It’s always nice when I’ve actually done something worth writing about so I can spare you the foray into my internal world. Today was absolutely stellar weather but I didn’t get out and about until the afternoon which worked out well since I had golden sun, long shadows, and cool breeze. I spent the morning breakfasting in the sun since I had to switch guesthouses. The Kalimpong Park Hotel filled up with Indian vacationers with reservations. Not much of a problem since I was only going about 200 feet downhill to my tea-spot, Cloud9. Once moved I headed into town to buy my jeep ticket to Gantok tomorrow. I took advantage of the taxis in town (they seem to be available from one spot only) to get a ride all the way up the hill to one of the peaks outside of town where the Durpin Monestary is. It was a beautiful place but though the sky is blue and the sun shining there seems to be a persistent haze near the horizon (at least as long as I’ve been here) that makes pictures of the surrounding rolling hills (and further off mountains) underwhelming. Durpin is one of the rare monestaries in these parts that allows photography (shown in the first pic) so I had my cab driver stop at the cloud 9 so I could pick up my tripod. The frescoes in this place are absolutely beautiful and this pic gives you a sense of how intense the colors are.

After trying to get some shots (with mixed results) of the ceiling mandalas I stopped at the touristy little hilltop restaurant outside the gates for some lunch before I geared up for the 3km walk down the hill back to Kalimpong. I had thought of hitching a ride with a minivan of monestary visitors that arrived while I was eating but I’m so glad I decided to walk instead. It was an incredibly perfect day for it.

My route took me past the Kalimpong Army Base (why is it that they always paint rocks white at military sites?) complete with 18 hole golf course shown here. Not sure if you can tell from the pic but the town of Kalimpong is stretched out on the ridge in the backround and there are prayer flags scattered around the course.

On the roughly one hour walk I passed brightly colored little hobbit houses, the ruins of a mansion, the lawn of which has been turned into a cricket field, kids waving and yelling hello (I guess I’m pretty obviously not from around here even from far away), hens & chicks, and a sprinkling of catholic school kids in uniform (the jesuits have been here) who test out their english, sometimes getting about 10 feet past you before they assemble a question.

When I got back to the cloud 9, Benode (sp?), the owner, was lunching with a few friends withone of them picking away on a steel string guitar. My guide in Bhutan, Kaphel, told me it’s customary for Bhutanese to eat with their hands but they don’t when dining with clients so I never saw anyone actually do this. I guess it’s customary here as well cause Benode and his buds were doing just this, rice and all. I get a real kick of out Benode. He is also an artist having painted lots of tibetan looking scenes that hang int he Cloud 9. He and his friends ended up fighting over my last illuminated sticker. It made me quite happy that they liked it enough to create such a fuss.

I’m leaving tomorrow and am left with the impression of Kalimong as really nice little town where people just do their thing with very little focus on the few visitors they get. There’s not much to make this a destination spot but it’s lovely, nonetheless. They have a rotary club (could that have come with the Jesuits?) and their own little revolutionary movement, Ghorkaland, that heats up occasionally demanding to be an independant state. Kalimpong is contained in the state of Darjeeling which contains the city of the same name.

It took me a few days to find an internet place that has all the apps I need to quickly post and an atmo that’s nice to hang out in which is where I sit now. They only have a dialup connection but most of customers are local kids playing computer games and not using the bandwidth anyway. The guys that run the place have a band and play Bonjovi covers so we are all singing along to “wanted, dead or alive”.

Tomorrow it’s off to Gantok around noon. It’s the capitol city of Sikkim, India and from the maps it appears to be much larger than Kalimpong and much higher too. It takes about 3 hours to go 70 km. I’m expecting steep and windy so am psyched I got a window-seat again. phew!

Sue Borchardt in Kalimpong, India. February 28, 2006 where the weather could not be better.

p.s. I almost forgot. I created a gallery of just a few of the pics from Bhutan. I will add more when I get home and if there are any you’d like prints of just drop me a note and I’ll send high-resolution versions to you.

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