An Exhausting Day of Rest

[Brendon Ulen]

So if I recall, when last we chatted I had mentioned we were off on our way to ride elephants and what not. Well, John will give you the skinny on that momentarily (unless he types faster or is less long-winded than me, both of which are probable, in which case you'll be reading this second).

 

The last post was from a tiny little town called Dolkola I believe. It's really just a working town right at the intersection of two major roads as you go north through west bengal (of course that's "major" in the Indian standard). Well we didn't go straight from Dolkola to the elephants. Instead, we took an easy day and went to Siliguri. Sil is a sort of leaping off point of a city. It's a major city in its own right but it's also a spring board for travelers to go to places like Darjeeling and other places. We got there after a relaxing 4 hour drive through intensely thick fog that amoung other adventures included us seeing a wreck that had 2 smashed trucks and 2 more trucks on their sides and Toriann traversing the outside of the BlunderBus via the roofrack bars while we were still driving so that she could use her sweatshirt sleeve to wipe the blinding condensation from the windshield so that I could see where I was going while driving. Now that's the sort of dedication it takes to become a full fledged member of the crew and we love her for it! Also, if Toriann's parents somehow managed to find and read this... I am so so sorry. Please don't hunt me down - I mean, she pulled it off right? She's fine!

 

Anyway, we made it to Siliguri by about noon and got a nice hotel room and kicked back. We showered, we (boys) watched a Jackie Chan movie, we (girls) took a nap, we got some food. All good things. Then the girls hit an internet cafe while we wandered around and looked at knockoff watches and procured some real honest made in India wine. We got a white and a red. We'd been talking about trying this for some time but had just never come across it. So John and I went back to the hotel while they finished hitting the cafe and broke that badboy open. Guess what? 2 sips was enough. Maybe I'm not used to the flavors. Maybe I don't drink much wine in general. But for me? 2 sips. Fortunately, I'd been packing a bottle of Bacardi and John a bottle of Jack so we got into that and the good times rolled. The girls rejoined us and we had a good relaxing evening where Heather poured mercilessly strong drinks with absolutely no regard for the facts that we had a hour head start and hadn't eaten dinner. And we love her for it.

 

Anyway, the next day we were supposed to split up with the ladies because they were going to go to Darjeeling and we were worried that was too far out of our way and we wouldn't make Shillong in time. We apologized profusely because we'd claimed we'd get them to Darjeeling in 2 days and then were going to dump them in Siliguri in 3. Fortunately for us, we're freakin' irresistable and they decided to tag along with us for another 2 days (I swear it was all us - the lure of jungles and elephant riding had nothing to do with it).

 

So we set out for Jaldhapara National Park at about 9:30 in the morning after a nice breakfest and in no real hurry to a nice relaxing half day drive to the jungle. We really broke Matty in on mountains too. We went up and up and she just kept on puttering away. What a champion! At one point we stopped to get real close and personal with some monkeys. They were adorable and debatably baboon-like (everyone agreed but John). Once we'd gotten our fill of pictures we asked a nice police officer if we should go straight or cross the bridge. He kindly pointed us onward and away we went heading straight. Fast forward an hour and we were basically north of Darjeeling, the location we were worried about not having time to go to... we were much chagrined. So we flipped it around, rallied behind our cry of Cheese It! and roared back the way we had come. This time we crossed the bridge. We called our contact at the park and told him we'd be late and we rolled in right at 5 pm after a leisurely 8 hour drive. So much for a light day...

 

However, when we got there we did get to see a Rhino licking away at a salt lick out in front of our hotel (which was smack in the middle of the park). That was nice. After some serious confusion over the room arrangements we got settled and hung out in the lodge watching water buffalo and drinking tea with the mercy core team of americans. It was lovely, although I didn't realize how tense I was. Even in such a nice setting I was having a little trouble physically unwinding but eventually eased into it. They also provided dinner and it was quite good (the eggplant was especially good).

 

That should do it for now. John will pick it up with the report on the next day.