A Walk in the Clouds...
Mountains...what mountains?
We awoke to our first Darjeeling morning wondering
where the world had gone.....and, as I write this, we're wondering the same on
our third morning here. This was about an hour ago (uhh...and still the same
now).
It's actually very cool walking around in the middle of a cloud - especially as they're constantly moving on and off the hillside. The whole town is built on the side of a hill so you're almost never walking on level ground. Here I was thinking I was getting a break from the hill workouts in my running clinic...uhh...even the driveway up to our hotel has the grade of that insane Belmont St. near Jericho Beach (so Andrew...not to worry...I'll still be in shape when I get back).
After breakfast on our first morning, we rappelled down to the Internet cafe at the bottom of the hotel's driveway. There we met Mr. Darjeeling Internet Cafe (Mukund) who welcomed us to a bank of computer monitors all hooked up to the web by, believe it or not, high-speed DSL. So...finally...finally...we could upload all the weblogs we'd been working on over the past few days. One slight hiccup...my laptop refused to recognize the Internet connection (no doubt, it was speaking in Nepali)...so the next hour was an exercise in frustration. At least Amber could check her email on one of the other computers. Walking around later, the solution dawned on me - so that evening our first upload went out into the ether. Of course, for the staggering price of Rs.30/hour (about $1Cdn)....all that cafeing is not going to break the bank. Anyway, after the frustrating technical roadblocks...there was only one solution - a cup of Darjeeling's finest! Off we trundled to Glenary's which has a great bakery cafe with a fabulous (at the moment hypothetical) view of the surrounding mountains. A large pot of tea, a donut, something that resembled a hot-cross bun on steroids, and a cashew tart...and we were ready to brave the "lower taxi stand".
That afternoon we decided to head to North Point school to meet up with Fr. Van and generally check it out. We had to wander down all sorts of crazy narrow alleys (roads, really) to find the "lower taxi stand". After a couple of wrong turns, we hopped into a more than rickety Ambassador (with 4 others) and off we went. It's a good thing the ride was mainly downhill because the engine must have cut out at least five times on the short ride. Hey...what do you want for 8 cents - for both of us. Upon arrival, Amber had discovered that her blood sugar levels needed replenishing immediately! I, of course, know better than to ignore such emergencies. We found a tiny (and I mean TINY) shack selling Tibetan Momos (dumplings filled with cabbage)...and dipped in chili sauce....mmmm! After downing four of these each, we walked over to the school and discovered a fair had broken out on the main school field.
On the way down, Amber decided that life wasn't quite exciting enough....so decided the roadside puchka (the "u" is pronounced as in "put") wallah deserved some attention. This was my reaction....
to no avail....
Let's just say that the puchkas tasted great....but that the next couple of days weren't the most comfortable Amber has ever spent! Anyway, freshly fortified on puchkas we went down to explore the fair. They had ferris wheels, merry-go-rounds, pirate boats, etc....but they all looked like they'd come straight out of some gypsy fair of the 1940's. The WCB would have had a fit...but then again, they'd all have had cardiac arrests over just about anything in India! This was one of the younger operators....
A bit of wandering about...and more Momos at one of the stands and we began the trek back up....waaay up....the hill to the school.
The school's big theatrical production for the last part of the year (their school year runs from Feb to Nov) was being performed that afternoon - and we'd been invited. Joseph & The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat was on the playbill...(Karen Seaboyer you missed out!)...and they were really great.
I'd seen a professional version in Stanley Park last year and these guys weren't far behind. Amber & I gave them a standing ovation! Of course, I mentioned our opinions to the Headmaster...who immediately handed me a microphone and insisted I tell the boys myself...which I did...and got a standing ovation in return (we love fame!).
Given our usual 6 am wakeups, we were pretty zonked so headed off to bed. The next day (yesterday) didn't produce anything of much consequence. Amber wasn't feeling well (puchka revenge) so hung around the hotel for most of the day. I went off and met with Kinley Tshering, the headmaster to discuss marketing plans, web development, fund raising etc.... We're hoping to join him and about 100 of the school kids on a hike to Tiger Hill on EARLY Tuesday morning to watch the sunrise over Everest. Assuming the weather clears up, the plan is to be picked up at 2:30 am on Tuesday, drive to the base of Tiger Hill and then walk up to the summit over the next couple of hours - in time to watch the sunrise at 5:30am. The school will then deliver breakfast which will be cooked at the summit...and then we'll all walk back down the hill. Should be a great adventure....so everyone pray to the weather Gods....!!!!!
It's actually very cool walking around in the middle of a cloud - especially as they're constantly moving on and off the hillside. The whole town is built on the side of a hill so you're almost never walking on level ground. Here I was thinking I was getting a break from the hill workouts in my running clinic...uhh...even the driveway up to our hotel has the grade of that insane Belmont St. near Jericho Beach (so Andrew...not to worry...I'll still be in shape when I get back).
After breakfast on our first morning, we rappelled down to the Internet cafe at the bottom of the hotel's driveway. There we met Mr. Darjeeling Internet Cafe (Mukund) who welcomed us to a bank of computer monitors all hooked up to the web by, believe it or not, high-speed DSL. So...finally...finally...we could upload all the weblogs we'd been working on over the past few days. One slight hiccup...my laptop refused to recognize the Internet connection (no doubt, it was speaking in Nepali)...so the next hour was an exercise in frustration. At least Amber could check her email on one of the other computers. Walking around later, the solution dawned on me - so that evening our first upload went out into the ether. Of course, for the staggering price of Rs.30/hour (about $1Cdn)....all that cafeing is not going to break the bank. Anyway, after the frustrating technical roadblocks...there was only one solution - a cup of Darjeeling's finest! Off we trundled to Glenary's which has a great bakery cafe with a fabulous (at the moment hypothetical) view of the surrounding mountains. A large pot of tea, a donut, something that resembled a hot-cross bun on steroids, and a cashew tart...and we were ready to brave the "lower taxi stand".
That afternoon we decided to head to North Point school to meet up with Fr. Van and generally check it out. We had to wander down all sorts of crazy narrow alleys (roads, really) to find the "lower taxi stand". After a couple of wrong turns, we hopped into a more than rickety Ambassador (with 4 others) and off we went. It's a good thing the ride was mainly downhill because the engine must have cut out at least five times on the short ride. Hey...what do you want for 8 cents - for both of us. Upon arrival, Amber had discovered that her blood sugar levels needed replenishing immediately! I, of course, know better than to ignore such emergencies. We found a tiny (and I mean TINY) shack selling Tibetan Momos (dumplings filled with cabbage)...and dipped in chili sauce....mmmm! After downing four of these each, we walked over to the school and discovered a fair had broken out on the main school field.
On the way down, Amber decided that life wasn't quite exciting enough....so decided the roadside puchka (the "u" is pronounced as in "put") wallah deserved some attention. This was my reaction....
to no avail....
Let's just say that the puchkas tasted great....but that the next couple of days weren't the most comfortable Amber has ever spent! Anyway, freshly fortified on puchkas we went down to explore the fair. They had ferris wheels, merry-go-rounds, pirate boats, etc....but they all looked like they'd come straight out of some gypsy fair of the 1940's. The WCB would have had a fit...but then again, they'd all have had cardiac arrests over just about anything in India! This was one of the younger operators....
A bit of wandering about...and more Momos at one of the stands and we began the trek back up....waaay up....the hill to the school.
The school's big theatrical production for the last part of the year (their school year runs from Feb to Nov) was being performed that afternoon - and we'd been invited. Joseph & The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat was on the playbill...(Karen Seaboyer you missed out!)...and they were really great.
I'd seen a professional version in Stanley Park last year and these guys weren't far behind. Amber & I gave them a standing ovation! Of course, I mentioned our opinions to the Headmaster...who immediately handed me a microphone and insisted I tell the boys myself...which I did...and got a standing ovation in return (we love fame!).
Given our usual 6 am wakeups, we were pretty zonked so headed off to bed. The next day (yesterday) didn't produce anything of much consequence. Amber wasn't feeling well (puchka revenge) so hung around the hotel for most of the day. I went off and met with Kinley Tshering, the headmaster to discuss marketing plans, web development, fund raising etc.... We're hoping to join him and about 100 of the school kids on a hike to Tiger Hill on EARLY Tuesday morning to watch the sunrise over Everest. Assuming the weather clears up, the plan is to be picked up at 2:30 am on Tuesday, drive to the base of Tiger Hill and then walk up to the summit over the next couple of hours - in time to watch the sunrise at 5:30am. The school will then deliver breakfast which will be cooked at the summit...and then we'll all walk back down the hill. Should be a great adventure....so everyone pray to the weather Gods....!!!!!
Posted: Sun - October 26, 2003 at 11:47 AM
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Published On: Nov 21, 2003 04:41 PM
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Published On: Nov 21, 2003 04:41 PM