Darjeeling & Random

Hey everyone,

We're here in Darjeeling, having pulled out all our warm weather gear and we're looking oh so fashionable in it! :) I'm finally using the toque I brought, my rainjacket, fleece, still wearing the Kurta but also with my yoga pants, socks and the hiking shoes I've worn once while in India (to make room in my pack while taking a train). And we’ve have had rain 2 days in a row now! On the way up to Darjeeling yesterday, and then again this afternoon it's rained. Such a contrast from the rest of our month being in the mid 30's and now we're in a place where they built us a fire in the fireplace in our room to stay warm last night. First impressions? Love it. It's such a great place....and it's a place to relax in. It seems less hectic and well, less like everyone is out for your money than some other places we've been. So we've just had a great day wandering around and taking it easy and are not on our guard (nice break).

So since we last posted...few things. One was that I have been mildly stressed about trains just because there is potential for stuff to get stolen, we're women and overnight trains are not known to be the safest. When we're meeting locals who are chaining their bags to the bunks, it lets you know what the reality is. So we had originally anticipated being able to train straight from Varanasi up to Darjeeling and we were waiting on our tickets while in Varanasi. Our wonderful travel agents (in Pune) weren't able to get them for us so booked us on a train to Kolkata and then were anticipating booking us on a train to Darjeeling from there. Because of our limited time, we opted for a flight from Kolkata up to Darjeeling so we could maximize our time. So we were prepared for a 24+ hour travel day, leaving Varanasi (one 14 hour night train, one 5 hour airport wait , one 1 hour flight and one 3 hour taxi/jeep ride to Darjeeling). We walked into the Varanasi train station after our exhausting morning (see Deb's post re Varanasi ghats - lots of brain activity going on in both our heads), anticipating our usual mode of being on our guard. And the best thing happened. There were tourist police. We walked in and because we didn't see our train listed on the board, we asked an official looking guy and he directed us over to a side wall to sit with some other travellers (about 10 of us in all). While this isn't what we've usually been doing (heading to where the foreigners tend to bunch together), we did this time. And after a few minutes we started to notice a pattern. If any guy was standing too close and just staring, the police would yell at them and they'd move off to somewhere further away. If any one approached us begging, the police would send them on their way. And they kept a solid 10 foot wall of empty floor around us as a barrier..by the end of the time we were there, there were probably 30 + travellers, all in this one area...all grouped by the police based on which train we were on. When our train finally arrived, they let us know which platform to go to. And then found us when it changed and let us know to go to a different platform. Overall though, they were such a welcome surprise so that we could relax a bit, prior to our 14 hour train ride. On which we shared a compartment with a sweet grandma, her grandson, a guy Deb dubbed as an Indian George Kostanza (his name was Nitin - I called him Nimbit, thinking of a timbit), this sketch looking priest all dressed in orange with crazy wild grey hair and 2 other guys who joined us later in the night. Anyways - nitin was helpful and was good at explaining different things happening on the train and helped the pass the time.

Side note - I'm having a terrible time with names. For some reason, I can't remember them AT ALL. I hear it, it can be spelled and I can even repeat it a few times but my brain doesn't catch on. So Amin from Goa, I called him Abu. Jugdish, a guy from Udaipur, I called him Jughead. Sandeep from Pune I called Sanjeev...I messed up Deb's middle name the other night. So my brain seems to be fried or something. :)

Also - an observation I've made being here...foreigners frequently are wearing pants we've dubbed as TAS pants (take a .... pants) as that's what they look like. However I've only noticed the foreigners wearing them and haven't seen any local women from any region wearing these yet which makes me think that it's a misconception that it's "clothing to fit in with". The biggest thing I've noticed is that locals prefer clothing that covers your butt.

Another observation - the men here are really affectionate towards each other. They hold hands, will drape around the others shoulders while walking down the street, and will even hold pinky fingers. It's so cute! :) But I still haven't gotten used to it. :)

Also - I ate a green chili pepper in Varanasi, thinking it was a green bean and had a delayed reaction in realizing what it was. But then...oh my gosh...I was frantically trying to find a napkin to spit it out in as I had chewed seeds and all. It took my breath away for a bit but overall I survived. But yikes....don't want to do that again. UUGH.

Right...back on track. the trip up here. We got in, met Kristin and found our taxi driver who was going to take us up to Darjeeling. His music selection was hilarious. There was some Bon Jovi, Sting, and random R&B songs but my two favourites...Enrique Eglesias (not that I should admit to this but it brought me back to my highschool days - and I knew the words still! yikes!) and the ultimate? Celine Dion - Titanic. So there's this cool little dude (looked like he was 18), driving his slightly suped up car, blasting Celine with us the in the car. It was a memorable ride.

We're staying in this place called the Swiss hotel and it's a chalet. I love it. I've quite decided like being taken care of. :) The guy brings us tea in the morning to our room, lights the fire for us. It's fantastic. We have a view, we just haven't been able to see it yet as there’s a cloud cover but the room is really quaint and we feel like we’re in a chalet or something, all bundled up in quilts and sitting by a fire, drinking tea. :)

We visited a tea plantation this morning and wandered all around the grounds, then went to the Happy Valley café and this woman made us 5 second tea. From there we wandered into lower Darjeeling and then took this long long cobblestone road uphill to get us back to the main area. We’ve booked a rafting trip for tomorrow as well as a trip to see Tiger Hill in the am. So we’ll be getting up at 4am tomorrow with hopes of seeing the impressive mountain view we came here for. :)

Right now? We’re headed back to our cozy chalet to eat some tasty dinner and try to get to sleep early.

mel