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Published: February 26th 2009
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Hello,
We're now in North India! Long story short, but after two plane ride, we got from Chennai to Bagdogra (north of west bengal), then a kamikaze taxi ride got us to Siliguri, where we spent the night. Without exaggerating, the taxi ride was one of the worst thing we've done in a long time and we decided never to get into a car again!
So the next day, instead of getting into a shared jeep, we took a bus. We actually took an "elastic bus", as the locals say. They cram so many people into the bus that the bus must actually be "elastic". But we were lucky and we had a seat. We started climbing as soon as we left Siliguri, and 3 hours later, we were in Kurseong, at the altitude of 1500 meters. Kurseong is a fairly small town, on the western slope of the mountain, and surrounded by tea plantations. It's a gorgeous place and we decided to stay two days there, and explore the place. We did a bit of hiking, getting soar legs and enjoying the surroundings of the place. It is cold at night in the hills, and there is a
lot of wind and fog, so it really the low season now, which is nice, we pretty much had the whole place for ourselves.
One evening, there was a candle lit procession going through the main and only street of the town. We though it was a religious thing but it was actually a rally to demand the independence of Ghorkaland from West Bengal. The northern part of West Bengal identifies itself as Ghorkaland, and wants to be an independent state. A guy from the procession greeted us and invited us to join the crowd. He gave us candles and off we were, walking down the street. At the main square, we had to put our candles to the ground. He insisted that we do it ourselves, I think he though it would be a symbol of international help to the movement. Latter, we got some inside scoop from a local: Ghorkaland is currently buying weapons from China and the shit will come down very soon, probably before May. So we are warned...
The fun way of getting from Kurseong to Darjeeling is to take the steam powered "toy train". So we did. It's really the slowest mode
of transportation on earth so people take it for the experience more than to get anywhere. But it's a blast! So we boarded the train, and the thing started to climb up the mountain, half a meter from the cliff, very impressive. The crazy thing is that after 30 minutes of climbing, the train derailed Yes, it derailed!! No car did fall on the side, but we were clearly of the tracks! So we got off, and met 3 British people who were going to Darjeeling as well to spend the week end. They were very well connected as they were doing volunteer work down in Kurseong. A cell phone call later, a jeep came and picked us up, and we were finally on our way to Darjeeling.
Like Kurseong, Darjeeling is on the western slope of the mountain, with amazing views (when weather permitting) and it is perched at 2100 meters. And yes, it is cold at night!!! On a clear day, you can see amazing himalayan views from the city, but so far, we only cough a glimpse of snowy peaks, between the clouds. Still it was very impressive. I've been dreaming of seeing the Himalayas for
as long as I can remmember, probably since I read "Tintin in Tibet" when I was very little, so it's truelly amazing to stat seeing the mountains. We'll be going north into Sikim soon, so we'll get many, many chances to see the Himalayas.
Darjeeling is an amazing place, we've been here a week now, it's really hard to leave this place, it feels great to be here. The ethnicity here is either Nepalese or Tibetan. People are calm, quiet and always kind. It's a shock after the high energy we felt in south India. Also, So far, no man has tried to rub themself on Tara, so she's very happy about that! As for the food, it's a mix of north Indian meals and Tibetan fare, mostly noodle soups and momos (very tasty steamed vegetable dumplings), with sometimes some south Indian stuff, so yes, I still have my dosa for breakfast.
Here in Darjeeling, We mostly do a lot of walking, the hills surrounding the place are amazing, we discovered mountain villages, remote monasteries, were very lucky to attend a chanting ceremony in one of the Buddhist gompa and usually we just pick small roads and see what's
around the bend. Oh yes, we also drink a lot of tea!
It's a whole new India out here and we love it. I apologize for the "prayer flag" fetish that I have developed out here, if you see what I mean...
I hope everybody is well, healthy and happy.
Om..........
Christophe
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