Ghum

Yesterday, we went to Ghum, which is about 8km from Darjeeling and about 100m higher in elevation. But first, we had to go to the train station to buy our train tickets back to Siliguri/NJP. We will be taking the Darjeeling Himalayan Railroad back down. It is apparently faster downhill, but hopefully not too much faster. I'm not really interested in being on a runaway train. I had to do some emails for a client, so we didn't get to the station until 10AM. There were about 25 customers ahead of us, so it took 2 1/2 hours. India is the only country I've visited where the wait to buy tickets might be longer than the train ride itself. I had to break for lunch during the wait. And I made the mistake of ordering boiled eggs. They take much longer at higher elevations because water boils at a lower temperature. I also took some pictures around there, as the view is spectacular (it's the Himalayas). After the ticket purchase, we went to Ghum.

Tamding was actually born in Ghum, and we tried to find his parents' old house. I had originally thought that Tamding might still have some relatives around this area, but that is not the case. Tamding's father had some colleagues here, but they have apparently moved away. So we never found the house. But it was an interesting trip nonetheless.

Being the highest point around here, Ghum is almost always in the clouds. So it has a weird feel to it. We visited a few Tibetan temples in Ghum, which were interesting. I can't even count how many Buddhist temples I've been to in my travels, but they are always unique, and therefore interesting. Unforunately, when we went to the oldest temple in this area, my camera batteries died. I tried the batteries I had bought in Siliguri, but they proved to be ineffective. I can't remember what brand they were, but they obviously did not have the required 1.3 volts to power the camera.

I'm guessing Ghum has a population of about 3,000, but it's always hard to guess population in developing countries. I made a point of noting the people wearing American sports clothing. I saw people wearing Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsbugh Steelers, Kansas City Chiefs, and Ohio State Buckeyes clothing. And, of course, plenty of Yankees gear. But that's hardly worth mentioning. There is simply no place in the world where you will not see Yankees gear. I suspect that the majority of Yankees gear is sold outside of the United States. And almost none of
those who buy it even know what baseball is. Go figure.