Nine.

Greetings from India :)

So we just spent the past three days (essentially) in Kalimpong, West Bengal, which is where Anu's family lives. I'm going to split the stories from the trip into a few posts because I'd rather not overwhelm anyone with a dauntingly long post. It also will allow me to talk about a few other things in more detail :) So from the beginning...

Anu had been in Delhi for her son's wedding (which was great apparently and she had a fantastic time), and was going to Kalimpong to set up a few things there with their propety and her family. We were supposed to be going to Kalimpong over these dates for a celebration for the wedding but after the earthquake Anu and Rajiv (along with the children) decided not to have the party and to donate all the money that was going towards the party to earthquake victims. We'd had to get special permits to go (and by special permits, I mean Rajiv and Anu treated some government official to drinks) and it seemed pointless to waste our special permits so we decided to go ahead with our trip to Kalimpong just for fun :) Rajiv had decided that we would drive 2.5/3ish hour drive and then walk/hike for what he said would be 3 hours to get to Kalimpong.

We were told that we had to leave at 6.30 AM so I woke up at 6 and took a shower. We had a bit of trouble getting Rebecca (the group sleepyhead) out so we left a little late. We didn't have breakfast before leaving and Rajiv told us that we'd be able to find water on the way so we set off. When we got the hiking point, Laura still wasn't feeling well and asked to take a cab to Kalimpong as she had a stomach issue and wasn't up to the hike. As it was no easy feat at this point to get a cab, we waited for about an hour (we had some nice tea and biscuits while waiting) for someone to drive from Kalimpong to drive Laura.

And then we began the adventure. Rajiv told us it would be approximately 3km uphill and the rest downhill...lies. Claudia, Alex and I pulled ahead and stopped for a cold drink as we were starting to get thirsty (approximately at 1.5km into the hike) so we stopped to get a Sprite. The others caught up and decided to stop for a cold beer; growing impatient, the three of us pulled away again and began up the hill. At about 3km, we stopped someone to ask them how much farther up it was. Naively, I expected them to say one more kilometer (a daunting distance to be sure still).  No. We were informed that we had NINE more kilometers to go uphill, and TWENTY-FOUR more total. NINE. Meaning approximately 11-12km total uphill. Not the promised three. This was, understandbly, frustrating, but once we had a definitive distance for the walking it didn't matter as much. We stopped for awhile to finish off the last of the water Claudia had brilliantly brought along and to share a few powerbars I had.

We quickly realized that we were going to run into an issue soon if we didn't find any water soon. We were officially out of water and it was incredibly hot that day. We walked for quite awhile without any hope of finding anywhere for water. We finally came upon a few houses and a small store, and bought the most disgusting, overly sugary mango drink you can possibly imagine; out of sheer desperation and the fear of dehydration, we finished the entire, disgusting thing. We were beginning to be faced with a dillemma though, which was that there was clear, fresh water that we could very easily drink except that we had no iodine tablets/filter with us and no way of ensuring where the water was from or how clean it was. Despite incredible temptation, Claudia and Alex pulled me away from the water, threatening giardia as the price of a drink of cool water. Eventually, we grew so desperate for water that we stopped at a house and begged a woman inside to boil water for us.

After our adventures, we came up with a new set of rules to live by.

1) Never Trust Rajiv.

2) Always have Iodine.

3) Never Trust Rajiv.

To end the hike, Rajiv forced us into a cab to get to Kalimpong (we could have kept going although considering how we had no breakfast and no lunch/food aside from biscuits and protein bars). We had lunch at a very nice place called 'Gumpys' - apparently one of the few quality places in Kalimpong according to Rajiv- and discovered our newest adventure. Across the street we saw a place to paraglide and Alex, Claudia and I (eventualy joined by Laura) decided that we wanted to paraglide here. Unfortuantely, due to timing, we weren't able to do it on this trip, but we're going through Kalimpong on our way to Bhutan in November so we'll do it then. But, as someone who is incrediby afraid of heights, I was proud of my decision to attempt to jump off a mountain and soar up above.

That night we went to Cloud 9 (a restaurant near out hotel) to meet some of Anu's family which was incredibly fun as they are all fantastic. We are in 'festival time' (more about festival stuff tomorrow!) as they call it, so her family has come from all over India to celebrate together and Anu was reunited with a sister she hasn't seen in about ten years which was incredibly fun to be a part of.

Anyways, I believe that this is enough for one night as I don't want to overwhelm anyone :)

Happy Desai to all,

Sara

PS. Funny side story for my Jews- I met an Israeli couple in "Gumpys" (the first of all of the Israelis that I was told invade India) who attempted to speak to me in Hebrew...something I am definitely NOT able to do. Whoops. But it was great wishing them a happy New Year.