Once we left Puri we returned by sleeper train to Kolkata in transit to Darjeeling. We've only been in the AC sleeper class once on the trains and have since taken the basic sleeper cars. We've had a better chance of meeting and talking to Indian people that way and really enjoy it. We took an overnight train from Kolkata to New Jaipalguri. From there it was a bouncy 3 hour ride in the back of a jeep up the mountain to Darjeeling. The cold air was such a nice change and we mostly wandered the quaint streets, drank tea, and [View Full Entry]

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After the trek we returned to Darjeeling for a few days... mine were spent in bed and I had finally succumbed to the cursed stomach ilness. All better and off to Kolkata to fly south! We flew from Kolkata to Bengalore and spent a few nights in the city. We met some fun backpackers and had a night out on the town with them... picture a nice bar with business men and then us, dirty backpackers all dancing and having a good time. The next day we let Bengalore and took a 3 hour bus to Mysore - a place best [View Full Entry]

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I am going to step back just a sec and recap Puri. Nice litter fisher village/town. We went to Konark on a bus crammed with about 300 Indians (inside and on top) which is normal. We saw the Sun temple covered in all its Kama Sutra wonder. Lots of people ask to have their picture taken with us as we are dripping with sweat - I like to turn it around India style on them and say 30 rupees? ( Just kidding Vardan) We also saw a big celebration for Diwali while we were there complete with nightly firework bombs for [View Full Entry]

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Ok so let me do a bit of fast forwarding since keeping up with this things is hard.... We had a great time in Puri Returned to Kolkata to travel north to Darjeeling Took a night train to New Jaipalguri Took a jeep 3 hours up the mountain to Darjeeling Met a good travel friend along the way (omri) Ate a bunch in Darjeeling, took a freezing cold bucket shower, and decided to do a trek Did a 5 day trek along the Nepal border in the Singalila National Park - amazing, beautiful, absolute leg killer, definitely froze my ass off [View Full Entry]

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Ok I am finally doing this after being gone from Eugene since October 7th and being in India since October 14th... let be honest though did you expect anything different? Me either :) I am in Darjeeling now but I am going to back peddle and re-cap a bit. I am working on a sticky key board with slow internet so bare with me. October 14th Kolkata, India After flying 13 hours from San Francisco to Taiwan, then 3 hours to Bangkok and finally 2 to Kolkata we made it! We immediately made some travel friends off the plane. Anna and [View Full Entry]

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10/15/09 1st Full Day in Kolkata, India The second we stepped out of our guesthouse we immediately ran into our four friends from the plane...I'm thinking fate or karma - either way it worked out perfectly since Anna and I had no clue how backpacking or India in general worked. We made our way along crappy narrow roads complete with mass amounts of exhaust (constantly being emitted by the mass of honking traffic), begging mothers and children (usually you can tell the scams from a mile away so the feeling of guilt really isn't as bad as you may think), garbage [View Full Entry]

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10/16/09 2nd Full Day in Kolkata, India So now that we have the black lung from pollution I can at least say I have managed to get used to the traffic here. Its like parting the sea but amazingly you really can cross the road and not die... they really will put on the brakes (even if its only an inch away) I think it has to do with their belief in Karma :) Another amazing adjustment is the lack of peeing. Dehydration? Definitely. Bad but good... you see once you leave your guesthouse you are on your own to find [View Full Entry]

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10/17/09 Day 3 in Kolkata, India (Get me out of here) Ok ok ok.... I am trying to be calm and cosmic and all that jazz but honestly get me the hell out of this city. So we did it, it cost us a bit of money 900 rupees ( $18 ) to book a sleeper train to the small town of Puri South of Kolkata along the coast. We spent the day in Kolkata by avoiding Kolkata... eating.... internet.... eating.... train station! We were first class AC sleep compartment so basically its the best but lets just say its still [View Full Entry]

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