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Hello everyone!
Sorry that I got a little behind, I was having a good time in Darjeeling and didn't really feel like paying to get a spot at an internet cafe. I had great fun in darjeeling and met up with a group of Americans who I met on the way up the mountain and hung out with them for a few days.
We went white water rafting on the river Teesta which was crazy. First we had to drive the two hours down to the river, then we got in another jeep with the raft on top and drove up the river to start. When we got there the raft popped, so we had to wait about an hour for them to go back and get another one. It was beautiful by the river though so it wasn't bad. I got a sort of river rock for mom, maybe it won't break before i get home, its kind of a brittle one. Then we started down the river and weret thinking it was a little boring because the rapids were kind of far between. Then we hit this huge one and got stuck up against a huge rock
until the raft flipped and we all had to swim to the shore and get back to the raft. I had my flip-flops on and my paddle so i basically had one hand to swim with so I didn't lose my shoes, that was exciting.
I had some other good times in Darjeeling, found that apparently Marijuana grows randomly there as I ran across it growing like a weed a few times. There was a cool temple on a hill with prayer flags everywhere and monkeys...man, the second time I went there I was up there with one other guy walking around and seriously at least 10-15 monkeys surrounded us and started screaming and running at us, we yelled at them until someone ran at them with a rock who they were apparently scared of...last thing I need at the beginning of this trip is a monkey bite. The weather cleared up enough for us to see Kanchenjunga on the way back from rafting, which was cool, but its still cloudy and rains at least an hour or so every day, not so bad though, better than the heat of the plains. Its nice here in Sikkim, but like
someone pointed out to me, its a lot more like being in Nepal or Tibet than most of India, as that is where most of the food and people are from. Not that its a bad thing, I guess it speaks even more to the vast diversity of India.
Saw an amazing monastery today with an enormous wood carving of a building sort of rising from hell to heaven (or i suppose its buddhist equivalent) with amazing detail, along with many other cool sculptures. I am travelling with Petra right now, the german girl I met in Calcutta (I guess using Kolkata is more proper as its the Bengali way to say it and not the British way). Tomorrow we are going to trek up to a lake I can't spell with a legend behind it that if any leaf or anything falls onto it a bird will swoop down and pick it up to keep it pure. We will just take day bags and stay in a little village there and then the next day trek to a small town named Yoksum where we will catch a jeep back to Pelling. After that I think we are going to Gangtok and will maybe take a two day jeep safari into North Sikkim, where you can't go without being on a tour, I thinks its only like 20 dollars a day though including accommodation and food. Then I guess I will get a train to Varanasi and only stay there for a few days in the heat and then get a train to Haridwar and maybe go to Rishikesh. In Rishikesh I am considering trying to stay at an ashram for 10-15 days or so taking yoga and meditation classes, I think that'd be cool, but its all speculation right now. I'll try to update again a little sooner than last time but am busy running around and doing new things, well...and a good amount of relaxing as well. Tried a traditional Sikkimese? or maybe Nepali? beer last night. It was made with fermented millet and basically they serve you a big bamboo cup of fermented millet and you fill it up with hot water and wait a few minutes and drink it through a bamboo straw and then refill until you are sick of it or it just tastes like water. It was alright, tasted just like warm unfiltered sake.
Sorry about the rambling post but internet here is sort of expensive, almost 2 dollars for an hour! ha, and people are waiting. I will try to post pictures some day but i never seem to have my camera and cord with I am at a computer with a USB port.
Hope everyone is well, the food and people here are great. I am already starting to feel like I don't have enough time here. Bye!
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