An Indian Adventure

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Well I've had my Indian introduction. And luckily it was a slow easy one. The bus ride from Kathmandu to Kakaoibhitta at the border only took 15 hours, despite the 3 hours it took us to leave the Kathmandu Valley. I was actually crossing the border painlessly, as the only person in line, by 8 am. An hour jeep ride brought us to Siligory and Sid's parents lovely garden house. Siligory isn't much of a city, it is really a road junction, but their house is a little paradise on earth where I spent two days getting fed, reading in the garden, and catching up on my television habit. It was like normal life! I have to admit I kind of miss having a place of my own to just chill in.

I decided I should be a tourist though, and set off for Darjeeling on the 11th. It is only a 3 hour jeep ride up the hill. Usually I don't get car sick, but being sqished in the back on sideways seats and the windy road from the plain to the hills made me feel a bit ill. What an amazing town though. It is completely on the side of these himilayan hills with tea plantations and buddhist temples all hanging off cliffs together. I hiked all over the town just enjoying the peacefullness of the place. It is so green, even though it was cold and mistly. I went to the zoological park and saw a tiger and snow lepords. I think people took as many pictures of me as the tigers. Darjeeling is on a much smaller scale than most places I have been so far. It seems like a town trapped in time. The police still drive around in Ambassador Classics and tea plantations still seem to operate as they have for hundreds of years. It was a nice break and a good quiet introduction to India.

It seems that the strikes are following me, as Gorkahland declared one for the 14th, so all the tourists exited on the 13th. Which was good timing for me. I had a train ticket for Calcutta (Kolkata) that night. I shared a van down the mountian with a group of people I had met the night before. The driver, Bob, had an eight year old boy who loved his transformers. He talked to me about them for an hour straight in pretty good but mostly mumbled English. After an afternoon with Sid and family I borded my first India train. Sleeper class is not that bad. Sure the beds are small and the occasional wafts of toilet smell can knock you out, but you have a bed and can catch a few hours of sleep.

I arrived in Calcutta sometime before 7am and managed to find the pre paid taxi booth. Of course they wouldn't actually take my money, but told me to go with this drives and pay him 100 rupees. After getting in the taxi he promtly said give me 200. I said no and after we arrived I threw him 100 and got out. He was not very happy, but China has perfected my ability to ignore people yelling and grabbing me. After a brief rest I set out to discover Calcutta. I kind of knew where I was, but not really. So in my typical style with no aim in mind I walked around just looking for a few hours. Cal is a city once filled with grandure, but that still has this vibrating energy. There are lots of colonial buildings and more of the ambassador classics. And lots of people who will tell you about how clean and beautiful a city it was under the Raj. Sure there are beggars and piles of garbage, but I have yet to be in a city without those. The old city where I have walked around seems quite vibrant with both the old and the new together. The Victoria Memorial itself is an amazing building that reminds me of a mosoulem. White and set in a huge park the gallery inside is full of 18thy century paintings of India. I saw so many places I want to go, but I wonder how much they have changed.

I decided I was not quite ready for a big city, so tonight I am off to Puri a 9.5 hour train ride down the coast to a beach town in Orissa. There is a major Hindu temple there and of course the beach. I am going to rest my weary bones in another small town.

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