Blogs from West Bengal, India, Asia - page 68

The last few days have been pure hell. Pure. Hell. I mentioned in the first email from darjeeling about how cold it is there. Even though technically it is not THAT cold, the fact that nowhere has any sort of heat to duck into makes it even more so. We checked out one hotel because they advertised wood burning stoves, but when we asked about them the manager shrugged and said, "we only use them when it's cold." I mentioned also in the last email that i had a temperature and some body aches, which i kept monitered. I noticed that i kept feeling more and more fatigued, more and more achy, and climbing darjeeling's steep hills in either direction was becoming increasingly more difficult. My temperature managed to rise and drop from the low hundreds ... read more

Hi All, I hope you are all well. Thanks so much for all the lovely mails but my sincerest apologies that I have not replied to all yet.. Notime.. Before I start with the next update I want to apologise for such detailed emails and being a perfectionist. If it was me who made a donation to someone I would want to know Exactly how it was used and for what purposes. You trusted me with the donations and I owe it to you all to explain how and where itis spent.. So far, I have withdrawn RS.15000 .... (56 Rupees is €1 ... so you can work outcosts!!) On 29 Sept I treated 10 of the members to a train ride at the Carnival and they loved it - 135 Rupees On 17 Oct I ... read more

When i was young, i used to venture every now and again to papaw's garage. It was a tall barn that had high ceilings and an office loft. I don't know what sort of business he conducted there, but i remember it seeming very exotic at my age. My little eyes would peer over the countless tools sprawled about, and the mysterious leaks and oil pools on the ground. There was a smell of sweaty metal, and everything in the garage, including his hands, were covered in a black film. Calcutta is kind of like that. I wish i could explain how eerily dreamlike yet forcibly conscious this place is. It feels like a living catacomb. The architecture is strikingly colonial, but ghostlike. In jungle settings, buildings left from civilization are eventually reclaimed by the earth, ... read more

Darjeeling....what a place. Over 2,000 metres above sea level, perched on the side of a verdant mountain, with snake path streets and steep stairs going in every direction and the most amazing views of the nearby Himalayan mountain range. I've been here for almost a week now and it's been the perfect place to recharge the batteries, with it's cooler climate, laid-back atmosphere and of course breath-taking scenery. It's a weird experience looking down at clouds rather than up at them. Some mornings here an almost etheral mist lingers on the streets like dry ice at a cheesy soft-rock concert. No rickshaws, no taxis - the only mode of transport here is four-wheel drive jeeps, tiny custom-built buses, or by foot. There is a narrow-gauge steam driven railway up here but I can walk faster than ... read more

Yesterday morning caught a share jeep from Kalimpong to Siliguri, for the start of the home stretch. We left Kalimpong at about 12.30 for what was scheduled to be a two and a half hour drive. The Darjeeling Mail wasn't scheduled to leave Siliguri til 8pm, so I'd figured I got about five hours to play with, and was congratulating myself on having got through two weeks without any major mishaps when we turned the corner to find ourselves at the wrong end of a line of stationery vehicles; jeeps, trucks, buses. Apparently, the road had caved in, and was being fixed, and there was no saying how long it would take. I was quite glad that I'd opted to take an earlier jeep than originally planned. Earlier on in the holiday, I'd got talking to ... read more