Over 35 hours of non-stop traveling (on my own!) for over 1000 miles across India...and I've finally made it to Gangtok, Sikkim! Boy, what an adventure it's been to get here. Firstly, it's absolutely FREEZING here! When packing for India in August, I had NO idea I'd be going to the Himalayas...P.S- I'm 5,800 feet above sea level.
Right now, I'm wearing leggings, pajama pants, a flannel shirt and my teacher's coat to bed...and this still doesn't suffice. Manoj-ji offered his coat to me before I left and I took it, not really thinking I'd need it. If anything, I was planning on using it as a pillow, but wowza, I'm glad I have it. It's actually so cold here that...you know that feeling where your fingers are so freezing that you mistype? Little would you know from my flawless grammar (joke) that I'm actually backspacing every few words because I can't control my fingers. But...MUST WRITE ON! (Mostly because I fear I'll forget the interesting things by the time I wake up tomorrow.)
Timeline in brief:
Friday 11/10:
@ 5:00am- Was picked up by my interpreter from the SIT center for the train station in Jaipur. He helped me navigate the station which was actually a lot easier than I thought. I ended up leading him...heh. This train was called the "Double Decker Super Speed Fast Train"-I'll show you my ticket for proof.
@ 11:00am- Got off the train in Delhi and attempted to lug my luggage...lolz...up the several flights stairs that were bustling with people. A foreign woman must have thought I looked like I was struggling enough because she said to me "Just get a porter! It's only 100 rupees!" I looked up, already exhausted- and a man wearing a massive red turban and a red suit jacket grabbed by bag for me (without me agreeing to the offer...but I was actually very glad I let him because it was a long walk.) We reached the entrance to the station and was immediately bombarded by rickshaw drivers trying to take my bag to "claim" me as their passenger. (BTW, this was happening to everybody leaving the station.) I had to pull my bag away from them and decided on my own rickshaw driver. I've noticed that I tend to avoid rickshaw drivers with dirty shirts. They all wear baby-blue button ups, but some men look much more put together than others, so I usually go for the ones with the clean shirts. How indicative this is of how good of a driver they are, I fail to tell you- but it's just something I've picked up on.
@11:30am- Got dropped off at the New Delhi Railway Station where my next train- the Rajdhani Express would be taking me to New Jalpaiguri Railway Station in West Bengal. As I made my way, again the porters were trying to take my bag from me when one friendly-looking elderly man in the most hipster-looking sweater asked me where I was going. I said, "Sikkim" and he said, "Oh! Rajdhani Express....Platform 16 at 2:00!" I could not have spoken to a more helpful person. I was already a little nervous about navigating the station, but this man just popped out of nowhere and saved the day!
I had some time to kill, so I bought some chai and sat down on the platform read my Indian Cosmo and ate my digestive biscuits...mmm...but really...name aside, they're delicious!
@1:30pm: Loaded the train and found my bunk very easily- I was in the sleeper section which consists of three tiers of hospital-looking beds. They provide you with sheets and pillows, and as part of the Rajdhani Express deal, serve you snacks and meals every few hours. They even served a special tray just for tea- with many accessories. (I'll take a photo on my way back to show you.) It included a plastic mug, a put of hot water, a tea bag, sugar, milk creamer, a candy, and a package of biscuits. It was adorable! Since I was on the top tier of the bunks, I had to constantly pass my trash down to the people below me. The 4 people occupying the bunks around me were all Buddhist monks coming back from their monastery in Himanchel for the Diwali festival (It's like the Indian Christmas- with decorative lighting and LOTS of shopping) to their homes in Bhutan. They were all very friendly and would pass me newspapers and wake me up when food came around, but the friendliest one was a gregarious man with the most booming voice- he wore Crocs and a saffron-colored robe. He introduced himself to me (in English) as soon as we got onto the train and asked where I was going. I said" Gangtok, Sikkim" and he threw his arms out and said "That is where I'm going!" He then said he'd help me find a jeep when we got off in NJP- phew! Oh, yeah....this man's name- I kid you not- was Karma.
Karma would check up on me and offer me his food every once in a while. Not going to lie, I had this stereotype about monks in my head as being stoic and mute, but this guy totally reframed my view on that. Although- there were some things he'd say that I'd just chuckle to myself about because they were so stereotypical- like when he asked about the big storm that happened in America. I said that my family was in New York and that while they didn't get hit as badly as the rest of the East Coast, they did lose power for a few days. Karma shook his head and said, "Everything is impermanent."
Saturday 11/11:
I was woken up around 7:00am by a blurry version of Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA" playing off of somebody's cell phone in the bunk a few booths over. This had been happening the whole ride- with mostly Hindi music- but I was SO surprised to hear this song.! I felt a tinge of Americana home-sickness- Thanks, Miley?
At around 10:00, we pulled into NJP and Karma told me to follow him. We went to the front of the station which was packed with Jeeps- the main means of transportation to get to anywhere in Sikkim and Bhutan. We paid 200 rupees each for a seat- and after some waiting for the rest of the Jeep to fill up- made our way up to Sikkim. There's one main highway leading up to Sikkim- a two lane road that twists up steep sides of the Himalayan foothills for over 6 hours. I fortunately sat in the front passenger seat- so I had a great view the whole way up. Along the way, Karma would point to a tree on the side of the road and ask, "Do you have that in America?" I'd say no- all of the trees and plants were huge and waxy-looking and completely foreign to me. We passed a group of monkeys hanging out on the side of the road, and he pointed as asked if we had those in America- I said, "Not in the wild." But- I actually had to pause and think about that before I answered him. People constantly ask me about what America is like- and I've found it is SO difficult to sum up in a sentence or two because America is so diverse. When someone asks me what the climate is like- and I have to say "Well, on one side of the country- it's desert and on the other side- it's green forests...."
A stop at a road-side stand for mo-mos (local dumplings) and a stop at the Sikkim border to get my permit (for security reasons because Sikkim borders China)- we reached Gangtok. It was already dark- and all I could see was lights dotting the mountain sides- which were so steep that I could barely see the sky above! It was so beautiful.
I got dropped off at the Khardka Hotel- to which I was referred to by Tara-ji. She's from Sikkim and has family and many connections here. Along with this hotel, she gave me a list of restaurants and shops to visit. I was lead to my room, unpacked my things, and had a dinner of peanut butter and biscuits on my bed- I was too exhausted to venture out and get real food. As I was munching in bed, I heard a knock on my door. I opened it and there was standing a woman who looked strangely familiar- she looked like Tara-ji and spoke like her too- turns out it was her sister! This hotel is owned by her husband. She said if I needed anything to just give her a call.
The next morning, I got a phone call from my friend, Danielle (another SIT student- she goes to UVM too!)- who is doing research in Sikkim (there's three of us from our program who will be in Sikkim at some point during this month.) Funny thing about Danielle- although we both go to UVM, we'd never met before this program. There's 11,000 undergraduate students there, so this isn't THAT unbelievable. However, we've realized that we have many mutual friends. We applied totally separately but found out after we got accepted that we both went to UVM! It's been such a comfort to go through this with her- we're definitely going to hang out when we get back. It'll also be nice to have someone there to go through the adjustment process (reverse culture shock) with back at school. We've already agreed that when we see each other on campus, we'll greet each other with a "Namaste."
Anywho, we made plans to meet up and explore the city a bit together- although compared to other "cities," Gangtok isn't much of one. The entire population of Sikkim is 540,000 (the smallest of all Indian states.) Gangtok's population is 98,000- but this includes the residential areas extending for miles outside of the city's heart. Danielle had bought us tickets to a soccer game- apparently it was the championship game between Nepal and (some other team- not Sikkim.) It seemed like a big deal- there were signs all over the streets for it. We made our way down the many series of steep stairs down alleyways to the stadium- which was PACKED with people. Funny thing- because the land here is so steep, they didn't even have to build bleachers- the seats just lied against the incline of the mountain side. I sat there and scanned the crowd- and noticed how different things were from Rajasthan. Firstly, most people seemed to be of some Asian origin. I barely saw any typical- "Indian" looking people- there's no P.C way I can phrase that. Another thing- most people wore Western clothing- women were wearing FORM FITTING PANTS and T-shirt! I even saw a man wearing an "As I Lay Dying" T-shirt (a hardcore metal band popular among Americana youth.) It really felt like I was in a totally different country.....again.
The soccer game was interesting, but the halftime show was more so. On to the field came a group of- wait for it- Bagpipers. Over the loudspeaker- they were announced as "The Sikkim Police Bagpipe Band!" Whaaaat?! They strutted onto the field and played the bagpipes in a way I've never heard before- no "Scotland the Brave" here. It was much more fast paced and higher pitched than what I was expecting. They had synchronized dance moves and moved all around the field for a good 15 minutes. I was impressed.
Afterwards, we took a taxi to visit a Buddhist Monastery that Danielle's hot mother recommended we visit. We went inside the temples- which were all unbelievably decorated with intricate paintings of Buddhist stories and histories on the walls and ceiling. The shrines inside the temples were adorned with candles, bowls of water, tons of rupee notes, rice, little snacks, and other unidentifiable objects. It was a sensory overload.
Afterwards, we decided to walk back into town on our own instead of waiting for a taxi- we were in a pretty isolated area with little traffic. It was a 30 minutes walk straight downhill down a winding road- our calves were burning by the end of it! The topography here is so different from anything I've known before. Instead of telling someone "Go straight then right to get to this place," you'd say "Go up those stairs then up more then take a right up another flight of stairs."
Somehow we made it back into town (Danielle's been here for a week so she knows her way around) and onto the main street- a pedestrian street lined with shops that reminds me so much of Church Street in Burlington! Ahhh home! We got mo-mo's at a little hole in the wall and ate them sitting on a bench on the street. Again, I realized how different this place was from Rajasthan. Danielle said that 95% of the smells she smells here are GOOD smells! This is very different from Jaipur- where you get used to the constant smell of urine and garbage. She also said that people follow the traffic rules here. At every intersection we passed, there were at least 3 traffic police blowing their whistles and directing traffic. Again, VERY different from Jaipur where the road-lines mean nothing and the traffic-lights don't matter. Danielle also said that she feels a lot more comfortable here because she doesn't feel like she stands out as badly as she does in Jaipur. She said she gets stared at a lot less.
Danielle and I then went to a sweet shop to get some sweets for her interpreter and home-stay family- she leaves for the village tomorrow. Afterwards, we parted ways and she went to catch a taxi back to her home-stay home. I was on my own mission to find myself a sweater and a shawl to better handle the cold. I walked into probably 15 different stores to gauge prices. In almost every one, someone asked me where I was from (in English) and we started up a friendly conversation. I settled on buying a nice wool shawl for 200 rupees and a sweater for 650 rupees (since it's Diwali season, all of the prices are jacked up.)
Walking back to my hotel down the main street, I had to swerve around firecrackers blasting off from every direction. Tuesday is the main day of Diwali (kind of like how there's 25 days of Christmas leading up to the actual holiday) which means that there are fireworks EVERYWHERE- as Diwali is the festival of lights. Now I understand why my academic director, Tara-ji told me to avoid wearing synthetic shirts- which I originally thought was just a suggestion. Every time I saw a group of boys scurry away from one area, I ran with them. I checked myself back at the hotel for any burn marks- and I was clear.
Tomorrow I meet with my ISP advisor to discuss my plan for the next three weeks. He's Danielle's advisor too and she said that he was incredibly accommodating and available to her, so I feel like I'll be in good hands.
Right now, I'm wearing leggings, pajama pants, a flannel shirt and my teacher's coat to bed...and this still doesn't suffice. Manoj-ji offered his coat to me before I left and I took it, not really thinking I'd need it. If anything, I was planning on using it as a pillow, but wowza, I'm glad I have it. It's actually so cold here that...you know that feeling where your fingers are so freezing that you mistype? Little would you know from my flawless grammar (joke) that I'm actually backspacing every few words because I can't control my fingers. But...MUST WRITE ON! (Mostly because I fear I'll forget the interesting things by the time I wake up tomorrow.)
Timeline in brief:
Friday 11/10:
@ 5:00am- Was picked up by my interpreter from the SIT center for the train station in Jaipur. He helped me navigate the station which was actually a lot easier than I thought. I ended up leading him...heh. This train was called the "Double Decker Super Speed Fast Train"-I'll show you my ticket for proof.
@ 11:00am- Got off the train in Delhi and attempted to lug my luggage...lolz...up the several flights stairs that were bustling with people. A foreign woman must have thought I looked like I was struggling enough because she said to me "Just get a porter! It's only 100 rupees!" I looked up, already exhausted- and a man wearing a massive red turban and a red suit jacket grabbed by bag for me (without me agreeing to the offer...but I was actually very glad I let him because it was a long walk.) We reached the entrance to the station and was immediately bombarded by rickshaw drivers trying to take my bag to "claim" me as their passenger. (BTW, this was happening to everybody leaving the station.) I had to pull my bag away from them and decided on my own rickshaw driver. I've noticed that I tend to avoid rickshaw drivers with dirty shirts. They all wear baby-blue button ups, but some men look much more put together than others, so I usually go for the ones with the clean shirts. How indicative this is of how good of a driver they are, I fail to tell you- but it's just something I've picked up on.
@11:30am- Got dropped off at the New Delhi Railway Station where my next train- the Rajdhani Express would be taking me to New Jalpaiguri Railway Station in West Bengal. As I made my way, again the porters were trying to take my bag from me when one friendly-looking elderly man in the most hipster-looking sweater asked me where I was going. I said, "Sikkim" and he said, "Oh! Rajdhani Express....Platform 16 at 2:00!" I could not have spoken to a more helpful person. I was already a little nervous about navigating the station, but this man just popped out of nowhere and saved the day!
I had some time to kill, so I bought some chai and sat down on the platform read my Indian Cosmo and ate my digestive biscuits...mmm...but really...name aside, they're delicious!
@1:30pm: Loaded the train and found my bunk very easily- I was in the sleeper section which consists of three tiers of hospital-looking beds. They provide you with sheets and pillows, and as part of the Rajdhani Express deal, serve you snacks and meals every few hours. They even served a special tray just for tea- with many accessories. (I'll take a photo on my way back to show you.) It included a plastic mug, a put of hot water, a tea bag, sugar, milk creamer, a candy, and a package of biscuits. It was adorable! Since I was on the top tier of the bunks, I had to constantly pass my trash down to the people below me. The 4 people occupying the bunks around me were all Buddhist monks coming back from their monastery in Himanchel for the Diwali festival (It's like the Indian Christmas- with decorative lighting and LOTS of shopping) to their homes in Bhutan. They were all very friendly and would pass me newspapers and wake me up when food came around, but the friendliest one was a gregarious man with the most booming voice- he wore Crocs and a saffron-colored robe. He introduced himself to me (in English) as soon as we got onto the train and asked where I was going. I said" Gangtok, Sikkim" and he threw his arms out and said "That is where I'm going!" He then said he'd help me find a jeep when we got off in NJP- phew! Oh, yeah....this man's name- I kid you not- was Karma.
Karma would check up on me and offer me his food every once in a while. Not going to lie, I had this stereotype about monks in my head as being stoic and mute, but this guy totally reframed my view on that. Although- there were some things he'd say that I'd just chuckle to myself about because they were so stereotypical- like when he asked about the big storm that happened in America. I said that my family was in New York and that while they didn't get hit as badly as the rest of the East Coast, they did lose power for a few days. Karma shook his head and said, "Everything is impermanent."
Saturday 11/11:
I was woken up around 7:00am by a blurry version of Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA" playing off of somebody's cell phone in the bunk a few booths over. This had been happening the whole ride- with mostly Hindi music- but I was SO surprised to hear this song.! I felt a tinge of Americana home-sickness- Thanks, Miley?
At around 10:00, we pulled into NJP and Karma told me to follow him. We went to the front of the station which was packed with Jeeps- the main means of transportation to get to anywhere in Sikkim and Bhutan. We paid 200 rupees each for a seat- and after some waiting for the rest of the Jeep to fill up- made our way up to Sikkim. There's one main highway leading up to Sikkim- a two lane road that twists up steep sides of the Himalayan foothills for over 6 hours. I fortunately sat in the front passenger seat- so I had a great view the whole way up. Along the way, Karma would point to a tree on the side of the road and ask, "Do you have that in America?" I'd say no- all of the trees and plants were huge and waxy-looking and completely foreign to me. We passed a group of monkeys hanging out on the side of the road, and he pointed as asked if we had those in America- I said, "Not in the wild." But- I actually had to pause and think about that before I answered him. People constantly ask me about what America is like- and I've found it is SO difficult to sum up in a sentence or two because America is so diverse. When someone asks me what the climate is like- and I have to say "Well, on one side of the country- it's desert and on the other side- it's green forests...."
A stop at a road-side stand for mo-mos (local dumplings) and a stop at the Sikkim border to get my permit (for security reasons because Sikkim borders China)- we reached Gangtok. It was already dark- and all I could see was lights dotting the mountain sides- which were so steep that I could barely see the sky above! It was so beautiful.
I got dropped off at the Khardka Hotel- to which I was referred to by Tara-ji. She's from Sikkim and has family and many connections here. Along with this hotel, she gave me a list of restaurants and shops to visit. I was lead to my room, unpacked my things, and had a dinner of peanut butter and biscuits on my bed- I was too exhausted to venture out and get real food. As I was munching in bed, I heard a knock on my door. I opened it and there was standing a woman who looked strangely familiar- she looked like Tara-ji and spoke like her too- turns out it was her sister! This hotel is owned by her husband. She said if I needed anything to just give her a call.
The next morning, I got a phone call from my friend, Danielle (another SIT student- she goes to UVM too!)- who is doing research in Sikkim (there's three of us from our program who will be in Sikkim at some point during this month.) Funny thing about Danielle- although we both go to UVM, we'd never met before this program. There's 11,000 undergraduate students there, so this isn't THAT unbelievable. However, we've realized that we have many mutual friends. We applied totally separately but found out after we got accepted that we both went to UVM! It's been such a comfort to go through this with her- we're definitely going to hang out when we get back. It'll also be nice to have someone there to go through the adjustment process (reverse culture shock) with back at school. We've already agreed that when we see each other on campus, we'll greet each other with a "Namaste."
Anywho, we made plans to meet up and explore the city a bit together- although compared to other "cities," Gangtok isn't much of one. The entire population of Sikkim is 540,000 (the smallest of all Indian states.) Gangtok's population is 98,000- but this includes the residential areas extending for miles outside of the city's heart. Danielle had bought us tickets to a soccer game- apparently it was the championship game between Nepal and (some other team- not Sikkim.) It seemed like a big deal- there were signs all over the streets for it. We made our way down the many series of steep stairs down alleyways to the stadium- which was PACKED with people. Funny thing- because the land here is so steep, they didn't even have to build bleachers- the seats just lied against the incline of the mountain side. I sat there and scanned the crowd- and noticed how different things were from Rajasthan. Firstly, most people seemed to be of some Asian origin. I barely saw any typical- "Indian" looking people- there's no P.C way I can phrase that. Another thing- most people wore Western clothing- women were wearing FORM FITTING PANTS and T-shirt! I even saw a man wearing an "As I Lay Dying" T-shirt (a hardcore metal band popular among Americana youth.) It really felt like I was in a totally different country.....again.
The soccer game was interesting, but the halftime show was more so. On to the field came a group of- wait for it- Bagpipers. Over the loudspeaker- they were announced as "The Sikkim Police Bagpipe Band!" Whaaaat?! They strutted onto the field and played the bagpipes in a way I've never heard before- no "Scotland the Brave" here. It was much more fast paced and higher pitched than what I was expecting. They had synchronized dance moves and moved all around the field for a good 15 minutes. I was impressed.
Afterwards, we took a taxi to visit a Buddhist Monastery that Danielle's hot mother recommended we visit. We went inside the temples- which were all unbelievably decorated with intricate paintings of Buddhist stories and histories on the walls and ceiling. The shrines inside the temples were adorned with candles, bowls of water, tons of rupee notes, rice, little snacks, and other unidentifiable objects. It was a sensory overload.
Afterwards, we decided to walk back into town on our own instead of waiting for a taxi- we were in a pretty isolated area with little traffic. It was a 30 minutes walk straight downhill down a winding road- our calves were burning by the end of it! The topography here is so different from anything I've known before. Instead of telling someone "Go straight then right to get to this place," you'd say "Go up those stairs then up more then take a right up another flight of stairs."
Somehow we made it back into town (Danielle's been here for a week so she knows her way around) and onto the main street- a pedestrian street lined with shops that reminds me so much of Church Street in Burlington! Ahhh home! We got mo-mo's at a little hole in the wall and ate them sitting on a bench on the street. Again, I realized how different this place was from Rajasthan. Danielle said that 95% of the smells she smells here are GOOD smells! This is very different from Jaipur- where you get used to the constant smell of urine and garbage. She also said that people follow the traffic rules here. At every intersection we passed, there were at least 3 traffic police blowing their whistles and directing traffic. Again, VERY different from Jaipur where the road-lines mean nothing and the traffic-lights don't matter. Danielle also said that she feels a lot more comfortable here because she doesn't feel like she stands out as badly as she does in Jaipur. She said she gets stared at a lot less.
Danielle and I then went to a sweet shop to get some sweets for her interpreter and home-stay family- she leaves for the village tomorrow. Afterwards, we parted ways and she went to catch a taxi back to her home-stay home. I was on my own mission to find myself a sweater and a shawl to better handle the cold. I walked into probably 15 different stores to gauge prices. In almost every one, someone asked me where I was from (in English) and we started up a friendly conversation. I settled on buying a nice wool shawl for 200 rupees and a sweater for 650 rupees (since it's Diwali season, all of the prices are jacked up.)
Walking back to my hotel down the main street, I had to swerve around firecrackers blasting off from every direction. Tuesday is the main day of Diwali (kind of like how there's 25 days of Christmas leading up to the actual holiday) which means that there are fireworks EVERYWHERE- as Diwali is the festival of lights. Now I understand why my academic director, Tara-ji told me to avoid wearing synthetic shirts- which I originally thought was just a suggestion. Every time I saw a group of boys scurry away from one area, I ran with them. I checked myself back at the hotel for any burn marks- and I was clear.
Tomorrow I meet with my ISP advisor to discuss my plan for the next three weeks. He's Danielle's advisor too and she said that he was incredibly accommodating and available to her, so I feel like I'll be in good hands.
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