Delightful Darjeeling

I've just returned back to flat land, in Siliguri West Bengal, on my way back to Bodh Gaya. Darjeeling, despite the fact that it was freezing and foggy, almost changed my mind about doing this Buddhist pilgrimage. I was seriously debating whether to just forget about the meditation course, and just stay in Darjeeling a few more days, and then from there spend the rest of my week delving deeper into Sikkim, the province even more deeply wedged into the Himilayas, squished between Tibet, Nepal, and Bhutan. Partially I was upset that it was so foggy that I couldn't see Mount Everest. I came all this way hoping to see the Earth's highest point of land, and I couldn't! Even the Everest museum in Darjeeling was closed. What bad luck!

Fortunately, I did really appreciate the ambience of the town. Nepalese, Tibetans, and Bhutanese outnumber Indians there.

When it comes down to it...I really, really love these borderlands that defy America's simplistic ideas of race. In reality, there are no such thing as a White race, Black, Asian, Aboriginal race, and then "mixed race." In fact, everyone is mixed race. I really felt a feel-good warmth in my heart to see an entire community of people who looked half-Hindu, half-Chinese, half-white, half-whatever.

As for my health update, my bald head got sun-burned in Bodh Gaya. For the first time the surface of my head hurt, "this is a strange-feeling headache I've got," I thought to myself, until I touched it and little sheeths of skin snowed down like confetti.