For the love of idlis...

Sylvia's idli count so far: 11 in the past 3 days, thanks to the buffet breakfast we wake up to every morning here at the Vedic Village.



Garrett enjoys his fistfuls of papaya and mango, and hard boiled eggs.

Today we participated in Dinacharya, the Sanjeeva Spa's morning Ayurvedic ritual. We woke up at 5:45am to brush our teeth with an herbal paste, used a copper tongue scraper to get the night's filth off of our tastebuds, and drank an herbal concoction (300ml, to be exact), which Sylvia puked up shorty after. We went for a small walk to the spa center, where we got our second day of Yoga, this time, focusing on channeling our prana (or energy) in hopes of learning how to control it. Then it was off to our massage and oil treatment, Abhyangam Shirodhara . And they were not light with the oil. We were brought into separate rooms where our masseurs proceeded to douse us with oil, working in sychronizing strokes that felt as if we were massaged by one person. Our entire bodies were worked over, including an extensive eyelid massage for Sylvia. The Shirodhara treatment, which is where warm oil is constantly poured onto the forhead for about 10 minutes, was quite relaxing and the feeling it produced was undescribable. Then it was off to the shower for a full body scrub, some nose drops and ear drops, inhalation of tumeric smoke, and application of kajal and vermillion--Garrett came out looking like an Egyptian pharoh with his black eye makeup. We also had a consultation with Dr. CM Pradyumna, who suggested practical lifestyle routines to follow in eating, sleeping, yoga, and bowl movements.

Other events of the day so far? Ping pong, reading magazines, and lounging. We did go into the city yesterday for a hectic afternoon with the Internet on Chowringhee to upload pictures, Garrett's trip to the Foreigners Bureau to book train tickets, re-visiting the New Market and getting some souvenirs, and eating at the Blue Sky Cafe on Sudder St., which was full of white people and East Asians! It was a sight we haven't seen in awhile. We're here until the 12th, when we'll travel to Orissa to prepare for Rath Yatra. Until then...peace and love.

Back in the chaos...ok well not really

Well, we're back in the India that I almost forgot we left behind after escaping to the calm and cool in Darjeeling and Sikkim.


The jeep ride from Namchi, the South Sikkim district capital we hung out in for a few days, was sort of hectic. Garrett got a little ill presumably from the plate of chicken drumsticks he ate at our hotel (which was really nice by the way...really good food, ok so maybe too good). We stayed at Hotel Samdruptse, which was pretty decent and had really nice staff that catered to us. Most memorable was our driver for our first day there who took us to see the local sights, he was a really kind man and took us to see the statue of Guru Padmasambhava, the Rock Gardens, one of the local monasteries, and to the construction site of what will be a Hindu religious/cultural center called the Char Dham, which will soon have a large Shiva statue. The site was really incredible, so much manpower behind it all. We'll post pictures soon hopefully when we get into the city to a faster internet place!

Back to the jeep ride, which was pretty awful. Poor Garrett was pretty sick though he toughed most of the ride out. We were stopped twice for two accidents, one that happened earlier in the day where a car drove off the side of this hill, and the second when we got back to the lowlands and a jeep had sideswiped a big truck and caused a pretty bad road block. But man, i had forgotten how crazy it can be here on the ride back. We just kept running into more traffice, more trucks, more pollution, more dirt, people, trash, craziness....ahh! Really, I asked Garrett if he was ready to go back to the India we left behind! After our jeep arrived at the stopping point in Siliguri, West Bengal, we had to find a rickshaw to take us to New Jalpaiguri for the rail station...and we were just harrassed almost by a ton of cycle rickshaws. We walked a bit down the street off the main street (thank goodness) and were soon able to find a crowded shared rickshaw to take, which zipped us about 6km deeper into a soot filled city.

The train ride to Sealdah station in Kolkata was nice, but a bit warm. I was pretty unhappy with the greasy funk all over my body, but what to do? It was Garrett's first ride in second class, and he was interested in all of the activity going on around us. Chai wallahs, men selling everything from pens to desk lamps to electronic keyboards, eunuchs who apologized to G for asking for money, and various types of beggars. We have another overnighter coming up when we go to Puri, but I think our longer ride from Puri to Hyderabad will be in an AC car just to keep cool...it's pretty worth it in this weather! As we arrived in Kolkata this morning at about 6am, we came upon nonstop rain. And it didn't really stop all day, nor has it stopped in the past 7 days, causing a waterlogging of the old city. Getting a cab to our present location, the Vedic Village (ah relaxation, again...?) was also sort of hectic, with cab drivers telling us the prepaid booth was closed (it wasn't). The ride over was long and overpriced, but we made it to the Vedic Village, a little eco-hub of homes, resorts, mudhuts, villas, and suites, with a day spa (yay) and really good food. We're indulging. It's sort of weird to be doing that in India of all places, but it is also nice to be out of the chaos that is Kolkata. We'll go there soon enough.

A visit to Pelling in West Sikkim (July 2)

Pelling has been recentely earned a spot on the tourist map due to an interest in the area for its easy access to Sikkim's monastic trek and the beautiful sights of Kanchendzonga, the world's third highest peak. In the high season it's packed with foreign and Bengali tourists, and in the low season, it's like a deserted Shangri-la, as we found out. Our friendly jeep seat mate informed us that only 5 or 6 years ago Pelling was just like any other small farming hill town. Now the land is full of hotels and guesthouses that now cater to it's main form of income, tourism. He showed us to Hotel Norling, a very nice isolated hotel away from the what would be hustle and bustle in the high season, with a staff that was very friendly.

After seeing early morning views of the Himalayan peaks before the afternoon fog rolled in, we went on a walk down to the local sights, mainly Pemayangtse Monastery and Rabdengtse, the ancient ruins of Sikkim's second capital from the 1600s to mid-1700s. When we entered Pemayangtse Monastery, a nasty dog with an eye out of it's socket started barking and growling aggressively with a moutful of drool, freaking Garrett out and sending him smack into a 30ft prayer flag pole, which he broke and knocked over. The whole experience was witnessed by a young lama, who just stared until Garrett gave him the "I'm ok and I'm sorry" gesture. After nerves were settled, we went into the gompa which was incredibly decorated inside, and also had some monks making butter sculptures. On the second floor was an intricate and ornately carved 7 tiered representation of Guru Padmasambhava's (the man who brough Buddhism to Tibet) spiritual residence. Upon leaving the monastery, Garrett had another experience. He noticed there was blood all over his foot while putting his shoes on, only to find a fat and full leech attached to his foot.

At the ruins, we took in the view of the surrounding hills, and met a nice Bengali family who were also staying in Pelling. It proved to be a fun (free of cost) day despite the animal attacks.

Sights of Sikkim

Early morning on the 27th, we piled into a jeep and left for Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim, in the northeast of India between Nepal, Tibet, and Bhutan, and north of West Bengal. It was a bumpy 4 hour drive, with sights of tea country and rivers. On our arrival, Andrew and Sylvia passed out due to fevers, and Garrett, Jeremy and Durba had a look around town. Andrew left the next day after going with the gang to see Ganesh Tok, a local Hindu temple and a high vantage point over Gangtok. Sylvia and I said farewell to the newlyweds the next day, and Sylvia was finally feeling well enough to see some sights. During our stay in Gangtok, compliments of Hotel Zi on Tibet Rd., we rode the ropeway gondola over the city and visited the Dharma Chakra Center at Rumtek. The monastery holds the remains of the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa Lama of the Black Hat sect of Buddhism in Sikkim, and there is a throne that awaits the 17th Karmapa, who currently resides in Dharmsala, in northwest India. He's not permitted into Sikkim as his presence will create conflict with China.

The next day we went to Changu Lake, also known as Tsomgo Lake, at an elevation of 12,400 ft. The lake is also 18km from Nathula Pass, the Indo-China border and the historic Silk Road. We weren't able to visit Nathula Pass since it's only open to domestic tourists, and instead spent a few hours at the lake, in all it's foggy glory. Usually the sights are clear and the lake is frozen over, as the high tourist season is in winter, not in the middle of the monsoon. Nonetheless it was serene and beautiful. We also got to sit on yaks, because who doesn't want a picture with a yak?

Our 2nd (and last) day in Darjeeling (June 26)

We spent the day touring around town, enjoying the sights, sounds and smells of the markets and neighborhoods in Darjeeling. In the evening the Kaplan-Lyman's treated everyone to dinner at the Darjeeling Planter's Club. It was a nice send off, although Andrew fell ill with a fever, something he probably caught from Jessica during our travels.

Superheros wear fannypacks (June 25)

After a day in Darjeeling, we were relaxing in our hotel room when an uncle and cousin of Jeremy rushed in. Sylvia thought they wanted to join the "party", but instead they told us that their hotel room had just been robbed while they were out. They asked if we'd seen anyone carrying a black suitcase on our walk home from dinner. This suitcase had their passports and airline tickets for their return journey to Australia in the next two days. Anxiety levels rose as we all set out to see if there was anythign we could do to help. Durba and Jessica went out first to head to the police station, while Garrett and Sylvia hung back so Garrett could put proper clothes on. While we were walking out of the hotel, we spotted a porter walking very quickly down the hill above our hotel, with a black suitcase on his head. The timing and circumstance seemed too bizarre, so Garrett went after the guy at Sylvia's prodding (although she had originally told him to tell Durba and Jess who were heading to the police station). Garrett disappeared into the fog, yelling out "Stop...hey, stop".

--Garrett's experience--
The young lad was hurrying down the hill and not responding to any of my comments. I had to run in front of him in order to make him stop. He seemed nervous and may or may not have been pretending that he didn't understand me. I asked him who the suitcase belonged to, and he said he was carrying it for somebody in the hotel. At that point I put my hand on the suitcase and made him put it down, granted that I was twice his size, but I was still nervous because one of his hands was in his pocket and who knew what was in there. I checked the luggage tag and saw it was from Sydney, just then the guy ran away. I brought back the luggage, to find out that he had also taken a backpack with other valuables, so Jeremy, Andrew and I ran back down the hill to find the thief. When we got to the bottom a jeep made a quick u-turn and went driving down the road away from us. This concluded the unfortunate event in Darjeeling. Luckily, the suitcase with the important documents was saved, by the man with the orange fanny pack.

Clubbin it up Kolkata style

We forgot to tell you about this: In Kolkata a few of us went out to eat at Bar-b-que on Park Street. Funny it was BBQ for the tandoori dishes, but we ate on the Chinese side of the restaurant. There, we met up with our friend's friend, this movie producer named Rana, who decided to take us out on the town. He got us into 4 of the hottest clubs in Kolkata for free. 3 were at the Park Hotel, where we watched a psychadelic rock cover band (Pink Floyd, the Doors, and whoever sings Teenage Wasteland), danced to hip hop is a sexy club, and pretended we were ravers at the third place. After a few hour we were taken to yet another club, the Underground, and at about 3am Garrett passed out amidst the loudest hardest Hindi/Technopop, fog machines, and crazy strobe lights. Good times.