Hey everybody!
Another long one for you, hope you all are well!
Forewarning about this last week: I can’t even tell you. But I’m going to try.
I got to spend the last week being a true world traveler. I rode by plane, train, and automobile to the north of India, living out of my backpack. We made no plans other than our flight to Kolkata (Calcutta) and our train ride to Siliguri, the little town that you get to before you take a long drive through the mountains to Darjeeling. So, here’s what i did this week, Big Picture:
1. We spent a night in Calcutta
2. Darjeeling itself was sweet.
3. The trek in the Himalayas
4. White water rafting in the foothills
5. To top it all off, i was major league sick.
So…
1. The first leg of our trip was to Mother Teresa’s stomping grounds and what used to be the Indian center of the British Empire: Calcutta. What a rock-your-socks-off experience. It was easy to see how Britain influenced Calcutta. The English architecture was everywhere, someplaces were still beautiful and intricate, others were derelict and crumbling or just disintigrating with all the city stress that was being put on them. I felt so surprisingly comfortable in Calcutta. It’s so different from Bangalore, The way the city is built is so much more western. The streets are wider and the main buildings seem to have been built in a specific and orderly fashion. It’s so weird how quickly i associate that with home. Bangalore is just a true urban jungle. The buildings and shops seem like they are set up everywhere with abandon. One and two level concrete blocks stacked crammed next to each other with power lines running this way and that all over the place. Now, I’m sure i would have reacted differently had i arrived in Calcutta first, but Bangalore and Calcutta are so shockingly different.
So, even though Calcutta has got all this english architecture, it is 100% an Indian city. There are so many people, it made my head spin. you can’t walk don’t the street after 9 pm without stepping over 10 people sleeping on the sidewalk. Calcutta didn’t have anything close to the same global influence that Bangalore does, and it makes a huge difference for how the city opperates and how people live. It was so awesome to see that contrast, and i’ll get to see more when we go to Dehli in a few weeks!
But, we stayed at an awesome hotel recommended by lonely planet that was very reasonable and had spacious rooms and a little terrace lounge right off of the room with some sweet views. And a great view from the roof! We celebrated a festival that involved people dancing in the streets and riding in the beds of the trucks around the city, and just waltzed around the town. It was an awesome time.
2. Next we took a train to Siliguri where we took a taxi to Darjeeling. We wound for 3 hours up into the mountains in this little jeep passing through village after village. It was fun to see the culture change as you drove up the mountain. You could see a difference every few kilometers.
Darjeeling used to be a very rustic place where people would go on a retreat into the mountains to get away from it all. But it has been over-thrown by tourism. It’s such a sweet place built into the mountains, the charm of the quaint place that once was still echoes in some areas of Darjeeling, but we spent a lot of time in shops that sold all of the same knick knacks, in fast food restaurants and traffic, traffic, noisy traffic. It was very funny, we did not expect that.
There are some gorgeous places in Darjeeling still. I went to a Buddhist monastery which was one of the most beautiful places i have ever seen. It was off the beaten track tucked into the side of the hill where you couldn’t hear the noise of taxis and all you could see were little huts, tea plantations and Kanchanjunga in the distance. SO cool. And of course, any glass of tea was out of this world.
A cool thing that comes with tourism are some of the COOLEST tourists in the world. The couple nights we spent in Darjeeling, we spent in “Joey’s Pub” where we sat and swapped stories with three ladies from france, three men from france, a german architect, an American, a man from China, a canadian genius/model, and a New Zealander. And of course, we met a whole bunch more people out and about. Many of these people were studying, like us, one was teaching frence, but all of the rest of them had just quit their jobs so they could travel the world. It was so incredible to swap stories with all of these people from all over the world. It was my favorite part of the trip.
3. This is the one that you will have to look at pictures for. I’m tellin ya, there is nothing like it. We took an 11 kilo trek along the India and Nepal border led by our awesome guide Summit. Of course his name is Summit, too cool. We had lunch at a man’s house who fed us Nepali soup that was basically a super quality ramen, and tea that he grew himself. I took a break to go play games with the children in the villiage. we ran around the temple in the mist of the clouds that were covering everything in silver. It was so so so sweet.
We spent the night at a ledge on the Nepal side of the trail (!!!) up at the top of our hike. We got to watch sunset and wakeup early for sunrise. It was FREEZING. I was wearing everything i brought plus a sweater i bought in darjeeling and a hat and mittens and i still couldn’t feel my limbs. But the sight was incredible. We got to see a misty view of Everest in the morning. Is that nuts or what?? EVEREST!! Right in front of us was Kanchanjunga, the 3rd highest peak in the world, which is considered sacred by all of the locals, so no one is allowed to climb it. They call it “Sleeping Buddha”. Pretty cool i thought.
So we had an awesome time up in the mountains, the link to the pictures is at the bottom, so you’ll have to check them out. Add it to the list of thing’s i’ll tell my grandkids.
4. The next day was our White water rafting trip down the Tista river. This was just pure fun, after being in the frigid mountains, the river valley was sunny and so toasty. The ice cold water was uber chilly but uber refreshing! Our guides were all highly experienced, which was good because the safety instruction session before the raft ride was about 1/12 the length it would be in the states : )
We loved it. The rapids were huge, and the water was a bright aqua. The beaches alongside the river were full of silver sand that sparkled in the sunlight. I don’t know what was in it, but even when we dried out our sandals the next day, it was like we spilled glitter all over them! We did some cool dune jumping and just had a regular old blast.
5. The final news of the trip is that i was ill for most of it. Big time. I had a real hard time with the altitude changes from darjeeling to the Himalayas, and from the raft ride back up to Darjeeling. It made eating a bit of a pain, so i just avoided it mostly, haha! But otherwise, i hung in there! As you can tell, it held me back from having any fun at all : ) I just loved it, and even though it made some days very difficult, it was very easy to get distracted by the awesome people i was with and my incredible surroundings. I missed you all! Being sick made me think of home. I don’t know exactly what that says about home, but i was definitely thinking about it! I love living the adventures, but there are definitely times that I would like to be home. But that’s what’s great about it! I’m traveling the world now, and i’ll be home at some point! Here’s to more adventures!
In other news, we spent a lot of time talking about our friend Jon’s idea for an Indian fast food restaurant back in the states. Keep an eye out for “Sri Jonji’s” which has come to be the name of the establishment. Coming to a city near you!
Yep, so Jon, Jordan, Kim, Catherine, Kirk, Caitlin, Pat and I had an incredible trip to darjeeling. I’m leaving tomorrow early again for an entire month! I’ll do my best to try and keep you updated as internet will be hard to come by sometimes. Now i get to really try out my travelin skills.
Love you lots, gang. Hope your adventure is treating you well, too! Don’t forget t look at the pictures!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=132172&id=557146020&l=a89209fbad
Cheers
Ben
Ben Batz's Blog 