Blogs from Darjeeling, West Bengal, India, Asia - page 17

We left Kathmandu the day before yesterday, and started our long and arduous journey to Darjeeling. Our bus left at "4:00" (read: 5:45 Indian time) and stopped at every single little place for the first few hours. Getting out of the Kathmandu Valley alone took two hours (it's really not that big). Once it got dark, we didn't stop at as many places, but then again it's hard to stop when you are winding through the mountains at death defying speeds. Not that we were worried or anything... Yet again, David didn't fit on the bus (Heidi was even a little squished) so it was an interesting night of banging knees and sleeping half in the aisle. Sleep was a little hard to come by, surprise surprise. We finally arrived in Kakarvitta which is the border ... read more

After 23 hours on bus and jeep we finally got to Darjeeling from Katmandhu. The first day the town was totally obliterated by cloud. We drank tea. The second day there was a crippling national strike and absolutely nothing was open. It also rained. We played scrabble. Today we finally managed to get bus tickets to leave this wonderful place. We are going to Calcutta, where there are cyclone warnings.... read more

2550 years ago, Prince Siddhartha Gautama became enlightened under a Bodhi tree in Bodhgaya and became the Buddha... After that he went to Sarnath and gave his first sermon on how to free yourself from suffering... Buddhism was born... Well not that I feel the need to free myself from suffering, because I don't think I suffer that much, but following in the footsteps of the Buddha, I went to Sarnath and Bodhgaya to be enlightened myself... As both villages have a lot of Buddhist monks from around the world and even more Buddhist tourists, they don't feel much like India... And because they are small they are like a breath of fresh air after the hustle and bustle of Varanasi and the other big cities I was in... So I sat under the Bodhi tree ... read more

India - Delhi, Varanasi, Bodhgaya, Darjeeling Left Delhi for Varanasi, train was delayed by 7 hours - something we have become acustomed to! Varanasi was cool, nice hotel, did a boat trip along the Ganges - saw the famous ghats including the 2 cremation ghats and we actually saw a body being burned right in front of us - pretty morbid! Saw some other sights along the way - people bathing and even drinking ganges water and knowing the Ganges is filled with all kinds of sewage and loads of dead bodies, its pretty interesting to see!! From Varanasi we headed to Bodhgaya via Gaya and including another 2 very delayed train journeys. Sleeper trains by the way are very comfy and are just about big enough for me sleep in which surprised me, given the ... read more

7 mars: On quitte Kurseong pour se rendre à Darjeeling. C’est un 32 kilomètres de dangereuse route qu’on fera en 1 heure et demie. La visibilité est nulle et les garde-fous sont rares. Je serre les dents à chaque jeep qu’on croise sur le chemin accroché à la montagne. La priorité ici, ce n’est certainement pas la sécurité. On croise une parade bouddhiste alors que notre jeep entre dans un patelin perdu. Il y a des moines orange et puis d’autres magenta qui soufflent dans de longues trompettes en étain. Je fais un réel touriste de moi-même et je me lance dans les photos. Clic et Re-Clic. Oups. Malaise. C’est un cortège funèbre. On arrive enfin à Darjeeling. Je suis heureux d’y arriver en un seul morceau. La ville est populeuse, polluée, touristique et incroyablement serrée. ... read more