In which Alison rides an elephant

So, where did we leave off? First, this post might not be as long as the others for few reasons. First, I'm in Darjeeling, and it's freakin cold (anyone remember Chefchaun? Yeah, like that). Second, the internet is closing in an hour. Third, I'm kinda sick, so I may need to evacuate to a bathroom. But, more on that later.

First, Calcutta. I awoke bright and early (way too early, nothing was open to eat) and walked the km down to the Queen Victoria memorial, which was huge, white and impressive, surrounded by lovely gardens. The memrial is pretty much in the financial district of town, so there was no food to be had while I was walking over, though I did have some tea in a clay pot. I didn't go inside to the galleries, but walked allong the paths and walkaways, watching people job, meditate, take pictures, and generally enjoy the lovely morning. The memorial is at one end of the Maidan, the Central Park of Calcutta. Just outside the garden gates, sheep, carriage horses and cows all munched their breakfast on the grass (must save in mowing and fertilizer!). I watched the morning fog burn off the grass, and took too many pictures of a large white building. There was, near the back, a statue to Edward, which I thought was kind of funny. I'm fond of the guy (He ate at Beckman PLace, after all) but his statue was so sad compared to his mother's city block.

I was pretty hungry by this point, but I wanted to see St. Paul's Church, an old British curch with lots of those memorial tablets that I enjoyed so much. The Church was also the center of Mother Theresa's diocese, and has come cashe from that. It was quiet, as I got there just as it openned, but right away you could feel the difference between hre and Chenni. Instead of "Died at Ooty" (a hill station and presumably retirement type of place) at a ripe old age, the tablets here were full of "Mudered at Lucknow with his wife and infant son", "Fell while recalling his mutinous troops to order and duty", "Perished after much deprivation at Delhi, mourned by her father, mother and brother". Pretty dark stuff to read every Sunday, especially if you were"Mr. Ram Das, converted from Hindism and a member of this Church for 25 years".

After that, I decided that I really, really needed breakfast. First, I tried to get a bagel at New Market, a covered building that houses just about everything you could ever want to buy, including a Jewish bakery. Sadly, even at 10am they were just openning. I said I'd come back and headed back to Sudder Street, and found a stall on the side of the raod selling egg rolls (that's omelette wrapped in chipatti, pretty much). It was good, really filling, and I went to the Indian Museum, the "wonder House" from Kim, which was the only museum that I told myself I would visit in India (I'm not really I museum person when travelling...I mean, they're all pretty much the same and usually expensive for the entertainment). This one is in a big white columbed building, with a lovely courtyard with fountains and flowers. The exhibits are arranged on two floors around, starting wtih long rooms full of duty fossils in old wood and glass cases, continuing through the anthropology of India (dating from about 1920, but really interesting to see the diversity in this one country), and then to animals, plants, sculptures and art. The animals were desidedly moth eaten, but they made me laught because for every full stuffed body in a case, there were at least 50 heads mounted on the tall walls up to the celing. It looked like Gaston's trophy room. I could just imagine them saying "Yeah, I used to hang in some British guy's smoking room. You got a problem with that?".

The scultures were very interesting, shoing the different styles from different regions of the country (but, again, you have to think "Wow, this would all be so amazing if half of it wasn't in London!"). Halfway through my wanderings, I was stopped by a British man who had "college professor" written all over him. He said "what do you think of this ancient art and it's influece in modern peices". I was totally taken aback and managed a "Oh, I don't know much about art" to which he responded, "well, then what brought you here today?" I honestly answered "Kipling" and he walked away.

I wasn't hungry for lunch, so I stopped into the bakery for a creame filled elcair to make up for their lack of bagals. It was wonderufl, and I munched it as I made my way though the city, just walking without any dierection to see what was out there. I was struck by how busy the street were, and by all of the people heading to many different lives, men in business suits, women carrying laundry on their heads, beggers everywhere. The beggers in Calcutta were particullarly visable, though not as aggressive as I feared. Mostly they stopped you in the tourist area, either just saying "Sister, sister" or asking you "No money, just milk for baby". It s a scam that the Salvation Army guy in Chenni told us about, you buymilk from a vendor for 80 rps (about 4 times too much) then you give it to her, you leave, she sells it back to him for 60. S, he's got 20, she's got 60 and you spent 80. I guess there's nothing wrong with it per se, except if you wouldn't hand her 60 rps than you shouldn't be bothered with this. It's funny, because I find it hard to worry about the things that I worry about when giving money in America (it's not really like they can be working, I don't think that she's going to drink it away) but I still don't like to do it. Mainly, becuase most begger only go after tourists (especially children). And I don't like feeling...picked on, I guess? Anyway

That night I took the metro to the train station, and got on the 9:00 train to NJP. I was, again, seated with a school group, but these were the worst, most obnoxious children I've ever seen. I'm being generous saying children, since they were 20 and 21, but they were loud, disruptive and didn't stop talking until 4am and were up and loud at 6. I had to yell at the, the guy sleeping under me yelled at them, the lady down the car yelled at them, but nothing worked. When I confronted their teacher in the morning he gave me some BS about "Young, and high spirited" and "If we were in your counrty" "If I was in my country, I would have smacked them", I wanted to say. Needless to say, I didn't sleep at all and wasn't in the best spirits in the morning. It was then that the cross-dressers arrived. On every train I've been on, the morning starts with cross-dressing eunichs who stand by your bunk and clap really loudly. This is kind of the same logic as the men who call out from cars, I feel. The "oh, well I wasn't going to give you money but now that you have woken me up at 6am I will!", clearly something is lost in translation. This woman, however, walked over to our booth, looked at me, and streched out her hand. "Is that your natural color?" she said, fingering my hair. I nodded. "It's so lovlely". She walked away. I chased after her and gave her 10 rps. Because, when the nicest words spoken to you in 24 hours were from a eunich begger, you have to reward that. She smiled and gave me a blessing, and I felt a little better.

My good mood continuted when I decided not to take the bus to the wildlife park ( I just couldn't face that much hassle feeling as fragile as I was. Anyone who has seen me without sleep can imagine the wreck taht I was) and instead forked over the 20 bucks for a private car. 3 hours later, after a nap and a luxourious ride through small towns, tea gardens, and wheat fields, we pulled up at the "Tourist Lodge". It looked like it had seen better days, but I was happy to find that my room at a double bed (they didn't have singles) and a TV. Unfortunatly, the TV and power didn't come on till 4pm, so I napped some more until one, when I went to the dining hall for our included lunch (chicken and veg curry with rice and papad, spicery than I've had it before, but good). I went to the resption to ask what I should do next, and tehy said that there was a Jeep tour of the park leaving at 3, and I could join if there was a free seat.

Until 3 I wandered around the neighberhood (not much to see, a little convience store where I bought unless batteries (the didn't even fit inmy camera!)) and a loepard rescue where the leopards were in cages, which was just as sad and unpsetting as you might imagine. I went down to the loading area at 3, to find...a school group (thankfully, not the same one or there would have been blood). There was no seat for me, and I wasn't too upset (given recent events) but one of the guides saw me walking away wondering what to do until I could see what movies were on, and called me over. "Would you bve interseted in a bike tour? We could go though the villiage, see tea garden, an tea factory". How much? "No, nothing...I need the excerize!". He was about my hight and couldn't have wieghted more than 120 pounds. I laughed.

So, for town hours, we biked around throughthe sunset villiage, I got a private tour of the tea garden and factory, we saw women on their way home from work with basket strung accross their foreheads to carry them. The people here look CHinese, while those from Tamil Nadu looked almost African sometimes. The girls were friendly and smiled, and the boys where very shy (I dont htink they knew the English to say "Hello, what's your name!").

We got back around 5pm, had dinner at 7, and arranged an elephant ride of 5:30 the next morning. I watched the middle of "midnight Run", Pretty good De Niro comedy, that cutout midway though, then went to sleep.

At 5am, a knock on my door woke me for tea. Luckily, I had slept in my clothes so I was decent. I had my tea, brushed my teeth, and at 6:00 we drove into the park to meet our elephant. The guide insisted we saw a wild elephant near the gate, but I think it was just an off-duty elephant. There were two German people from the hotel (a mother and son, very nice) and a Sikh from the Indian Army who came with us. We were all in the right mindframe, just enjoying the morning and being lifted high into the air on a giant animal, quiet but companionable. Then, about 20 miuntes in, we saw a rustle in the trees. moveing the elephant forward, we came face to face with a one horned rhino, looking like a left over dinosaur. He wasn't scared of us, basically posed for pictures, until he lo\umbered off into the forest. We saw five rhinos all together, and a sabar deer.

After breakfast back at the hotel, I felt really terrible, but had to get on the bus to get to Darjeeling. It was aweful. I finally was crying because felt so bad, and an old man asked me what was the matter. "I have to use the toilet" I said, guietly, but he didn't hear me so eventually I had to yell it to the whole bus. After that, he was my knight errant, making them stop, showing me wehre the bateroom was in this dingy restaruant, walking me back to the bus, showing me whre the bathroom was at our destination, helping me into a shared Jeep to Darjeeling, telling another man (who had also been on the bus) that he better watch out for me. It was so kind, especially since the man who was in charge of me was able to tell the driver to pull over about half way though the ride, so I could squate by the side of the raod. It wasn't as bad as waking up sick in Trivandrum, but it was close.

The ride up to Darkeeling was lovely, but that will have ot wait for next time. I'll be here until the 2nd, and then at Varanassi the 3rd, so expect to hear from me one of those times.



I was pretty hungry after that, but wanted to visit