Coming down from Sikkim in stages, we found ourselves in the hill town
of Kalimpong the afternoon of February 28. Tired of sitting in a
moving vehicle, we walked for hours around town. Kalimpong has ritzy
areas up on a ridge, including a golf course for Indian Army officers.
It also has slummy areas, including a small skid row for alcoholics,
and we noticed an obvious, ramshackle brothel or two.

In the lower part of town, there's a market called the Haatbazaar
(I've probably misspelled it) where hundreds of vendors spread out
their merchandise in the open air. Amid the countless sellers of
vegetables and beans - let's not talk about the meat - there are
vendors who stock spices and CTC tea in bulk. A typical price for CTC
tea there, straight from the open paper sack, is 80 rupees ($1.85) a
kg.

We had a chance to get a bit closer to real Tibetan tea at a friendly
little restaurant and hotel called Cloud9. We got into a long
conversation with Binod Yonzone, the owner, about hill country culture
and politics, and he made his approximation of Tibetan tea for us.
Still no barley, as he cheerfully admitted, and green tea rather than
Puerh, but there was plenty of butter and, to my untutored taste, the
right amount of salt: a satisfying, hearty ... broth?

/Lew
---
Lew Perin /
http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.html
BRO wisdom: NO NEED FOR OVER SPEED