Post #6 - Darjeeling & Bangkok (Part 1)

Namaste. 

We'll have to come up with a new greeting for our next entry.  We're in Bangkok now and leaving late tomorrow for a week of well deserved R&R on the beaches of Ko Phangan and Ko Tao. 

However, for the moment we go back to India, which did not let us go so easily.  Our last stop on the subcontinent was Darjeeling, a preferred hill station of the British Raj during the brutal summers in Calcutta.  We got off our ridiculous train ride and took a beautiful 3 hour jeep up 6,850 feet to our hotel.  Again these roads are not for the faint of heart but it was exhilarating and simply gorgeous.  Once we reached Darjeeling, however, there was heavy cloud cover and you couldn't see much of the surrounding area.  It was also cold.  February is the down season up in the mountains because of this, and we had to prepare ourselves for the possibility of not seeing the Himalayas.  There was also a serious strike looming, one which we only found out about half way up the mountain.  We'll get to more of that in a minute.  We walked all over Darjeeling our first full day, but again it was overcast so the setting was not ideal.  We both enjoyed the city in spite of this, and of all the places we've been, Darjeeling is the one we would definitely come back to (along with Udaipur and Rathambore NP).  It feels a world apart from "the plains" as locals call it.  The population is ethnically Tibetan and Nepali, but I guess most understand Hindi do to the government run education.  The people are also beautiful.  Anyway, as it was getting dark it started to hail, so we knew the only thing left to do in Darjeeling at that moment was to go to a bar.  There weren't many open due to the strike, but we found a hole in the wall right across the street from our hotel.  This ended up being one of our best experiences with locals the entire month.  Drinking in the aptly named Bar was a journalist, an English teacher and World Wildlife Federation worker.  We watched the hail come down and then sparked a two hour conversation on a wide range of topics, from the political situation to Aryans (thought to have originated from India) and ancient history to the god of rain.  The strike was about local sovereignty.  The people feel under represented by the huge state of West Bengal, which stretches all the way down to Calcutta.  Darjeeling brings in big tourist dollars, but doesn't get any benefits from it.  Also as we mentioned earlier the people are not really Indian, and are very different physically and culturally.  The new state would be called Gorkhaland.  Three protesters were killed after the West Bengal police opened up on the crowd a week before we arrived.  This happened far away from Darjeeling, in the local capital of Siliguri.  Darjeeling remains a safe place, but we think the authorities (and therefore papers) try to hurt the area by saying it's unsafe to travel.  Luckily for us the strike officially ended the day we got there and started again the day after we left.  Moving away from politics, we noticed the hail had turned to rain.  The local barmen prayed with us to the god of rain, Varuna, as it is often clear the morning after a heavy rain.  It worked.  We woke up early and were dumbfounded by what we saw.  We were told our hotel had the best views in town, but we couldn't tell until that moment.  The world's third highest point, on top of Mount Kanchenjunga (27,400 feet), was staring us in the face.  It was fantastic.  Like we said we would have liked Darjeeling even if we didn't see this breathtaking view, but that's really what we came to see.  We highly recommend going to the Himalayas if you get the chance.  Darjeeling is nice too because you can drink the "champagne of tea" while you take them in. 

We set off back down the mountain for our last Indian overnight train to Calcutta, where we caught a three hour flight to Bangkok.  The only problem was we caught the 1:30am flight (the next day) instead of the 12:20pm flight we had booked previously.  Supposedly this line was "always" on time, but when we woke up at 6am on the train our berth neighbor told us we were delayed three hours.  Of course the train ahead of us derailed and we got to Calcutta over five hours late.  6 and a half hours is not enough time to give yourself in this country to get from the main train station to the airport.  The ticket agent was not helpful and seemed delighted to inform us we needed to book a new reservation.  We lost $175 each in the ordeal.  Not the end of the world but still frustrating when we were so excited to reach Bangkok.  We got a little stir crazy waiting for our flight but we did make it to Bangkok. 

From the moment we touched down we knew we were on what seemed to be a different planet.  The airport was modern, and they had proper highways (with lanes and everything!).  We got to our guest house exhausted at 7am, and the staff quickly got a room ready and let us sleep.  We're only being charged for two nights instead of the original three had we made it 12 hours earlier.  Our guest house, Sri Ayutthaya, is amazing.  It's $15 a night but everything a backpacker could ever wish for.  After walking a while yesterday and seeing the New Orleans-esque Khao San Road, we just lounged around and fully revelled in the fact we were in Thailand.  Today we did the central attractions, such as Wat Pho, Wat Arun and the Grand Palace, all of which are impressive in their own right.  We also spent some time cruising the river and eating a cheap dinner from the food stalls of Chinatown.  We have another full day tomorrow, and the weekend market just north of us sounds enticing.

We're not sure how interesting the next blog will be as we'll literally be sitting on a beach everyday.  This could prove very interesting, however, as we welcome our first visitor (Fletcher) to the fray.  For anyone who knows Fletch, you know what we mean.  

That's all for now, we'll write again in a week's time. 

Ciao,

S&P