While staying at Karmi Farm, we went on two walks of the area and had a lot of down time. I learned to play karob, a popular Nepalese game that is similar in nature to billiards, but doesn't require cues.
This is a remote area of India, the road conditions are poor and the nearest hospital is a 3 to 4 hour walk away. Even then, that hospital is often under-staffed and regularly has problems sourcing medical supplies. Because of these problems, the Karmi Farm clinic was set up to run as a first-stop medical centre for the local people, most of whom are subsistence farmers, eking out a meagre living from the land. With help from friends in the UK, the clinic started up in September 2001. Donations came from friends and guests staying at the farm with volunteer doctors and nurses coming out from the UK. The clinic today frequently deals with work-related injuries and accidents such as machete cuts, as well as providing treatment for common conditions like scabies, diarrhoea, and conjunctivitis. At the time of our visit, the clinic was still operating out of this single rented room. Construction is almost complete right next door, where Karmi Farm has purchased the property. The clinic will operate out of two rooms, while two others will be rented to generate income. The clinic coordinator and his family will live above the clinic.
While staying at Karmi Farm, we went on two walks of the area and had a lot of down time. I learned to play karob, a popular Nepalese game that is similar in nature to billiards, but doesn't require cues.
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We had another morning to enjoy Darjeeling. We arrived at Karmi Farm, a tea plantation located in a remote rural area approximately 50 kilometres from Darjeeling (but a two hour drive), in time for afternoon tea, pakora, and loaf-cake. Karmi Farm was originally known as Karmi Estate and is the home of the Pulger-Frame family, who have been associated with the area for over 200 years. Ronald Frame was a Scottish tea planter who came to this area in 1950 and met local Deki Pulger, marrying her 10 years later. Ronald managed a tea estate in the area in Darjeeling until 1967, bringing up his young family there - but then the family left India, returning for family holidays over the years. Today Ronald's son Andrew has returned to Karmi, offering travellers the opportunity to visit the farm and gain insight into the lives of the hill farmers who live here and in the surrounding area.
Situated on a high ridge and surrounded by terraces of rice, tea, quinine and fruit trees, Darjeeling is a collection of villages linked by steps and lanes so steep that they appear to almost be built on top of each other. The cool climate and slow pace of life here are an abrupt contrast to the rest of India. It's a pleasant place to explore, with monasteries, tea plantations, Tibetan craft shops, and markets. Happy Valley Tea Estate Himalayan Mountaineering Institute Stars of the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoo: red panda & snow leopard Mahakal Temple Tibetan Refugee Centre Japanese Peace Pagoda
After spending the night on the train, we took jeeps the final 90 kilometres due to the narrow, steep and winding roads of the area. Darjeeling is a town that is really more a collection of villages situated on a high ridge, linked by a series of steps and winding lanes and surrounded by rice and tea terraces. The town of Kurseong en route The yellow-roofed Himalayan Tibet Museum Arriving in Darjeeling after a three hour, high speed, very windy drive to a much higher altitude with a significant drop in temperature, I felt like my body just shut down. I suffered a truly "splitting" headache for the first time (it really felt like my head was being split into two halves - upper and lower). I vomited, skipped dinner, and went to bed very early to sweat things out with a high fever.
An interesting relic of the colonial era is the Victoria Memorial - a beautiful domed white marble edifice set in tranquil gardens and built to commemorate Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee. Lisa and I completed a long walking circuit from our hotel in order to see some of Kolkata's major sites. Most importantly, we paid homage to Saint Mother Teresa at the Sisters of Charity Mother House, the mission where she lived, did most of her work, and is now buried. We visited the South Park Street Cemetery and walked all of Park Street.
We spent much of today on a train getting to India's largest city, Kolkata. Kolkata was originally a British settlement, built by the East India Company in the 17th century during their trading and colonising expansion along the coast of Bengal - it also became the capital of the British colonial government until 1911 when this was moved to Delhi.
Upon arrival at the train station, we waited over an hour for a cab to take us over the Howrah Bridge (the world's 6th longest cantilever bridge), past Eden Park, India's largest cricket stadium, by the Shaheed Minar, and onto the Niharika Hotel (so relieved that it is nice, clean, and air-conditioned since Kolkata poses a malarial risk). Lisa began her day with a cycle ride through rice paddies and rural hamlets on her way to Raghurajpur. I took a short car ride to meet her. Raghurajpur is an artisan village full of unique crafts and artwork. In the afternoon we had a guided tour of the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Konark Sun Temple, elaborately built by the Eastern Ganga Dynasty to honor the Hindu sun deity Surya. The 13th-century temple is shaped like a colossal chariot with elaborately carved stone wheels.
On our first full day in Puri, we took a drive back to visit Chilika Lake, Asia's largest lagoon and home to an incredible abundance of birdlife. We explored the lake by boat and saw dolphins. We had a walking tour through local villages near the lake and then ate grilled prawns , fish, and a brownie outdoors. The local kids were amused and happy when I joined them swinging from a banyan tree; they were ecstatic at the hilarity of me falling when my vine broke. It was nice to return to a vodka and freshly squeezed orange juice outside our rooftop hotel room.
Today our tour of the Odisha tribal areas came to an end as we drove through the countryside to the small town of Puri, one of the holiest pilgrimage places in India. Puri also has a wonderful long sandy beach. We explored the old pilgrim route by cycle-rickshaw, taking in an ashram, a Hindu monastery, a palm leaf manuscript library, and seeing awesome Jagannath temple, one of the four most sacred Hindu pilgrimage sites in India. Puri is one of the oldest cities in the eastern part of India and an important destination for Hindu pilgrims - it is considered by Hindus
to be one of the holiest places in India and is the eastern point on the revered Char Dham circuit of pilgrimage sites (along with Rameswaram in the south, Dwarka in the west, and Badrinath in the north). It is considered highly sacred to complete the Char Dham circuit, and the centrepiece of this pigrimage in Puri is the huge Jagannath Temple, an enormous complex which is home to more than 5000 priests and aides. Unfortunately, only Hindus are permitted in the temple, so we watched the sunset over Jagannath from the Raghunandan Library's rooftop. On the way to Gopalpur, we stopped to learn about the practice of burying rice for free storage and preservation until the monsoon season. Once in Gopalpur, we wandered around the coastal town not only to see it, but to avoid our disgusting Mermaid Hotel room filled with mosquitoes. We walked along the beach, then back through some residential streets. We encountered a wedding party leaving the temple.
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