Nichole
We arrived back in India yesterday afternoon and up in Darjeeling by evening. What a day of transportation! Our friend and host, Noah, drove us to the airport to catch our flight to Bhadrapur, at the Nepal and India border. Once we got on the streets of Kathmandu, we realized that there was a transit shut-down happening over a totally unrelated to transportation event. (This was our 2nd encounter with this in Kathmandu Valley.) It can actually be unsafe to be driving in a car during these shut-downs because big gatherings of young men get upset that you are still driving. These same young men are also gathering in the streets without too much to do since the taxis are all parked and many of their shops are forced to shut down too. Noah got us to the airport safely and quickly though; and even with smiles from the grouped young men because he speaks to them with respect as we roll slowly by, dodging the cement road blocks and all the locals who are now walking and riding their bikes as they please in the now car-less streets.
We got to Bhadrapur, we began chatting with a local woman, Pushpanjli, who will be visiting the US next week regarding her US-sponsored work with AIDS/HIV education projects that she is the director of in Nepal. Pushpanjali is as amazing as her important work. She invited us to catch a taxi ride with her and her husband to her city which is half-way to the border where their taxi driver will then continue on with us the rest of the way. Once we get to border, we are hoofing it again, bags in tow and Luke having to wrestle a bit with our box that will be shipped from Darjeeling. (Shipping from Kathamdu is said to be as reliable as throwing your parcel directly into the river and then crossing your fingers in hopeful anticipation.) Once we get to the border, and get stamped back into India--I am beaming again--we immediately hop a locals bus to Siliguri. Once we get to Siliguri, we catch a share jeep with young goods-runners who are making a trip to Darjeeling and we are off again. We barely had 10-minute lapses between each leg of the journey---it was go, go, go!
We slept for about 10 hours last night and then grabbed breakfast and several pots of tea before wandering the city. We were in the locals' food and clothing market when this sweet-faced old man came up to us and said, "How can I help you? Where are you from?" We told him we were just enjoying the market and that we were OK, no troubles. We told him that we were from the US and he was very glad to hear this. We talked together for a few minutes with him sharing how both the US and India are friends and are both great democracies. He also told us that in 1947 as India got its independence from the receding British, that India was left immediately on very hard times; that the 1000s of common people were starving from the resulting turmoil. He said the India's PM, Neru, wrote to our president (Harry Truman) and asked for food, and that the US gave India "grains in abundance" and that India's people were helped so much by our generosity. We had saved lives by it. He asked us to share this story with Obama; to tell Obama that "an old man from Darjeeling" told us this story and that he is very glad for Obama. He told us that what people need most of all is peace and then we all smiled in agreement of our mutual hope that Obama was going help bring more peace into the world. It was a really touching, short and sudden encounter in the intersection of two narrow paths of the cramped market. And when we parted ways, I realized that the people around us were all smiling with us too and nodding their heads.
We are so far behind in our blog, but we are adding pictures to back pages and we'll add post from each of us on our Kailash kora. I think we may just leave it to that though and try to keep up a little better moving forward. We are making plans for the rest of the trip. We had looked into switching tickets around to get us back to my folk's house in Michigan for Christmas to be with my family, but we can't make it work. This is sad news to miss our families for both holidays this year, but it means we also have about 6 weeks left and we are going to need every day of it to see all that we are hoping to see. We have even begun to prune the list a bit since we spent such a long time in Nepal.
More pictures soon and stories too from the Land of Teas!
oxoxoxo
Nichole
Where are we now
Where have we been
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2008
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67
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November
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13
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- Happy Birthday to my lovely wife!
- Bodhgaya
- Varanasi photos
- We are Safe and Sound in Varanasi...far from Mumbai
- And We're Off
- What a Difference a Day Makes
- Reining it in...
- In Darjeeling With 3 Pots of Tea Down
- Everest Base Camp
- Lake Manasarovar
- Kailash - part 1
- Arriving at Kailash
- Our Seven Years in Tibet (minus 2539 days)
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November
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13
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2 Messages, Share the Love and Leave one Yourself:
So good to hear from you again, and to know now that you are back in warm India again. The journey sounds like one more adventure, where despite of, or perhaps because of having no plan, the travel was as efficient as it possibly be... .under the circumstances, that is. Sweet story of the old Indian man in the market. I think variations on that are being played out all over the world. Friends of ours working on building schools in impoverished parts of Africa say that people are just smiling all the time from the election results.
Now we are preparing for Thanksgiving...Obie, Shelbey, Cooper and Drake arrive tomorrow. Kansas families just a little later. We will miss you both terribly on Thursday.
I love this post. And I can't believe you only have 6 weeks left. Anyway, I am so happy that you are back in India. Looking forward to more stories.
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