Where Dragons Dwell

It's been quite a haul since Agra. Laura and I spent a few (surprising very nice) days in Varanasi, the holy city along the Ganga (it's only polluted in your mind the locals assured us, while we eyed oil slicks and a dead calf floating downstream).

Leaving Varanasi and heading to Darjeeling is where the real adventure begins. Too much to recount, really, but here are the highlights.

- our train was 20 1/2 hours late arriving at the Mugalsarai station; we holed up in a (shockingly clean) cafe and met some fellow travellers headed our way, including a well-travelled Brit named Phil (actually from the Isle of Man) whose family has been in the Kolkatta/Darjeeling area since 1853

- the train was an additional 4 hours late arriving in NJP (station near Darjeeling) on top of the 14-hr ride. Total train time: 40 1/2. We arrived 3 hours after the same train that left the next day

- We've been resting and thoroughly enjoying Darjeeling. The Himalayas, amazing tea, fresh mountain air, friendly people, ski-cabin atmosphere of our hotel. There's a combined Buddhist/Hindu temple in the middle of town here, the only one of its kind in India (or the world, I think). This is an incredibly harmonious, friendly, and cooperative place. Our hotel owner (Tibetan Buddhist, fled the Chinese invasion of Tibet) talks about going to Catholic school as a girl and celebrating Eid (Muslim holiday) with her Muslim neighbors.

- And as India is a land of deep contraditions, there's an active Gorkhaland separatist movement going on at the moment, mostly protests but it's more-or-less confirmed that the town's going on strike on Dec 27th. The Gorkhas want their own state within India. They've been a supressed minority since British times, and things have only gotten worse since the Brits left. Regardless, the politics up here shouldn't affect the tourists -- the people here are very friendly, as described above. The current Gorkha movement is non-violent (unless the police incite them otherwise). According to Phil and local accounts it got bloody during the 80s, but even then it was quite safe for tourists. Phil was here when the GNLF was openly hostile -- guns, home-made bombs, the lot -- and he was cheerfully waved through road barricades, taken out to lunch with GNLF leaders, the works. Just to be safe, though, we'll be leaving town on the 26th just after Christmas in the mountains.

- Now about this Phil character: I don't know what it is about him, but we keep running into him EVERYWHERE. Granted, the town is small. But the rate of coincidence with which we end up at the same restaurants for dinner, bookstores, coffeeshops, breakfast joints, randomly on the street while lost on the back roads ... it is truly uncanny. Way off the charts. There are plenty of other tourists here, but for some reason there's an odd karmic magnetism. "We must have known each other in a past life," he joked.

- R&R time: there's been plenty of it up here in the hills. I've been furiously scribbling away at a novel, rediscovering the feel of pen on paper. Meanwhile Laura's been sorting through her photos. And at night we'll run into friends for dinner (Phil has figured largely into this) and return to our ski lodge hotel, curling around the wood stove with a book before turning in to our warm bed with hot water bottles tucked between the sheets.

There's something curious about this town, inspiring and addictive. I don't want to leave (but then, I didn't want to leave Jaisalmer or Varanasi either). It's certainly a place we'll return to.

Given the escalating tensions between India and Pakistan I wonder if we're headed from the frying pan into the fire. While the Gorkhas may be openly taking to the streets (we've seen two protest marches since arriving in town), at least I feel SAFE here. There are no nuclear weapons involved, and the people are incredibly hospitable. Besides, this place makes a great setting for an Agatha Christie- or Graham Greene-style novel. I'd love to have more time to write about it.

That's the quick update. Our adventures get curiouser and curiouser ...