Day 129: The Quiet Fog of Yuksom
Trip Start
Feb 12, 2011
1
125
144
Trip End
Nov 19, 2011
Where I stayed
Yuksom, Sikkim, India
Monday, June 20, 2011
Our days are happily filled with writing, reading and tea. I was lucky to find a few magazines, a bit out of date, but an intriguing peak into Indian culture. The magazines included Talk Sikkim, a local magazine about the region, India Today (A cross between Newsweek and People Magazine), and the Indian versions of GQ, Men’s Health, and Cosmo. India has such an extreme contrast between its wealthy and it’s poor, with the upper middle class fascinated with fame and consumption perhaps more than back home. My favorite article was about the future of technology in India with a picture of an engineer holding up an iPhone:
"Don’t imagine a box. You must think out of. Imagine there is no box. I would like to draw in three dimensions and make technology affordable for the masses."
How about imagining a ditch and a shovel because the last thing your people needs is technology, they need fresh water, a functional sanitary sewer system and some decent roads, so I suggest you start digging!
Unfortunately, the genie is out of the bottle and all of this 'wonderful’ technology we’ve created is in high-demand in the east and the people are sacrificing their basic needs to acquire it. They’ll have a powerful 4G cell phone network in India before they'll have a reliable power grid. All of this technology seems to be a distraction from building a sustainable infrastructure. Of course this article was sandwiched between an article about India’s recent acquisition of several international oil properties and an ad for its national coal company (the largest in the world). It won’t be long before China and India out-consume us. Note: Take a look at a map and notice what country lies between The Caspian Sea and India...
As the only guests, it’s a bit awkward in the dining room where we take our breakfast and our dinner, the young waiter kind enough to knock on our door with a menu at about 7pm each evening. The food is surprisingly good, but sadly they are out of most things on the menu, including the mysterious He-Man 9000 beer which I’m dying to try as I’m afraid it’s only available in Sikkim.
Erica spent the first day in bed as it was her turn to deal with some unknown food borne illness, likely brought on by her cockiness about being immune and not getting sick since Bali. In reality, both of us have compromised our immune systems by traveling at such a fast pace, and with a dramatic change in diet, both of us have been losing weight (both fat and muscle) as indicated by how loose our pants are. However, it seems we both have regained a healthy appetite and with over a week enjoying some rest in the cool climate of Darjeeling and Sikkim we seem to be getting our mental energy back.
For a country of 1.2 Billion people we have found an incredible calm and as night falls, the only excitement comes from a few barking dogs and a cow off in the distance. The sun has just set and a thick fog is settling in this little valley between the mountains, a precursor to the coming rains. We should sleep well tonight.
