Blogs from West Bengal, India, Asia - page 67

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Asia » India » West Bengal » Kolkata December 4th 2006

Så er Kolkata indtaget. Eller rettere, byen har indtaget mig. For med dens umiskendelige tilhørsforhold til det tidligere britiske herredømme, hvor den i en lang årrække fungerede som central metropol og hovedstad, har den imponeret mig med dens særegne charme og åbenhjertige indbyggere. Brede boulevarder og kilometerlange, frodige parker dominerer bybilledet - førstnævnte spækket med de karakteristiske gule, evigt-dyttende Ambassador-taxier og sidstnævnte med unge som gamle indere, der nyder et par timer væk fra storbylivets kaos. Ligeledes har gensynet med fortove været en mindre kulturrevolution for mig, om end de hist og her trænger til at blive lappet, og at man ikke sjældent støder på nedfaldne ledninger. Men det er i småtingsafdelingen sammenlignet med hvad jeg har set i Varanasi, Delhi, Chennai og Jaipur. Og nu vi er ved det, synes jeg at Varanasi fortjener et ... read more
Baade ved Ganges
Mand der saelger noedder ved Ganges
Dreng med lys til at sende ud paa Ganges

Asia » India » West Bengal » Darjeeling December 3rd 2006

We made the decision to try and get out of Kolkata for a few days and make it up to the Tea plantation town of Darjeeling. The train was not the dramatic experience that we had imagined. The station platform (at 7pm) was filled with more beggers than usual, people shouted "Cha/Coffee" (Tea/coffee) and a very determined kid of about 8 years spent the best part of twenty minutes attempting to sell us snacks from his collection. Having heared of the 'light fingured gentlemen' who populate Indian train stations, we were more cautious than ever with our bags. When we got on the train we found that as it was an AC class (the more expensive), it filled with english speaking middle class people rather than the poor people from the platform. One couple in particular ... read more
Travel Sam
Tea fields
Darjeeling Clocktower

Asia » India » West Bengal » Kolkata November 29th 2006

The readers of this blog should be glad that I am writing it after my first two days in India rather than my first. I'll tell the whole story. After a much needed three hous sleep on the plane, I was awoken by our landing. we were taken off the plane on a ladder car, and irected to the main terminal buiding. This consisted of a small room the size of an average house with no carpet and dirty-white tile interior walls. We quewed in the customs line and were sent to the baggage collection room, about half the size of the last one, which included only two conveyer-belts for the entire airport. As we left (at almost 1.30am) there were only a handful of taxi drivers around, i told one the name of our reserved ... read more
Victoria Memorial
Traffic
Typical street

Asia » India » West Bengal » Darjeeling November 25th 2006

After our epic trekking journey (see previous blog) we needed a few days of recovery and relaxation. We've gtten used to the cool weather. During the day it's about 15C and at night about 5C - just perfect to sit back in a cafe sipping hot Darjeeling tea and read a book or do Suduko. The sun has finally come out and today we got a good view of the Himalayans from the city of Darjeeling and made it worth the wait. If only we had this weather a few days earlier for our trek..... We made a trip to the zoo (which was quite impressive for India's standards) and saw tigers, leopard cats (a striking resembalance to Reggie in size and colour), red pandas and numerous species of deer. One night we had a few ... read more
Red Panda at the Zoo
More Mountains
Smoking a beedie

Asia » India » West Bengal » Mirik November 23rd 2006

We've abandoned the sea and sun and arrived in Darjeeling where supposedly Novembers clear skies and warm temperatures make it the perfect time to visit. Yet, the skies are quite misty and it's damn cold. But besides the weather, like a Canadian autumn, it's quite nice here. We've come to Darjeeling for adventure and adventure we found. We embarked on the Singalila Ridge Trek: 96km through the mountains. All on foot, all on our own. Day One: Blissfully Oblivious Early in the morning we caught a ride to the town of Manebhanjang, 26 km away from Darjeeling. This was the starting point for our trip and on our first day we planned to travel 11 km uphill and then 9 km down hill. We huffed and puffed along a stone road walking along ridges and passing ... read more
Shack in the Mountains
Tibetian Prayer Flags
Path through village Day 1

Asia » India » West Bengal » Kolkata November 20th 2006

Hi all, Thanks so, so much for all the updates. I really appreciate it.. Well, where do I start??!!! The last few weeks have been quite hectic that I feel as if months have passed.. I have been working very hard and also getting unexpected news from Ireland didn't help matters.. Back to the 25th of October when I arrived in Darjeeling.. The train was 10.5 hrs night journey so got bit of sleep. When we got off the train it was very warm, and I was wondering WHAT 'cold' people were talking about... However, we were 4 hours from the Mountains.. Constant up hill climb in a jeep with 2 other couples (one of the couples were in my carriage on train - a Medical Scientist / hobby:Coin collecting (there for Conference) and his wife. ... read more

Asia » India » West Bengal » Kolkata November 16th 2006

Day 87 (about!) We rocked up in Kolkata from cold, colonial, wealthy and hilly Darjeeling, expecting to hit pretty hard by the heat, indianess, poverty and flat landscape but we couldn't have been more wrong! Kolkata was wealthy compared to Delhi and Varanasi (however we are now in Bangalore, which changes everything), it was a comfortable heat and it was very colonial. It was however pretty flat! For most of the time we were proper tourists in a big city. We did lots of museums (the Victoria Memorial was an incredible cross between St Pauls Cathedral and the Taj Mahal), walked in some nice parks and took a river boat ride on the Hooghly. This was definitely one of the highlights since not only was the sunset over the city beautiful, it was also packed out ... read more
The Hooghly and Bridge!
The Cricket - its an institution out here...

Asia » India » West Bengal » Darjeeling November 16th 2006

day 82-ish On arrival in Darjeeling (by jeep in the misty night) our sights were set on a good cup of tea. So far we have had just chai (v sweet milky tea, drank in shot-sized quantities) in place of a cuppa. First though, we thought we'd better learn a bit about what they grow around here. You can see tea growing on the hills for miles. We trotted off to Happy Valley Tea Plantation, where we learnt that the finest tea one can buy is called Super Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe Number One. Explanation (as we understood it from our enthusiastic, but not so comprehensible guide): Super Fine - it's the best Tippy - the tip of the shoot, rather than the leaves is used Golden - the colour of the tea brewed ... read more
i'm a little teapot
kanchendzonga at dawn
everest

Asia » India » West Bengal » Darjeeling October 25th 2006

Hello again, Sorry the last blog ended abruptly. The internet kiosk was closing and I had to leave ASAP (i.e., they shut off the electricity and were closing the metal doors!). Anyway, after an exciting couple days in Delhi and Agra, we thought it best to make our way directly to the hill station of Darjeeling, bypassing the religious center of Varanasi (which was good, because diwali festival is in full swing and Varanasi is THE place to be......which means all modes of transport too and through it are clogged). So after a couple hour flight we arrived in the small city of Siliguri. It's not a bad place at all. The surrounding country side is drapped with tea and (rice?) fields and water is everywhere. And the best part is that there are pineapple vendors ... read more




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