Sikkim for beginners

Ten days in… time for a small description of this tiny Buddhist Himalayan state.  After my Indian style - welcome back - in Delhi airport, I entered the state in a bit of a cautious way.  Avoiding eye-contact with men and watching my step wherever I went.  But I soon realized this state was something else…  It’s clean, it’s green (as in posters all over the place – declaring people to not waste water and litter) and developed… People are dressed well, I have hardly seen any beggars…  And their central car-free promenade is filled with coffeeshops and mobile stores as well as an applestore (!).  I see lots of women and young girls on the streets, which I didn’t see that much in other Indian states, even within the police-officers and military…  I soon started smiling and practicing Nepali (which is their main language) to everyone I met, which got me lots of giggles, but nothing like a very deep conversation ;)  The Sikkimese seem a bit shy, or either not that bothered… I am practically left alone, unless I actively approach people.  As there are no other foreigners here, that makes it a bit of a lonely experience, but at the same time also very unique… I feel like I’ve entered a bit of an undiscovered world.   Today I browsed the 4 level local market and bought some organic (which is state policy) broccoli, carrots, tumarin, yak-cheese (which tastes like it sounds in Nepali – Churpi) and dried ginger (which turned out to be dried churpi, and I haven’t dared to taste yet) all in Nepali!  So I guess the remoteness of it all, does improve my language skills! The coolest thing about this place is the mixed ethnic profile though.  Many people walk around in the traditional garbs of their tribe, of which there are about 50, if I understood correctly…  Faces vary from very Chinese looking (Tibetan or Bhutan) Bhutia’s,  A bit more south-east Asian Birmese looking (Lepcha’s) who are the original Sikkimese,  Nepali’s and very Indian looking people and off course the monks.  I mean, everybody mixes and intermarries.  As does their cuisine, mjam!  Dinner is my daily party here and I try to vary between everything on offer! It’s hard work but someone has to do it you know? In short, this place is crazy hybrid.  Tradition goes hand in hand with Iphones and monks are as much present as the military…

As there’s not a lot of distraction (apart from the 20 hours a day 7 day puja ceremony 2 streets down my hotel) I made a flying start for my research.  I met 4 local ‘experts’ from NGO’s and community activist groups and interviewed each of them for about an hour. Together with my local supervisor, who turns out to be a great help, we selected some appropriate research sites.  After spending 3 days almost completely indoors transcribing and coding all my gathered information I was desperate for a Friday night drink in a hip local bar (one of the few).  I got adopted by a dragoman tourist group who were visiting Gangtok for a day and with 10 other people and some Indians in a big cloud of mist and an overactive stroboscope I danced the night away – until 22:30…  Because it’s still India and I still had a 20 minute taxiride home, to go.  Of course I made the fatal mistake, or rather the calculated risk, of choosing a private taxi in front of the bar, instead of walking the dark, deserted streets in search of a shared cab.  The driver drove me to my hotel, but started to chat me up, putting his hand on my leg and tried to drive me into a dark corner close to my hotel when we got there.  Thank god I managed to get out before he managed to do so.  I bit shaken up, I reached my hotel.  Only to find the owner had closed everything down.  After banging the fence for 20 minutes with a piece of metal and calling their phone, 3 guys passed and helped me to get into my hotel (after I had been sent away from the next door hotel for not being able to register without my passport).  When my hotel-door finally opened, one of the 3 guys quickly rushed in ‘to make sure I would reach my room’.  The boy who let me in was gone and the hotel completely dark. When I found the guy on the stairs halfway up to my room I tried to thank him and send him away.  Of course he then tried to kiss me and I had to push him off.  I tried to be all authorative and composed when I told him to get out, and apparently it worked because he started walking down.  As soon as he turned the corner, I sprinted to my room and locked myself in with my heart racing!  Apparently I am in India after all….  Mom, dad, don’t worry… I’ve learnt my lesson – no more nightly ventures for me when I live in the outskirts ;) Also, nothing happened in the end, so don’t worry, I am fine.

In order to regain my bruised mojo (and appreciation of Sikkim) I decided to visit a (a heavily military guarded?!) Buddhist monastery the next day.  Rumtek monastery, where they were in the 4th day of their annual 7 day puja.  A ceremony that requires almost non-stop chanting and ends with a ceremonial dance.  Even though this place is one of Sikkim’s tourist hotspot, I had the backseat of the ceremony all to myself and a French Buddhist pilgrim who is joining the complete 7 days and ‘Sammy’, an Indian dentist, who had lived in the US for ten years and has now been living in the monastery for 4 months as their doctor, after having a spiritual awakening as she called it.  You’ve got to love the randomness of that!  The ceremony itself was enchanting, as the monks sing in their lowest voices and then blow their long horns, slam the gongs and their cymbals every once in a while.  The youngest monks were all half asleep, which was the cutest thing ever. But some of the older –maybe more important- ones could also hardly keep up.  In the 2 hours that I sat there, I watched one of their centrepieces struggle, lose it, give up and fall asleep mid-chant.  That, and the mars-bar offerings to the (I think) Kali statues (with lots of skulls) in the back of the monastery in combination with a spiritual loop around the complex and 100 apologies from my hotel manager, were all I needed to become Zen again after my Friday night events.

Now, as I am waiting for some emails, in order to arrange a translator and a gatekeeper for my research sites, I have decided I can do that a bit closer to my site as well… After 10 days I’ve grown a bit tired of Gangtok…  So tomorrow I am moving up North, in order to observe the site a bit.  God knows, what I’ll find there, because even my local guidebook doesn’t mention much about it.  Today I stocked up; Chart sized paper for my maps and a dongel for internet (which is how everybody else here apparently deals with crappy wifi).  I’ll try to keep posting, but I’ll have to see how that works out… In the meantime I’ve uploaded some pictures from Gangtok, my Tsomgo lake trip and the Rumtek monastery, enjoy.