Darjeeling, Day 4: Lebong

At 5:30 we are greeted with a decidedly different site from our window: a glimpse of the sun. A blazing orange ball Rises briefly above th clouds befor disappearing into another layer. Soon the sun has transformed into a glowing white ball lighting up the distant mountains like a spotlight.A thick cover of clouds sit below us, but from our vantage point the sky is blue; however, things can change--clear view of the distant mountains can become obscured in an instant by a mist of clouds that appear out of nowhere.

The car-and-motorcycle free half mile path that runs from our hotel to the town square offers an unobstructed view of the distant Himalayas. Small stalls selling scarves and hats and trinkets are set up along the last couple of hundred yards. They are manned by hearty Tibetans who appear at seven in the morning to set up their makeshift spaces and stoically remain there until darkness descends. We stroll the path and enjoy this meteorological transformation.

After breakfast, we decide to take a walk and head to what the guidebook says is a nearby Buddhist monastery. It was supposed to be a simple walk: Five minutes from the central square,mine LP guidebook said, a book I generally speaking regard on such matters with canonical reverence. But I have noticed a tendency in India, a propensity for locals to greatly underestimate the amount of time it takes to reach a destination. This happened our first night in India, when the owner of the guesthouse at which we were staying informed us it was a 15 minute walk to a certain restaurant, and it turned to be a 15 minute cab ride. This has happened more than a couple of times since so I should not have been surprised that our 5 minute walk from the square became more like 25 minutes.

At the bottom we were greeted by an old man reminding us to take off our shoes. The only thing novel about the temple were the painted murals on the inside wall depicting the life of the Buddha. After our visit Jane decided she wanted to try to reach a village even further below. With no discernible path to get there she proceeded by stopping random locals and pointing to the collection of buildings she wished to visit. Ultimate,h she learned the name of the town--Lebong--and after an hour or so of descending we actually reached the place. Having reached our long sought after destination, we were in the position of the proverbial dog that caught the car it was chasing: what next? My main concern during our descent--that we would have to walk back up--was allayed when we saw a taxi. Relief turned to joy when I viewed a fruit stand. We had been unable to track down any fresh fruit so far in Darjeeling and so loaded up down here. With no particular reason to stay in Lebong, we grabbed a shared taxi after a stroll through the town. It was not cheap, but well worth the price of the adventure of exploring the area on our own.