North Tour Part Ten; Derjeeling and Gangtok (Holi)

     From Bodhgaya we took a long, hot, bumpy car ride to the train station in Patna where we boarded a train for New Jalpaigudi, it was about a 12 hour train ride, luckily we were in the air conditioned class this time. Upon arriving, we immediately got into jeeps and drove more that six hours up into the mountains to the city of Darjeeling. Our first stop in Darjeeling was the Himalayan Institute which included an mountaineering museum, with one floor dedicated to Mt. Everest, and a zoo of local species.  From there we proceeded to our hotel in the city. 

     We had plenty of time to explore and shop for Darjeeling's famous tea before dinner. Just as we were leaving our rooms, a few of us were invited up into the home of the owners. The woman whose family owned the hotel happened to be passing as Hannah, Franzi, Amanda, and I were leaving our rooms and invited us up. The family is Tibetan refugees. She showed us their ornate and beautiful prayer room that you could tell had been constructed and decorate with great love and care. In the entire house for the extended family two floors at the top of the hotel and everything, every inch was beautiful. As we sat eating Tibetan cookies, she told us her family's story. Her family left Tibet with a group of 30 people and arrived in India with only 13. After they had lived elsewhere for a while and earned some money, they moved to Darjeeling and bought the property on a loan. The hotel started with six rooms and only two staff, with the family working from 4 in the morning until as late as 2 in the morning doing most of the work. They now have 5 floors of rooms, a library and siting area, restaurant, gift shop, and 23 working staff. The hotel is highly recommended for its service and food by the Lonely Planet guide book of India. They are also the only family to have paid off both the loan and interest on time. Because of this they were invited to tea with the president of the bank. Plus her husband is a Rotarian. Throughout the whole visit we were all totally in awe, it's an inspiring story and makes you realize not only what hard work can bring but also how hard some people have to work in order to earn things. The amazing thing too was that she wasn't bragging or even proud. In fact we had to continue to ask questions in order to get the whole story and many times she was reluctant to compliment herself and her family. However, we were reminded more than once that it all came from hard work and told that the Tibetan Buddhist people are very hard workers. We also discussed why so many countries around the world support and sympathize with Tibet.

     The next morning, we got up painfully early to see the sunrise over Mount Kanchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world. Unfortunately, it was an extremely foggy morning so all we got was the view of clouds surrounding us and free chai. One the way back to the hotel, we stopped at several Buddhist temples and a few cloudy view points. After breakfast we proceeded to pack up the cars and head on another six hour journey to Gangtok.

     Gangtok is in the state of Sikkim. Because Sikkim is on the Chinese border we, as foreigners, needed special permission to enter. As soon as we crossed the border we had to stop to register and get our passports stamped before we could proceed to Gangtok. The first day we were in Gangtok was the Hindu festival of Holi, the festival of colors. We all put on white clothes and clothes we didn't care about, oiled our face and hair to avoid long-lasting stains, braided our hair, and headed out armed with colored power. Holi is a festival I personally think that we should celebrate in the states. Everyone who's playing goes out with powder and water and rubs and throws the powder at other people. A greeting on Holi consists of saying "Happy Holi" while rubbing powder on the other persons face. When we were in the Gangtok market the little kids were very excited to get the chance to play with willing foreigners. As a group, we were sure to give other foreigners we met and especially warm wishing. We met another group of high school aged students from Tennessee. We were each given a bag of powder at the beginning of the morning but very quickly people found that they needed to buy more. The celebrations were winding down by midday when we went back to the hotel and very, very, VERY carefully changed and bathed. The problem with Holi powder is that is stains skin, clothes, anything made of fabric, etc so we had to try really hard not to get it on the hotel's towels or sheets. At one point when I was showering, I looked in the mirror and my face looked like I was a member of the Blue Man Group, the soap had spread the coloring around on my face and the blue was strongest color. It took me five face washes to be presentably clean. I used exfoliating scrub three times and another face wash twice. By the time I was done my face felt raw and my eyebrows and hairline were colorful. I also looked like I had a black left eye. In some places the color was visibly in my pores. I good amount of make-up covered most of the coloring, enough so that I felt like I could go out to look for a wireless cafe with some friends.

Franzi from Germany (she couldn't really see but she wanted to leave the glasses colored for pictures)

Sitting in front of the hotel to take pictures.

Olivia's form Michigan but her family has moved to Switzerland while she's been in India.

Sam form Virginia.

Jordan (Oregon) and Hannah (Germany).

Amanda (Washington)

The whole group. From left to right: Chris Yoder, Nikolas, Anais, Serenity, Olivia, Sam, Me, Nisha, Brii, Jordan, Hannah, Amanda, Franzi.

Me... I kept the shirt and plan on bringing it home as a souvenir.

Anais.