Blogs from Darjeeling, West Bengal, India, Asia - page 18

11th January 2007, Varanasi After a late start and some delicious cheesecake, Andrew and I took possibly the bumpiest auto-rickshaw ride ever to the fort of the Benares (Varanasi) Royal Family. While the castle itself does not architecturally rival any of the others we have seen, it does have an interesting museum of cars, weaponry, ivory carving and paintings which belonged to the royal family. After some negotiating with our rickshaw driver, we then went to the Benares Hindu University, a large and prestigious university with beautiful buildings and gardens. In particular we visited the magnificent on-campus Shiva temple, and the 18th-century Sanskrit University. Afterwards we also visited the Sri Durga Temple in Varanasi, mainly because I just adore monkeys and I had heard that there were over 100 monkeys residing there. Unfortunately I didn't see ... read more

Yesterday evening I was waiting in the lounge outside my room for a while and reading my lonely planet to figure out where I was going to go when another American wandered into the hotel. He had just arrived by jeep and so he and I met up with another kid that he had taken the jeep up to Darjeeling with. He and I are quite alike, so weve had some interesting discussions. Were both really into photography so we have had a lot of interesting discussions centering around photographic things. I convinced him to come with me this morning to Tiger Hill so that I would have someone to go with with the carrot of being able to use my tripod with his beast of a medium format camera. So today I awoke at 3 ... read more

pratele, kamaradi, znami posledni prispevek, nase cesta je u konce. Po krasnem tydnu v horach nas cekal narocnzy presun pres uzemí Nepalu do Darjeelingu.Listek na autobus jsme ziskali primo na nadrazi a za vybornou cenu.Mela nas cekat asi 14hod. cesta, ale nakonec jsme se trepali asi 18hod.Nejaci nespokojeni obcane nepalu nam napred prohodili prednim sklem autobusu sutr a pak traktory zahradili cestu dokud se nedohodnou s vladou. Hotel v Katharbyte byl jako z hororu, postel pripominala prkno svou mekosti, zaludecni stavy predchozich ucastniku byli hodne citit a pod okny vecer stekali psy a rano troubily autobusy.Me se vyplatila poprve moskytyjera, kluky navic komari bavili celou noc.Jesterka na stene dokreslovala ubohost mista.V 6hod jsme byli na znackach pred hotelem a po prekroceni hranice jsme vzali jeep do Dargellingu.Po ceste jsme koupili listek na vlak a 80km taxikem ... read more

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

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