Sikkim, dream come true.

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After waiting for 2 weeks at the hospital, to see what would come of all the political unrest in the Darjeeling district just north of us, we finally got word that the roads had reopened. this would mean being able to head north up to the state of Sikkim! The director of the hospital insisted that we go in the middle of our stay as not to chance a re-closure...

We headed into town to apply for our "restricted access permits", and the next day headed on a 4 hour bus ride out from the plains of Siliguri to the mountains of Sikkim. First stop the capital. Gangtok. A 4 hour bus ride not so quickly became 8 and a half thanks to a landslide.. it was exhausting..For those of you not familiar, Sikkim is a tiny state in india with international boarders on all sides except the south. Anywhere you are in the state, you remain usually within about 50km of at least one of them. In Gangtok, Bhutan is only 20km to the east, Tibet is 75km to the north and Nepal is about the same to the west. Gangtok was a breath of fresh air. I had to keep reminding myself what country i was in. The roads where clean and the people extreamly friendly and helpful. The city was set into the sides of moutains , and when the clouds lifted it was lush and green. BEAUTIFUL. Found a coffee place that serves real coffee (its nescafe here..always) and sat at a window that looked out over the next mountain..peacefull.

There is a cable car that runs the length of the city, high above giving breath taking views, as wells as inspiring walks through forest covered in prayer flags. Gangtok is also the winner of the best indian meal i have ever had! a little resturant in the basment of another one, best service and by far the best indian food i have ever had.

Next it was on to west Sikkim. A small town called Pelling. How long at home does it take to drive 100kms? an hour and a half tops on the highway yah? well this 90km trip took just about 6 hours by jeep, through waterfalls, over landslides, my hands were very sore at the end from holding on so tight, considering the jeep was all open and i was in the back facing out the back window...

Pelling is at Elev. 2200m, its pretty high when your up there, and from almost every spot in town the third highest peak in the world is visible. Did a short day trekk up to a monistary that sits on top of one of the mountains near by. it was beautiful. got to the top and had tea with the monks while the clouds rolled overtop of us...

The next day was a jeep tour of the local area, waterfalls and a wishing lake... and of course a number of road hold ups due to landslides...

The town of Pelling was almost a ghost town, being low season and the most wet time of year the trekkers usually stay away from this state until October. we were the only people staying at the guesthouse, and the owners amazing mother cooked us dinner each night because the restaurants in the town were closed. except for one that we tried our first night but there were more cockroaches then id care to admit. She cooked up traditional Sikkimese food, which was exactly whats needed after a long day of misty trekking.. hot vegetable soup with dough like balls... YUM!

Heading to Darjeeling was one of the most incredible roads i have ever seen. no. it was the most incredible road. and by incredible i mean death deifying. There are no words to describe the 1000m cliffs that stood inches away from our wheels on the one lane road... never mind passing an oncoming car... my eyes were closed more then they were open.

Darjeeling was a big city, and once again i felt as though i was back in india. There had been a strike in the Darjeeling district on and off now for years as they are fighting to be their own state. It was very apparent that something of this nature was going on, protests in the streets and most of the businesses closed. None the less it was nice to see the famous city known of course for its tea production. you can see the "tea gardens" for miles, which are literally the tea farms.. lined with brightly dressed woman picking the best leaves for us to enjoy.

After Darjeeling it was back to the hospital for one last week. It was nice to be back, but as the week came to an end it was harder then i ever thought it would be to leave.

Heading back to Delhi on a 34 hour train journey gave me so much time to reflect on what i had just seen/done at the Jesu Ashram in Matigara, West Bengal. What a truly amazing and inspiring place, so little goes so far there. just to put it into prospective: A SENIOR nurse in India is paid the equivalent to about $1100.00 cdn a year. thats eleven hundred dollars. not 11 thousand. the hospital that usually has about 300 patients staying there at any given time and almost 50 staff spend about 2500.00 cdn on rice a year. thats 3 meals a day for 350 people eating all the rice they can. They do the unspeakable here. giving the poorest of the poor the help and medical attention to heal. I was so often moved to tears by the nurses compassion and commitment to their patients success, when if a facility existed like this at home (it could never) we would all look on with harsh judgment. Being a completely sterile environment takes more money than would be fees-able in a place like this, we back home are so used to walking into a crystal clean hospital, which fresh bedsheets, monitors strapped to the sick, I.V.s in every patients arm etc... that we dont even stop to think of the cost. here, none of those except for the rare IV is part of the care. the patients who are able keep the hospital clean, serve the food, work in the rice paddies surrounding the property. and i believe there is a lot to be said about the patients still living life while they get better, they remain strong and with a sense of pride, for they accomplish something every day, even if its sweeping their room. I left there feeling that although they "have" next to nothing, they are way more advanced in all other areas of health care.

Reaching Delhi again was the same as always. hectic, annoying and very exciting. It took us 3 hours to book our train tickets to travel around Rajasthan for the next 10 days because everyone poses as train officials with fake ID cards. FRUSTRATING!

Now in Pushkar its nice to sit back and relax for a couple days. it has not changed in the 2 years since i was here last (except everything is a bit more expensive) and some familiarity has been a nice change.
after this its on to Agra and the Taj Mahal.

Thanks for following me around the world! Hope you are well. xxxxxx

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Comments

[Pam]

fabulous
hey dan, this was a great entry to read. all emotions were to the extreme it sounds. very high highs and emotional lows. it's funny when i read your last paragraph about being in pushkar....i just showed my mom the metal wall art piece you gave me from india and i realized by saying out loud "wholey shit that was 2 years ago!" it totally doesn't seem like 2 years ago. keep it coming! love