Chapter 37 - Pelling, India

The Himilayas! Pretty damn cool. The views from Pelling are way better than in Darjeeling. But first you have to get there. It took five hours crammed into this jeep with a nice Indian family.

This kid had to hang onto the back of the jeep. The roads were so bumpy I kept looking back to see if he fell off.

Jeep trouble. We pushed it for a while until the engine started.

The views are incredible in Sikkim.

So here's Pelling. A one road town, with nothing but hotels and a few restaurants. Very quiet, which was a nice reprieve from my traveling.

The best views are early in the morning before the clouds come in.

The main activity in Pelling is "trekking". It's just a fancy way of saying "walking".Sikkim's greatest asset are the people. They are so warm and friendly. I know that's a cliche, but for Sikkim it is really noticable. Imagine the nicest person that you know. Now imagine an isolated little country in the mountains full of those people. The kids are friendly. And not in a "gimme gimme" sort of way. They wave to passing cars and eagerly want to talk to travelers. Good people.

This school looked so nice I wanted to fill out an application.
Teabone followed me here.

This is Lake Keochaperri. Its a holy Buddhist lake. Very serene. Those are Tibetan prayer flags.

I had a nice time trekking around Pelling for about a week. I was bracing myself for the return trip back to the heat of "real" India, but I took one last walk up to the Pemayantse Monastery. It was seriously one of the best decisions of my life.

I was just sitting on a bench in front of the monastery and some kids walked up and started the usual "where are you from" game of 20 questions. There was also this Canadian girl with them who mentioned that she was teaching at their school. I had already bought my jeep ticket back to Darjeeling, but I said "screw it, I'm a teacher, lets check out this school." The rest is in the blog I made for the school. After you read it you'll see why I had such a good time.

www.dpcacademy.blogspot.com

The next blog entry will be the first annual Chuck's World Journal Blog-A-Thon to raise money for the DPC Academy children. I know I can count on you rich Americans to respond with the generosity that makes us the coolest country on earth. Stay tuned (and get out your checkbooks) unless you want me to call you out as a greedy orphan hater. I know how big most of your televisions are. Plus, you'll have a chance to earn good karma from the convenience of home.

-Thanks for Reading-