Mid-May Update

Now. Enough time has passed since my last thwarted posting that a bloated "here-is-what-has-happened-since-then" posting seems justified. I never wanted to leave such a one, but in truth we are both alive and happy and we don't want anyone to be afraid for us. There now, that's better.

After our retreats we decided to leave McLeod Ganj, the town we'd come to love so well. We wanted trekking, but the surrounding hills were too snow covered for our under-equipped selves. Head to Sikkim.

But first we had to go to Delhi to arrange the train tickets. One could say many things about the rail system in India. Behemoth. Filthy. Inefficient. Inexpensive. Late. Most of all, we find it very confusing. For example, we tried to book our tickets from a small branch office in a rural area, but they were not able to do it. We actually had to go to the big office in Delhi to make the booking. Same computer network. Same rail network. Different office, different results. Very confusing. We felt better to learn that even Indians find the system confusing.

We then spent two days in the sweltering heat (108 F) of the urban wonderland that is Delhi. I will not say anything about it here, since it is far too great a subject. We did have a great time, though, and we are excited to return for some days before our flight back to the United States at the end of the month. Great food. Great shopping. Great wide avenues, reminicent of Washington D.C.

Getting into Sikkim turned out to be more challenging than we expected. It's a peculiar state in many ways. It is small, sparsely populated. It is also a coveted border state. It shares borders with Nepal, Tibet (China-occupied) and Bhutan. Up until the 1950s it was a soverign nation, and it was not a regular state until a 1973 referendum. Today, foreign visitors must obtain special 15-day permits to enter, mostly because of the security situation. Not that it's unsafe to travel here, just that India wants to be very careful who goes in and for how long. To give you a sense of the urgency, China has never recognized India's claim to Sikkim. There are many many army bases in the border areas.

After our 27-hour train ride to the border (and one day of getting permits) we entered in a small under-full bus to Pelling. Which brings me back to the low population. This state is so under-populated and roadless that we feel as though we are no longer in India. We have taken to walking from village to village instead of taking share-jeeps. We have time to look people in the eye when we say "namaste." And people smile here in a wonderful way.

And the ecology. Sikkim is nestled right up into the eastern portion of the Himalaya. On its border with Nepal sits the third tallest peak in the world. Where we are in the south-west district, the landscape is a steep hilly green. The climate has more in common with coastal Oregon or Hawaii than the rest of India. It has rained every day since we arrived, often in dounpour. Ferns are everywhere. There are so many types of trees and flowers. If you keep your eyes trained on the tree trunks you can see several varieties of orchids. It's a wild and totally unspoiled paradise. I hope it can stay this way for a few more generations.

We plan to keep up this village trekking routine for another five or six days before we head to Darjeeling to go tea-shopping and gompa-visiting. We'll return to Delhi through Bodhgaya, the place where Siddartha Gottama became the Enlightened One. Then it's a flight back to Oregon.

If our camera were still working I'd post a picture. But maybe it's better that you just imagine the view from our village.