Sunday, May 08, 2005
Back in Kolkata
The rest of India could take a tip (or five hundred) from Darjeeling. It's certainly the Tibetan and Nepalese influence, a slower pace of life, that prevails there. It could also be the clouds and fog, surrounding one comfortingly, slowing one's gait or it could be the hills that demand to be strolled along considerately. Seemingly, no one hurries in Darjeeling except for the long distance jeeps down on Hill Cart road.
Shopping was a joy, as stall minders and shop keepers offered only a hello and then stepped back to let you peruse their wares. Our travel fund took quite a hit there as we stocked up on Darjeeling tea and other souvenirs.
It was an unexpected honour to compare world views and travel tales with our host, Chow, a local man who found us wandering lost looking for accommodation and invited us home. We enjoyed tea and conversation with him that afternoon and the next day and before sending us off back down from the Himalayas was generous enough to show us his prayer room, even unwrapping Tibetan texts on handmade paper from which special mediation sessions with monks invited from the surrounding areas were conducted.
These days are ones that are going to be with me forever, looking at the pictures of the Dali Lama and other Buddhist artifacts in Chows home, sitting in a cafe watching the fog roll in and out over the mountains in the time it takes to drink a pot of tea with Lee, a man I never want to go anywhere without ever again. I hope the pictures we took can do the place justice, I just can't imagine how they will.
Today we're killing time in Kolkata again having arrived on the overnight train from New Jalpaiguri (the train station nearest Darjeeling, about three hours from). We leave for Gaya by train this afternoon.
Lee, happy one-year-anniversary-of-living-together. I love you.
Shopping was a joy, as stall minders and shop keepers offered only a hello and then stepped back to let you peruse their wares. Our travel fund took quite a hit there as we stocked up on Darjeeling tea and other souvenirs.
It was an unexpected honour to compare world views and travel tales with our host, Chow, a local man who found us wandering lost looking for accommodation and invited us home. We enjoyed tea and conversation with him that afternoon and the next day and before sending us off back down from the Himalayas was generous enough to show us his prayer room, even unwrapping Tibetan texts on handmade paper from which special mediation sessions with monks invited from the surrounding areas were conducted.
These days are ones that are going to be with me forever, looking at the pictures of the Dali Lama and other Buddhist artifacts in Chows home, sitting in a cafe watching the fog roll in and out over the mountains in the time it takes to drink a pot of tea with Lee, a man I never want to go anywhere without ever again. I hope the pictures we took can do the place justice, I just can't imagine how they will.
Today we're killing time in Kolkata again having arrived on the overnight train from New Jalpaiguri (the train station nearest Darjeeling, about three hours from). We leave for Gaya by train this afternoon.
Lee, happy one-year-anniversary-of-living-together. I love you.
