures of famous mountaineers from the 1920s next to a model of a Tibetan bride, a very modern looking headtorch and statues of Hindu gods!
The hospital have been really helpful but we were shocked yesterday to see a dog running around and today to see the receptionists chewing on paan while smiling and confirming we'd be able to see the doctor later on.
Before coming here we spent a few days in Kolkata, enjoying the street food, getting Dan acclimatised to crazy Indian city life (and me after being in the more chilled rural south!) and doing a bit of shopping. We decided to take a trip to the Sunderbans, a mangrove forest and river delta area, for a 3 day tour with the knowledgable, incredibly friendly and hospitable guys from www.tourdesundarbans.com - highly recommended if you're ever in Kolkata and have a couple of nights to spare. The area is known for its Bengal tigers, and they had actually spotted quite a few this year. We werent so lucky but saw about 50 types of birds including massive Caribou storks, monitor lizards, baby crocs and just generally enjoyed sitting back on a boat, chilling in the village and seeing a cock fight and a night market.
Stomach depending we hope to get going on our trek tomorrow, and then onto Sikkim for some monastery and lake visits. It looks like a beautiful place and will be good to see more of this chilled out Buddhist hill country before heading to Assam and Varanasi, which will be far from that!
Ames, I just thought about checking your blog for the first time in a while, and there was this great new entry. I do hope your tummy allows you to travel tomorrow and gives you less torment than of late. Love and best wishes to both of you . xx Dada
ReplyDelete