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Published: January 17th 2010
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Jitters about India
My husband and I are not really seasoned travelers and I am pretty sure that this fact makes us an oddity on a website like this. I was the one who wanted to travel to India. Like many big trips, there is something that a person can't quite describe that pulls them to start the journey, and this was the case with me. In South Africa we have an annual Cape Town book fair which supports writers from all over the world, who are invited to come to Cape Town to meet their readers. One particular year, the writer was Kiran Desai, an author, originally from India, who wrote so beautifully about the Himalayas. I had the opportunity to attend one of her book readings and was immediately spellbound.
It is a funny thing traveling to India. My experience was that months before the time I was so excited about the trip and read everything that I could lay my hands on, however, as the journey time grew closer, I became more and more frightened that I had made a big mistake. This feeling stayed with me right up until we reached the first hotel in Darjeeling, more than 25 hours after we left South Africa. Reassurance that the whole trip was not a big mistake was not to be found in our fellow travelers, one of whom was a young Indian woman from Canada who told me that were it not for having to visit her family, she would never come to India. She said that with all the medicine a traveler had to carry to prevent illness, it felt like a stay in a hospital rather than a holiday. This made me feel all the more frightened and resentful at the same time, that she didn't just keep her opinion to herself.
Watching the Indian landscape from the plane, the thing that strikes one is the fact that the country is crisscrossed with rivers. The importance of rivers to Indian people, becomes more meaningful when you see this.
Darjeeling
To get to Darjeeling we landed in Calcutta and transferred from the International to the domestic terminal on foot. We had a four hour layover and then boarded a flight to Bagdogra. On this flight, we saw the Himalayas peaking through the tops of the clouds. We were then met at the airport by Penjo and Prem from Clubside Tours and Travels, who turned out to be the most fantastic guides (http://www.clubside.in). We drove up the mountainside from Bagdogra to Darjeeling, climbing, climbing, climbing all the time. It was school holidays and a religious holiday and therefore there were lots of children on the roads. As we drove, children from the villages lay red stockings across the street to stop the cars. We were intrigued to learn that the cars are stopped for donations for the God of knowledge to be used for school books. As we drove higher and higher, it became darker and the air cooler. I recall how small all the houses and shops on the side of the road seemed. We got out of our car at one point to see the toy train coming around the bend with its headlights shining through the mist. Where we stopped, I remember the little restaurant that we stood next to to have our photos taken, was all lit up inside and we were so cold. As we drove on further we saw people, all wrapped up in warm clothes sitting outside their homes. The homes were small, wooden structures, painted blue and other colours, built on the mountain's edge with the most fantastic views. Views that would be reserved for only the wealthiest people in South Africa. Every now and then as we drove, I caught a glimpse into a house and through their back windows onto fantastic misty mountains views. When we eventually arrived in the town, it was dark and the car's lights caught the sides of the grey buildings, creating a kind of tunnel. We drove through small roads and the car eventually dipped down and turned sharply into a driveway belonging to the Hotel Mayfair. As we got out of the car into the crisp air, and walked up the flower pot lined terracotta pathway, we saw the reception area, all lit up and warm. On reception we received a scarf made from white, sheer fabric. As Penjo chatted to the receptionist and arranged our booking in, Glenn and I sat and had cardamom flavoured biscuits with sweet, black Darjeeling tea.
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