Day 3, Kalimpong and Kitam

On the way to Kalimpong we stopped at Lopchyu, home of the lollipops that Kalimpong has claimed, and tea estate that kept the name. The chai we had was only average. We were in a taxi of ten passengers. A jeep with two passengers snuggled next to the driver, four in sitting behind him and another four huddled in a row after them. SNT (Sikkim Nationalized Transport) has buses, but few people use them. We did take a journey in one and to my surprise found it more comfortable. The only unpleasant thing that happened was the depressing call from work.

Ten minutes after Lopchyu to my great dismay I realized the camera was still at the tea stall - I had taken it off to try on and admire myself in Janice's new jacket. Amidst much confusion the taxi driver stopped, hailed a cab going in the other direction, Janice got on with her phone in hand and promised to keep in touch until we met again in Kalimpong.

Despite repeated attempts at contact, Janice couldn't be reached. I finally sent an SMS and found that she was more than ok. She got the camera back and was on her way to Kalimpong having hitched a ride with a kind, long-haired biker businessman headed there for a meeting.

Kalimpong was wetter and mistier than Darjeeling. A drunk coolie kept trying to take my bag and then began following me. I used the umbrella to shoo him away and then as shelter from the rain. We stayed only long enough to find that we paid too much for the shopping at Darjeeling - Kalimpong (part of the old silk route) has a wholesale bazaar where everything costs much less. And though we reached on a Thursday (the weekly market holiday) we found a couple of joints open and shopped! And ordered another round of momos at Gomphus Lodge (recommended by a friend). Not as good as Penang's, but we were hungry.

It turns out that the view from Kalimpong, Durpin Dara in particular, is stunning. We weren't to know. We left on the 2 o'clock taxi to Namchi and got off 12km before the town at Kitam, a village in south Sikkim, where Remuna's sister Reena stays. At the Sikkim border, bird flu paranoia meant we had to get off and walk on disinfectant while the taxi tyres got sprayed. And half an hour later the driver stopped the car. I assumed it was nature calling, but he had actually heard a couple of peacocks and pointed them out to us. Kitam has been recently declared a bird sanctuary.