day 15 (continued) – the overnight trip to siliguri was great. i slept comfortably for most of the trip.
day 16 - in the morning i woke up because the guy on the bottom bunk was talking so loudly. it turns out that he does everything loudly, when i got up an decided to read my book, he went back to sleep – snoring and farting louder than the train. seriously, i’ve never heard anyone snore as loudly in my life.
i ignored it and read my book.
after arriving i checked into the hotel hill view hotel (with no view of any thing, let alone a hill), dropped my gear and walked into town. there’s not much to do in siliguri, especially on a sunday when most stuff is shut (including the huge market in town). so i headed up to a really nice restaraunt called sartaj. i felt like a treat, so i ate fish and chips (pretty good), had a fosters beer (it was the only half decent beer on the menu) and i followed it up with vanilla ice cream and hot chocolate sauce (excellent). the entire time i was there i watched australia doing a poor job of chasing south africa in the cricket.
after that i went back to the hotel, it was late in the afternoon, and had a shower. that night two football games were on tv; hull vs wigan and liverpool vs aston villa. the liverpool game was awesome (5-shit, thanks for coming) and after that i went to bed.
day 17 – i checked out of the hill with no view hotel and jumped on a bus to kalimpong. the bus was crowded (this is india, after all) but i had a good trip. my pack was on the roof, which worried me a bit, but it arrived safely.
the trip was long and winding through the mountains. we ended up at kalimpong, which is 1250 meters above sea level. the small town is built across a valley and the streets run along the hill like terraces. i checked into a nice little hotel called deki lodge. it’s run by a three generation tibetan family. they’re very friendly and the owner gave me a photocopied map and some tips for looking around town.
i headed out, up the street to look at two gompas. the first was tharpa choling gompa. although it’s being renovated, the main temple is very beautiful with frescos painted over every wall. it has three buddhas and it’s a very important temple. the temple also has a controversial little room called the dorje shugden. it’s where the bad spirits are locked up. the room’s controversial because the dalai lama doesn’t recognise those spirits, which has caused a huge rift in the buddhist community … it’s a complicated story, so i won’t go into it too much now. however, i did manage to get inside (the door is always locked) and the young monk showed me around the room. there are demon statues along one wall and painted at the tops of the walls are the flayed bodies of many animals. a flayed human is across the roof. the room itself is quite macabre.
after that i went searching for the thongsa gompa. it’s not too far from my hotel, but i couldn’t find it. i’m going to go again tomorrow morning and ask around.
so, instead of wandering too far in the late afternoon, i walked up and down the long main street. i bought a tshirt and took photos of a few different things. then i headed back to my hotel for the night.
***
on the topic of photography, i admit that until now, i hadn’t taken many good pictures. before siliguri, i have probably only taken 3-4 good photos. the rest have been just touristy stuff for memory. i attribute my lack of interest to the difficulties i was having getting used to india. when i was out and about, i spent so much time unhappy due to the begging and hawking, that i didn’t feel like shooting.
however, today i noticed that i’m really starting to get into my groove again. while i was walking in the main street, i only had my 35mm f2 lens … nothing else. when i found an interesting spot, i sat for a while and watched people move around me. i’d point my camera at a few things and take some pictures … i think i got more good photos today than i have so far in my whole time in india.
so i’m going to make more of a conscious effort to look for shots. of course, i’ll continue to shoot the places i visit … so that i have lots of memories of my travels. but i’m more seriously looking for photos which will be artistic or creative, photos which i will be proud of.
… and to those of you waiting to see pix i’ve taken so far, sorry to disappoint. i’m trying to keep off computers as much as i can, so aside from travel updates, i’m not doing too much. for the moment, i’m storing images on my portable drive. i probably won’t get to updating until i reach either myanmar or thailand (from ryan’s house).