Kalimpong

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We had a road trip from Darjeeling to Kalimpong. Once again fantastic views but due to the "wet summer and monsoon season it was cloudy. We arrived at our accomodation in Kalimpong called the "Himalaya Hotel" which was like an oasis for us in busy Kalimpong. We hired yet another jeep, and went for a drive to Pedong, to visit "Tenderbuds Academy", the school where Kezia has spent the past 5 months on a volunteer placement. Unfortunately the school had just commenced school holidays and only a few boarders remained. These beautiful children greeted kezia with enthusiatic smiles and hugs, saying "hello Miss'! We had taken a few Barbies from home which we gave to the children who carried them around with excitement. The school is very basic with small classrooms that contain desks and chairs and a blackboard. Mr Dewan and the school cook treated us to a cup of tea and biscuits. We saw kezia's accomodation that she shared with her fellow vounteer Rhianna, it also was very basic with the bare necessities. Kezia had a minor "meltdown" at this visit because she feared that we were going to block the toilet which had a challenging flush system, Lou's Begali belly was in full force at this stage and mine was definitely tender,- Mo Mo's we think!

We also checked out a monastery near "Tenderbuds" but didn't get to meet a monk!

Our ride back to Kalimpong was interesting with a young driver in a samll combi van type vechile who played "Jesus " music. We started with Lou , Marco and the driver in the front and girls in the back. When we arrived at the monastery we decided to balance the load so we swapped Nikki and marco over. Halfway up the mountain the driver pulled over for fuel.A lady comes down the track with a jerry can and funnel in hand and fuel us up. While this process was going on Nikki stated that she wasn't very comfortable with the gear stick between her legs and the driver needing to change gears frequently. She asked to swap places with marco who replied; " do you think I liked it !" needless to say the swap didn't happen.

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