Blogs from Darjeeling, West Bengal, India, Asia - page 3

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Asia » India » West Bengal » Darjeeling October 31st 2012

My feet are starting to feel itchy again. We've only been a few days in Darjeeling but from motorbike trips I'm so used to not staying in one place for more than a couple of nights at a time before getting back on the road. Its beautiful here, but knowing we only have five days, I'm feeling ready to move coming towards the fifth day. Our time at the BMS was happily spent. It was a nice little refuge, an oasis in the city, slightly removed from the crowds and the noise. I will always appreciate that they went out of their way to let us use a room they were wanting to start converting into an office. I think I've got malaria... The road to Siliguri was incredible. I've never experienced anything quite like it. ... read more

Asia » India » West Bengal » Darjeeling October 30th 2012

First, apologies for some of the attrocious spelling in the last post. Its hard to write when you're exhausted, theres no lights in the internet cafe and most of the letters have been worn off the key board. Funnily enough, the 'D' oesn't work so good on this keyboard either so watch out for typos :) Kolkata has been brilliant. So much of what I remember. Visiting the fruit markets by accident while trying to find the Howrah Bridge, the smell of ripe fresh fruit in the sun was fantastic. "Wilson! Hello Wilson!" My shirts and Tshits leave a part of my family tattoo visible and I've frequently been called out to in the crowds. "Hello Wilson, howare you friend?" I've resisted some of the temptation to dress in more local garb and stuck to my ... read more

Asia » India » West Bengal » Darjeeling October 30th 2012

And then I met Edwin A man who, although he had so little, blessed my heart with much. I bumped into him near the BMS after a fruitless search for an internet cafe I thought I remembered seeing around the corner. It started in the usual way: "Excuse me, where are you from Wilson, you are Australian?" I politely corrected him and informed him that New Zealand was a far more beautiful country; Australia was just a desert full of criminals. We spoke for a while, him about many of the other travellers he had me, one who had helped him by giving him a tent they no longer needed (a desert criminal of all people!). He had been unemployed for sometime. It turned out that his employer was involved in a scam and when audited ... read more

Asia » India » West Bengal » Darjeeling June 24th 2012

It was the month of March 2012 when me and my husband planned to make a tour to North Bengal(Darjeeling-Kalimpong-Lava) in summer. We planned everything well in advance, from train tickets to hotels. After a long wait of about 3months we finally set off for our favourite destination on 1st of June 2012. The Darjeeling Mail which leaves Sealdah Station at 10.05pm reached us New Jalpaiguri Station(NJP) the next morning. I was quite pleased to see the easy availability of cab at the station. After a quick bite we took a cab and set off for Darjeeling. Narrow meandering roads reached us Darjeeling at noon that day. We just could not take our eyes off the picturesque view through the window panes of our hotel room. We could not wait to visit the famous Mall at ... read more
At The Mall
Batasia Loop
Kaventers

Asia » India » West Bengal » Darjeeling June 21st 2012

I went for an early morning walk in cloudy overcast weather conditions. It was a shame it was overcast as we were amongst magnificent views. The walk was intriguing . Diary entry ; "There are lots of open displays of religion here. People chanting, carrying beads, kissing markings and crossing themselves, a very spiritual vibe." Plenty of dogs and monkeys everywhere! After a traditional breakfast, including Darjeeliong Tea ( of course) the family went for a walk to "The Tibetan Refugee" museum. The museum displayed information Re the Refugees and their plight and what has forced them to leave their homes in Tibet. There are refugees who still work and live at this centre and we saw them working on craft such as weaving and woodwork. We caught a jeep back into Darj as it was ... read more

Asia » India » West Bengal » Darjeeling June 20th 2012

We departed Kolkata today. Gautam drove us to the airport.Kezia accidentally left her Iphone on the backseat of the car. We had entered the airport and Gautam chased us down to return the Iphone. What a guy! We flew from kolkata to Bagdora which was a very interesting airport. We had to wait an hour for Kezia who was on a later flight, so we set Marco and Nikki playing cards while lou and I were lucky enough to find a cafe that sold cold "Kingfisher" beer. We thoroughly enjoyed these refreshments as the weather was still extremely humid and the airport had only fans. We hired an airconditioned car and driver and commenced our 3 hour drive up the mountains to Darjeeeling. It was a beautiful scenic, mountainous drive but the roads are rugged.We appreciated ... read more
Scenes around Darjeeling
the Windamere
monkeys everywhere

Asia » India » West Bengal » Darjeeling May 23rd 2012

I am so grateful to have had the chance to teach and get to know the monks at Sakya Choepheling Rimbick. They are such kind people and I had so much fun with them. They gave me a nice farewell, almost drowning me in blessing scarves. I have uploaded a lot of photos so everyone can maybe see a bit of what my time was like. I hope they're interesting!... read more
Puja Finale
Rimbick at evening
Senior Class

Asia » India » West Bengal » Darjeeling May 17th 2012

We've been in India two weeks and already had our fair share of ups and downs. It started on a big high when we arrived in Kolkata late in the afternoon and headed directly to the famous Eden Gardens to attempt to buy tickets for the soldout IPL game that evening. It appears scalping tickets is definately illegal, so it took us about an hour to do our first dodgy transaction in India. Tickets secured we got into Eden Gardens to see the game between Kolkata and Pune. Pune's captain was local Kolkata hero Sourav Ganguly, so the crowd was deeply divided. How anyone can like the extremely arrogant Ganguly is beyond me (Tom clearly talking here), so we were certainly cheering for the home team, who got home in a tight finish. Our second day ... read more
Photo 3
Enjoying a cup of tea
Back breaking work at HV Tea Estate

Asia » India » West Bengal » Darjeeling » Rimbick May 7th 2012

Two Fridays ago I arrived back from Darjeeling to Rimbick to learn that the monks were starting a week long Puja on the Sunday so I taught for one day before leaving again to see some of the other volunteers who I hadn't seen for a while. I was so fortunate to be invited by some teachers in Takdah to the opening ceremony of a small monastery. Although the monastery is small the last day of theopening ceremony would've been the biggest gathering of people in this small town in a long time. Hundreds of people turned up to give offerings and recieve blessings from Wangchuk Gurung Gurudev Tulku Rinpoche, a famous buddhist master from Darjeeling and another Rinpoche who I didn't learn the name of. I was glad to partially repay the kindness of my ... read more
Tea Girls
Entrance
Recieving Blessings

Asia » India » West Bengal » Darjeeling » Rimbick April 20th 2012

Makes about 15. Ingredients: 1 or 2 cabbages, 2 or 3 red onions, salt and something similar to salt which is apparently called wiching, oil, 200g of textured vegetable protein balls, bowl of flour, baking powder and 6-10 eggs. 1. Use flour, baking powder (quite a lot) and water to make dough. Knead welll and cover with polythene bag and towel and leave for about 7hrs. 2. About 2hrs before meal, put TVP and boiled water into a covered bowl and leave to soak. Chop cabbage into tiny pieces and then squeeze cabbage mince until it goes all mushy. Then chop onion into tiny pieces and mix with cabbage in a large bowl. 3. When TVP is ready, drain it, mince it and squeeze out all of the water. This is very important. Don't forget to ... read more
Section the Dough
Folding the package
Me and the momos in the upstairs kitchen




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