April 29 Kolkata Subway

We decided to try the Kolkata subway system known as the best in the country. It was clean and cool and extremely cheap (about .25 per ride). The cars were full of people but the system worked well. Our first stop was the Sitambara Jain Temple. It was an oasis in the middle of Kolkata. Beautiful spacious grounds, a pool, well maintained, and a lovely glass ceiling in the main temple. There were few worshippers, but lots of polite security guards to guide us through the procedures. The biggest problem was burning our feet on the pavement since we took our shoes off too early. Photography was not allowed inside the temple.

The second temple was a total contrast. This was the Kali temple, I should have guessed there would be trouble when personnel were posted at every corner to guide us to the temple. It was a total con job with a leech guide who said he was free because he worked for the temple. He took me from post to post buying flowers, blessing flowers and then insisted on a major contribution to feed the poor. At this stage I bailed and he trailed me way out into the street insisting I pay him. I didn't and Joan and I left.

The third place was the Nakhoda Mosque. Again we had an escort, and he took us through a locked door so we could wander the second and third floors of the Mosque. Later we were allowed to wander in the courtyard but not the ground floor of the mosque. Kolkata is suffering from a major heat wave and when I looked in the main entrance theplace was full of people sleeping on the cool floor.

April 28 Fly to Kolkata(Calcutta)

I had booked the return flight from Sikkim to Calcutta with 2 days leeway before our flight home. Sure enough I got a text message the day before our flight that the bad weather (fog) meant the flight could not fly into Pakyong and the flight was moved to another airport 200km away. That was actually good news since that airport was closer to Darjeeling than Pakyong. I saved 500 rupees. All went well and we were back in Kolkata by 1 pm. The heat is still a killer. I engaged a taxi driver to take us to a temple for 6 pm, wait 40 min and bring us home. I had the guide book with a picture and he called a pow-wow with his friends at the taxi stand to sort the directions and set the price. Off we went and we were in the most decrepit taxi ever. It had 4 doors only3 of which opened. The clutch was gone so we shuddered when starting. He stopped to add water to the rad twice. We were going along in the fast lane of a dual highway when we went past a radar gun. It felt like 120 because of the rattling but we were only doing 47kph. We were glad to get home in one piece.

April 27th Walk to Bhutia Busty Monastery

I tried navigating with google maps to walk to the monastery but it didn't work. I couldn't find the paths because even being off by 5 meters meant I was on the wrong road. I gave up on Google and started asking people at every intersection which way. That worked much better. The monastery is only accessible by foot and it was a 3 km walk from the hotel. It was a very foggy day with the clouds rolling in and out all day long. We were passed by a Hindu funeral lead by two people with a conch shell and a drum. It was eerie hearing them coming in the fog, but not being able to see them. The conch shell gave off an incredibly loud and piercing sound. The monastery was quiet and empty. A guard let us in and said we could take pictures. The outside was well painted but the inside was dark and somewhat plain, We spoke to the cook and he said there was only 13 students at the monastery. We took pictures and then started back. It had been downhill all the way coming. Now it was uphill for 2 km. We stopped a lot for pictures and purchases at the family stores. In the late afternoon I wandered through the bazaar taking pictures.  There will be no pictures due to bad internet.

April 26th The Zoo and Toy Train

From out of the window

Darjeeling from a distance

The Steam engine starting off

Hard labour on the streets of Darjeeling

The Toy Train is a narrow gauge railroad built in 1880. It cut the time to reach Darjeeling from 4 days to 12 hours. The train is still in operation between Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri about 80 km away. We took a small joy ride to Ghoom, 10km down the line. There is a small museum about the railway and then we returned. The train shares the right of way with a road and crosses the road on several occasions. The track is within 1 meter of doors and shops. At one point I could have easily grabbed a bag of chips from a roadside stand. Being on a mountainside the views are impressive but the photography is poor due to poles and wires everywhere. The train stopped for photos on the Bautista loop for 10 mins. This is where the train does a loop around to gain height. The train is UNESCO heritage site and certified Guinness book of records for the oldest working steam engine.

April 25 Tea Estate and Monasteries

The main Alter

We had a driver for the day and we toured around Darjeeling. We visited 2 monasteries and a tea estate. The Yiga Choeling is 150 years old and in need of restoration. This is the first monastery to allow photography inside and I gladly paid the $2 fee to use my camera. It was a nice compromise since I wanted to make a donation anyhow. When we arrived a monk opened the doors for us, sat and played on his iPhone while Joan and I took pictures then locked up when we left

The second Monastery posted signs saying 'no photography inside'. So I put my lens cap on and went in. I was inside for 10 minutes and during that time every adult that came in took out their cell phone and snapped pictures or selfies. Then 1 of the monks inside took out his cellphone and snapped a few pictures. I joined the crowd except I used my tripod. Joan said I got so dirty looks but I dumped $4 in the donation box and reckon I paid my way

The main Building

Two of five Buddhas

Tea fields near Darjeeling

In the afternoon we visited a tea estate We got a very good tour, the guide spoke only English but it was a group of 20 and we could barely hear her. But during the tea tasting she explained further and now we are tea experts. It's all in the processing. After the tour we wandered through the tea fields. For the second night in a row we ate supper from the street vendors. Their food is delicious and cheap. A filling meal for the 2 of us is $2. So far, so good!     

April 24th Drive from Pelling to Darjeeling

The drive to Darjeeling was lon and tough. Upon checkout I learned that my breakfast and dinner were includedd in the price of the room. The bad news was the hotel didn't take Mastercard and the only ATM in town hadn't worked for 3 days. In the end an employee from the hotel drove 25 km with us so I could use an ATM in Grazing the provincial capital. Grazing has more than 1 ATM and it took 3 ATM's before we found a working one. The hotel employee got the money and made his way back to Pelling, 

The driver was a bit of a cowboy and he lost his side mirror in the first 10 km when he nicked a passing truck. On these narrow roads any passing is treacherous. In the last 25 km he lost all his antifreeze. After 2 more stops for water another commercial driver told him to use real antifreeze and add more than 1 l. of water at a time. After that we limped into Darjeeling at 16:30. Between looking for a working ATM, crossing a provincial border, and overheating 3 times – we turned a 5 hr trip into a 7.5 hour trip.

Darjeeling in in the mountains and has narrow roads like Sikkem so driving in the city is an adventure. Often cars cannot make the u-turns required for the switchbacks. They stop, bach up and do the turn in 2 sections.

April 23rd Buddha Walk

Pelling Buddha walk

Mother and Child

One of the great attractions of Pelling is the 50 ft high Buddha Statue. It sits on top of the hill 2 km outside of town. This is purely a tourist attraction so we joined the throngs, paid our money and walked up the 178 steps. The statue and park are all new so the painting is all fresh and the landscaping is still going on. We walked the 3 km back to our hotel.

In the afternoon I walked through the lanes behind the main road. Again the first person I met, a ten year old girl, asked me where I was going. I answered and then I asked if I could take her picture. She ran into her house and then came out and invited me in. I accepted and entered. There were 3 women and 2 babies and a puppy inside. The dog bit me, but the toddler played nicely with me. I accepted a cup of tea and we made small talk – very small since only the 10 year old spoke English. I found out that they owned 2 cows. I owned none. After tea they let me photograph and then I left.

April 22nd Khechepen Lake

We arranged a tour through the countryside today. We visited a small falls and a holy lake. The small falls were small.. The lake was interesting. The entrance fee was 10 for the locals, 50 for Indian tourists, and 100 for foreign tourists. The lake was surprisingly small and almost impossible to see due to the prayer flags. I tried to find a good spot where I could photograph but it was difficult. The path to the lake led to a covered wharf into the lake and we were required to remove all shoes. The lake must be really holy The crowd at the end of the wharf was large so I joined in to get a look at the lake. The crowd was having a great time throwing food to the hundreds of large carp having a feeding frenzy. The lake wasn't all that holy.

Rimbi Falls

Prayer Flags in the rain

Pamayannngste in the fog

In the afternoon we went to the Pemayanste monastery for the second time. The day was rainy and foggy and I wanted a picture of a Sikkim temple in the mists. The weather co-operated so Joan sat on a bench out of the rain white I tried taking pictures in the mist. I took my time and several Indian tourists approached me to tell me what a patient wife I had. Joan must have told everyone she met what a slow photographer I was.

April 21st Pemayangste Monastery

Pemayanste Monastery

Girl Guide

Today we visited the oldest monastery in Sikkim. It was about 3km all uphill so we cheated and took a local taxi (but we did walk down). Sikkimese temples are similar in style with elaborate paint jobs on the windows and doors. Unfortunately photography inside is not allowed. Too bad since the walls have some great paint jobs.

This monastery was in full operation with many young monks heading to classes. We chatted with an old monk just outside the temple and he told us he had attended a conference in Vancouver. After visiting and photographing the outside we walked back down the hilltop. We stopped at a bakery shop after just 1 km and we met again the old monk. He helps run the bakery shop as vocational training. After chatting for 15 minutes he offered us a free house for 1 year if Joan would teach languages and I would do computer support. I declined because they don't get much snow in winter.

In the afternoon we tried to walk through the countryside. We quickly found a “village” that didn't seem to have any streets. A local asked us where we were going and I tried to tell her we wanted to walk through the village. I thought she said there were too many dogs, and then she called out her 10 year old daughter to guide us through the village. The girl ran off but Joan and I couldn't keep up so she would run back to encourage us and then run ahead again. Sure enough she ordered the dogs to go away and lead us through the village and back to the main road.

April 20th Walk to Sanga Choling Monastery

Farmer's Daughter

Sanga Choling Monastery

After 2 days of driving we planned a walking day today. We are high on a hill so we took the first path down towards some farms. The path turned into stairs and down we went. At the first junction we split off into a farm where a few small fields had been carved into the hill, There were cows and goats and 3 small houses. We met 2 men and a baby and Joan taught the baby to wave. After a few minutes we left and headed back up the stairs. It took an hour to ascend 487 stairs and walk out. After the warmup we walked 1 km uphill to the tourist bureau. We learned the monastery I wanted to visit was only 2 km farther on so on we went. The first 500 meters were gentle but then came the mountain. We paced ourselves and on we went. Another hour walking uphill. The auto traffic on the road wasn't heavy but passing presented a problem. We were a lot closer to the SUV's than we wanted to be. The cars often had to stop when the road narrowed or 2 cars met on a hairpin curve. It seems Indian cars do not have a handbrake, The standard method of starting a stalled car on a hill was to put a large stone behind the rear wheel and drive away leaving the stone on the road. There were several large stones on the road. The monastery we visited was the oldest in Sikkim. It had been restored in 1966, but the paint job looked brand new, both interior and exterior. After the visit we returned to our hotel by foot.

Mount Kangchendzonga

Joan did at least 7 km today – all up hill.

April 19th Half day trip to Tashiding Monastery

From Our Balcony

Monastery Door

Tashiding Monastery

Pelling is in the Himalayan foothills. There is no flat land anywhere, therefore there are no straight roads in Sikkim. We left at midday for a trip to the Tashiding Monastery. It was a 2 hour drive because we were constantly going over mountain passes or circumventing deep valleys. We had a nice visit at the monastery but on the way home a storm happened. We had thunder and lightning, rain, hail, and fog. The driver really earned his keep but Joan is a little grayer today.

April 18th Fly to Sikkim and Taxi to Pelling

We flew into Pakyang Airport in a Bombardier 400. The last few kms it looked like we were flying into a mountainside. Then the runway appeared cut right into the mountain, It seemed like a very short runway. Then we took a taxi to Pelling. The distance wasn't great – about 120km. But it took 5 hours of tough driving. The first 5 km from the airport were nice paved highway. Then we hit the potholed and missing pavement sections. I felt better because I didn't think it was fair for Sikkim to have better roads than Quebec. None of the roads were wide so passing in any directions was slow. We arrived at our hotel and when we looked out from our balcony the view was fantastic. We're in Sikkim..

April 15h to April 17th Kolkata

Kolkata is too hot. We spent 3 days in Kolkata (Calcutta) and the hot temperatures defeated us. It was too hot to walk anywhere and we couldn't wander around Kolkata to see the architecture. We took cabs to visit the highlights. Some afternoons we went back to the hotel just to relax in the air conditioning,

The streets of Kolkata teem with life and everywhere seemed to have large crowds of people. We were having coffee one morning, watching the people go by, when I just had to photograph the people. For an hour I took pictures of everyone who walked by, Only 2 people stopped to ask what I was during and only the religious people asked for money. At night the crowds got bigger and the street vendors set up on all the sidewalks. In dark spots people lay down on the sidewalks to sleep. People had to walk on the roads but the trucks, cars and motorbikes did not slow down. The horns honked constantly until I couldn't tell who was honking. Joan was fortunate to take out her hearing aids since the honking went on until 1 AM and kept me awake,

Belur Math temple

Laundry Man

Darshinewar Temple

We visited the Victoria monument, an impressive building and well maintained park, One afternoon we visited a temple called Belur Math. The drive there and back was an education. Going. it seemed to be constant slums for 12 km. We visited the temple until sunset. The way back there were vendor's stalls every inch of the way. The crowds really come out after dark.