Chennai, Mamallapuram and Kanyakumari

Grateful to swap the overnight train for a flight we arrived 2 hours later from Kolkata to Chennai airport.  A modern city and the fourth largest in India, we were glad to finally be in southern India, much as we have loved the North, it has been a non stop journey so far from city to city and we are both looking forward to slowing down a bit now.  Nicola is sick, probably from exhaustion and we headed straight for the hotel where we both crashed out and did not move until the next evening, we were both feeling very lethargic and totally wiped out!!  Glad they had movie channels and we enjoyed a very lazy and well needed day in bed.  In the evening we emerged to go and mingle and try out a bar as I was in the mood for a G&T, and I had been detoxing for a month now.  We ventured a few doors away from our hotel, to one a few doors down, advertising a bar and cocktails etc, looked like a good place to start, until that is we walked inside.  It was very busy, with not a woman in sight, only men!  You could have heard a pin drop as we walked in, all heads turned to look, and I could almost feel the tumbleweed roll past as the waiter hurried over and ushered us through to the next bar, which in all honesty brought on the same reaction.  We hurried to the bar and grabbed the only 2 seats available and ordered our drinks, only to find out they do not have tonic water!!!!  We ordered a beer and cocktail and sat munching on all the popcorn they seemed to be plying us with.  As we eventually left, I asked the barman if woman were allowed in here, he said not really!!  Oh well not sure why they did not just tell us that!  Too embarrassed I guess!  We were laughing all the way back to our hotel!  A totally surreal experience of our first bar in India!!

Nicola was still not feeling great the next day as we boarded the bus for Mamallapuram, but the journey was just 2 hours and we arrived without incident.  Mal as the backpacker community calls it, is a small fishing village, which attracts tourists due to the ancient relics, temples and carvings which are to be found there.  Each one has a story to tell and portrays life in early India as some of these are thousands of years old.  The skill and craftsmanship that went into these works of art, many of which had been carved from a single rock, is truly magnificent.  The time, effort and manpower needed to create this alone is mind boggling, and that it was built thousands of years ago with the simplest of tools.  Kind of reminded me a bit of how I would imagine relics in Egypt to look.

We enjoyed a few days here wandering around and generally just chilling out.  A very relaxing, friendly place, where we were made to feel right at home, and before long it seemed everyone knew who we were, where we had been and what we had been doing!  Could not get away with anything here, but we are so glad we took the time to visit!  A very special place!

After 3 days in Mal we took the bus back to Chennai to get the overnight train to the southernmost point of India, which is Kanyakumari or Cape Comorin as it is also known.  This is where the 3 seas meet, the Indian ocean, the Arabian sea and the bay of Bengal.  The sea is pretty rough here with strong undercurrents but a pretty fishing village all the same.  It seems quite popular with the Indian tourists, and we spent the late afternoon on the beach people watching and waiting for the sun to go down.  So much was going on all around, women in their colourful sari's and men and boys playing in the sea, candy floss, popcorn, horse riding, stalls selling seashells in abundance, you could even get your name carved on them.  It was a real holiday atmosphere.  People genuinely happy and having fun enjoying time with their friends and family, while the skies turned to pink and the waves crashed on the shore dragging laughing, screaming people back with them, a moment of carefree living, and a real joy to watch and be a part of!

There was not really much more to see here at Kanyakumari so we only stayed 1 night and moved onto Kovalem, in Kerala, which was a 3 hour bus journey, (with Nicola at the wheel ha ha!) where we could finally don our bikinis and hit the beach for some serious tanning time.

 

Kolkata

The overnight train pulled into Kolkata early saturday morning and we departed to go in search of a hotel.  Aafreen had been recommended to us by Rob and Emma so we tried there first, relieved to be told they had a room available!  We settled in and had the most needed shower ever and then went exploring the city.  It was not at all what we expected and we were pleasantly surprised at how quiet it was.  I am not sure if that is because the festival (Durga Puja) has just finished and everyone has left for vacation or if this is normal, but there is a relaxed vibe and no one is harassing you like in most other cities we have visited.  The city itself seemed a lot more modern and was really quite pretty with all the parks around.  We started at the Victoria Memorial which is a building and grounds dedicated to Queen Victoria and houses some fine art and history of the british in India in a museum inside.

Outside of gates we caught the filming of a movie which was attracting a bit of a crowd, with a couple sitting in a horse-drawn carriage.  The horses looked like they could do with a good meal, as do many of them here!!!  We then got our permission slip needed for the Marble Palace which we are visiting tomorrow, and took a walk down Park Street in search of the cemetery where many British were laid to rest in the 1700 -1800s, mainly there in India as families of the working men, as it was after the famous Black hole of Calcutta incident in 1756, (where dozens of members of the colonial aristocracy were imprisoned in a cramped room beneath fort William, and by morning around 40 were dead by suffocation) that Clive of India retook Calcutta for the British and made it British India's official capital. There were many babies and woman too, all who seemed to have died at a very young age, the average seemed to be 20-40 years.

The Mother Theresa House was not far from here so we got directions and went to find it.  It was a bit of a walk but we finally arrived and were not disappointed.  I did not really know much about the history of Kolkata or Calcutta as it was previously called, or Mother Theresa and was interested to find out more, especially as Theresa is my middle name and I chose this because of her.  She died in 1997 and the story of her life was laid out before us in a small museum along with a few of her things, i.e. sandals, eating utensils and letters etc.  It all started when she was 18 she left by boat for India and always felt the calling by God.  He told her to go into the slums of Kolkata, where no one ventured unless they lived there, and bring the people there to him.  These people were absolutely destitute at this time, with no hope, love, faith or humanity in their lives.  Many died alone on the streets and no one cared!  Rejected by society and left to rot!  Mother Theresa was scared but she went alone into the slums and started caring for these people, there was not much she could do at this time physically for them, except to maybe dress a few wounds, but she offered human contact and kindness like none they had ever seen the likes of before in their short lives, and they were so grateful for this, like one man said "I have felt the warmth of a hand upon me."

She held people so they did not have to die alone and taught them that God was not punishing them and that he was waiting for them, to give them some hope, so they would feel comforted and not scared anymore, this was more then they had ever been offered and they were so grateful.  These were good, loving people, caught up in the poverty of an over populated city that was soon to be bursting at the seams, when about 4 million Hindu refugees arrived in the early 1900's, I am not sure of the exact time, but due to the impact of partition.  This is the time when people literally were dying in the streets from hunger, creating Calcuttas image of abject poverty!  No sooner had this influx of people been absorbed, when in 1971 a second wave of people arrived due to the India-Pakistan war.  There was much work to be done, Mother Theresa set up the missionaries of charity and raised money and had a team of sisters to help her, 10 altogether, and they carried on the work with the poor, never resting and giving the best of the food to them and eating themselves what was leftover.  These missions are now worldwide, wherever there is a need for shelter and rest for the dying and the poor.  The pictures on display were heartbreaking and I think Nicola and I were both walking around with tears in our eyes at the sadness of all the pain and suffering that went on here, and that the biggest gift of all to be given was just some human kindness, comfort and dignity for the sick and the dying. They had no expectation of anything more!

We then visited her room where she lived and died, and she would not even use a fan even in this extreme heat, it was very small and simple, and the tomb where she is laid to rest.  We made a donation and left with many thoughts going around in our minds.  We all think we would like to help when these situations arise, but not many of us would really give up all our own comforts and sacrifice our existence to help others, not even for a short time. It is definitely food for thought!!!  A remarkable lady!!!

The following day we visited the marble palace, which is an array of sculptures and paintings, as well as a collection of animals in the gardens, mainly deer, and birds.  The palace was beautiful inside with its decorated marble floors, but no photography was allowed.  We then walked for a while towards the river and Hoogley bridge and soaked up the sights, sounds and smells of Kolkata.  A storm was coming in so we sheltered for a few hours in a coffee shop which let us use wifi and did some catching up!

Darjeeling & Nepal

The trip from Varanassi to Darjeeling has to be the worst of my life so far!  It started by us not being able to get a rickshaw ordered, and having to walk quite a way with all our luggage, as Varanassi has streets too narrow for vehicles to travel down, to get to the main road and flag one down.   We did, this and we must have got the craziest driver yet!  He just loved his horn and was pushing through everyone and even pushing cycle rickshaws along by driving into them, he thought it was hilarious when we saw a motorbike crash into a car!  He had no fear whatsoever, and we were holding on for dear life so we did not fall out as he tore round the bends, but he did get us to the station an hour later in plenty of time!  We arrived to hear our train was delayed by 1 hour, no 2 hours!!!  It eventually turned up over 3 hours late on the wrong platform!!  Luckily we met some german guys who had an indian guide with them, who were on the same train and we asked them what was happening, otherwise we would have got on the wrong train, again!!!

We boarded the train in search of our beds as we were now exhausted, to find they had been occupied by other people.  We politely asked them to move, and after going back and forth for a while with what seat number was ours we eventually managed to move them.  They did not go far and sat right next to me in the footway between the seats, so I got absolutely no sleep whatsoever as they kept putting the light on and talking and still trying to put their feet on my bed!!!  The fans did not work and we had to leave the windows open because there was no air and it was so hot!  Morning came and we were tired and hungry, by now we were about 4 hours behind schedule!  Eventually we arrived at NJP station at about 2pm instead of the 10.30am scheduled time!  We then had to wait for another 2 hours to get a shared jeep as they would not leave until they had 10 passengers on board.  We ended up with 12 passengers in a jeep that was built to seat 8 passengers!  The heat was intense here and we were hungry, thirsty and tired and so keen to get to Darjeeling now to rest and eat!  Another couple of english people ended up in our jeep, from Sheffield, Emma and Rob, and we were chatting to them all the way to darjeeling as we were squashed in so cosily.  The trip took 3 and a half hours but the scenery was breathtaking!!!  We circled up into the foothills of the Himalayas and watched the sunset, as everything got farther away the higher we climbed!  The views were amazing and if we were not so squashed and could actually move it would have been great to get some pictures!  At 7.30pm we finally arrived and had to find a hotel in the dark of night.  By now I was starting to feel so sick and had a migraine mixed with possibly altitude sickness.  I got out of the jeep and could hardly move, I was dizzy and shaking from the cold and every muscle ached.  We had been travelling now for nearly 28 hours non stop with no food really or much to drink.  I sat down in the street and could not stop being sick!!  People were very kind here and were stopping and asking if we were ok.  Nicola and Rob went in search of a room while Emma and I waited with the luggage.  Rob was an absolute star and carried my backpack as well as his own, I felt so bad but I do not know what I would have done if they were not with us, because I could not have done it myself, as I could barely walk up the steep hills by now without the backpack, and felt I was going to be sick again and pass out any minute!  We found a hotel and I went straight to the room to lie down.  The man at reception had to bring the register to our room so I could sign in while he stood by the bed waiting because I could not get up, bless him.  I was sick again in a bucket Nicola found for me and then just fell asleep in my clothes, we were too tired to eat now.  Lying there feeling sorry for myself made me think about all the sick and hungry people in the world, and how hard it must be for them travelling around in search of food or working in such dirty, hot conditions, or freezing cold, under nourished and dehydrated and utterly exhausted with no hope, and how these people manage to survive at all, as we have seen people living like this along our travels.  I could hardly walk let alone work, and had been through nowhere near the journeys they had to endure, how a human being can put others through this and let it happen is beyond me, but we are all guilty of that I guess as it is still happening all over the world!  it certainly made me appreciate how lucky we are in life and all the things we take for granted!  It is so funny all the thoughts that go through your head when you don't feel 100%!  It certainly puts things in perspective!!!

The following day we just took it easy and wandered around the town finding our bearings.  It is not very big so it did not take long.  I was still not feeling 100% so we took it easy and met up with Rob and Emma and in the evening we had dinner together and a few drinks in a place called Joey's Pub!  Everything closes in Darjeeling at about 10pm and we arrived back at the hotel just before, to find we were locked out and it was all closed up!  We shouted until someone finally came and found us and relieved we made sure we were back by 9.30pm in future!

We awoke the next morning to a blanket of white cloud, we could not see hardly anything and it was bone chillingly cold!!  My sickness was now replaced by a sore throat and cold :(  Emma had been quite sick with a stomach bug for a few days now, so I was just counting my blessings I did not have that!  We were tired still and spent most of the day in the internet cafe and visited the Bengal Natural History museum, which was very peculiar, mainly consisting of stuffed animals from the region on display along with beetles, butterflies, jars full of dead baby animals in solution and snakes, spiders and leeches.  When we were walking back we stopped at a Nawang's Restaurant and asked about some trekking tours.  We decided to do a 2 day 1 night trek to Tonglu with Nawang Trek, where we would hope to catch a glimpse of Everest if the skies were clear, and have some good views of the mountains, as well as stay in a local village and meet the people and get a feel for life in the foothills.  We should cross the border here into Nepal and hopefully they won't stamp our passport so we can get back!  We had an early night as we were up at 3.30am the next morning to do another tour to Tiger Hill!

We clambered out of bed about 3am to leave for our tour to Tiger Hill, where we would see the sunrise over a 250km stretch of the Himalayan horizon, to include Everest on a clear day and Khangchendzonga, the 3rd largest mountain in the world.  Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy to see Everest today, but we had a great view of the other mountains.  We then decided to get dropped back in Ghoom and walk back from there which is about 6km.  We passed a few monasteries and the Gorkha war memorial with a lovely view behind of the mountains, which was interesting and got some more good pictures along the way before heading for breakfast and back for a nap.

Finally after spending a few days in Darjeeling already, we decided it was high time we visited a tea plantation, however we arrived only to discover it is closed for the week for the holidays as there is a festival here at the moment!  Disappointed we headed to Observatory Hill to see the monastery and go for a walk.  We bought some tea to take away with us and discussed with the man in the shop about the different teas and plantations, this made up a bit for not being able to go to the plantation, and we enjoyed a very nice tasting too!!

The time had come to do our trek!  I was still feeling really poorly with a cold and exhausted still from being ill, and wondered how I would cope with it, but did not want to miss this once in a lifetime opportunity to see Everest, or let Nicola down by being a quitter!  So we arrived by jeep at 10.30am to our starting point which was a small village below the hills, and we were off!

The first day we would do 12km to Tonglu/Tumling our final destination, which is just over 3000 metres high, and where we would hope to get some amazing views.  We were 2100 metres up at this village so we had a bit of a climb ahead of us!  We had no idea how much so!!!  The first 2km was up 500 metres with really steep gradients!  Oh my God!!!  We were struggling so much in the first hour that at one point I really had second thoughts as to whether I could do this today, my cold was in full force and I could hardly breathe, Nicola was also puffed out too and feeling pretty much the same, but we struggled on to the first rest stop where we had some tea and noodles as I was so hungry already.  We had already done half the climb up in the first hour and where assured the worst was over, so we persevered.  We followed the border to Nepal and at one point we were standing half in Nepal and half in India.

Surprisingly we finished in record time of four and a half hours as the expectation was 5-6 hours!!!  So exhausted and relieved to get there we sat in the cosy kitchen with the staff of the lodge drinking tea and eating biscuits and swapping stories with fellow trekkers, and trying to keep warm as it was much colder up here in Nepal.

Sunset was nearly upon us so we walked up the hill a bit to get some pictues.  The views were spectacular and we were way up above the clouds, which was the most bizarre feeling.  Only time I have ever seen this was from a plane.  It was truly beautiful and so peaceful up here the pictures can't really do it justice.  We headed back to the lodge to get ready for dinner.  We were so cold, tired and hungry now and were really looking forward to a feast of soup, Dal fry, cheese and fried potato with banana custard to finish.  We shared our meal with 3 American girls who are teachers in Thailand, a british guy who was teaching out here for a while, and a french couple, so the conversation was interesting and we were relieved we were not the only ones who had struggled with the trek, we were much fitter then the american girls for sure!  Our guide thoroughly looked after us and we were spoilt as we were the only ones with a european toilet in our room, and we were given hot water bottles to take to bed, which no one else had and were really needed.  We definitely picked the best tour and would highly recommend Nawang trek for anyone wishing to do a trek around Darjeeling, Nepal and Sikkim.

A knock on the door woke us at 4.50am to see the sunrise.  We were excited to hear that it was clear skies and everest was visible!!!  We threw our clothes on and walked back up to the peak of the hill to get the best view.  Wow, as the sun came up higher it lit up the mountain range and lo and behold there was Everest (2nd white mountain from the right in picture directly below), the highest peak in the world, along with Khangchendzonga the 3rd highest peak (on the picture second below, this range is known also as sleeping buddha, as if you look closely it looks like a man lying down, from left, head, then stomach and legs with knees bent).

It was an awesome sight!!!  We were extremely lucky to see this and it made the pain of the day before worth it!  We finally dragged ourselves away and had a hot breakfast of porridge and tibetan bread with more hot tea.  At 8.30am we headed back, glad that this was now all downhill more or less.  That was until we got to the last 2km, which was a really steep gradient downhill and seemed to go on forever down the winding roads.  It put a huge amount of pressure on our knees and toes, and we realised looking down now, why it had been such a struggle coming up this yesterday in the heat!!!  Unbelievable!!!  All in all I was glad with our final achievement of 25km in 8.5 hours with rest breaks of about 1 hour, over some pretty rough terrain, and a climb of nearly 1000 metres in all!!!  We are already discussing the next trek in Borneo, and have Macchu Piccu in May, so maybe we will try and get some training in first next time and remember to put suntan lotion on!!!  Ouch!

The following morning we boarded the toy train to Kurseong, which is a 4 hour trip, but most enjoyable even though it was pretty cloudy today which spoilt most of the views.  As usual no one at the station seemed to be able to tell us our seat numbers as these were supposed to be allocated on the day, so it was a bit of a free for all.  Considering the size of Indian Railways (it is the largest employer in India with over 1.6 million people on the payroll at the last count), not a lot of people working there seem to know a great deal about what is going on.  However I am sure if we spoke Hindi we would get a lot further!  Arriving in Kurseong we had some lunch and grabbed a share jeep to take us to Siliguri and then a rickshaw onto NJP station where we waited 3 hours for our train to arrive and spent the time planning our trip to the south of India!

Varanassi

Arriving in Varanasi was something else!!  We thought the other cities were busy but this was chaos!!  Not at all what I expected from what is the holiest place in India.  So many people here, crazy!!!  We eventually found our pick up at the station and headed for the hotel we had phoned ahead and arranged.  We managed to secure a room here for 350 rs (£5), that was more like it, it was a bit small, but not too bad and bug free mainly.

First thing we did was go down to the river Ganges for a look, we met a couple of girls there and a boatman who took us for a trip down the river to see the ghats as sunset was coming and it was a good time to see them perform the evening ceremonies with the fire and music.  Nicola and I bought some lotus flowers and set them alight to float down the river and made a wish.  Mine just sunk, probably not a good sign!!  Oh well!

The next day as we were wandering around the ghats we met some locals from India on holiday here too, and joined them for a trip down the river in a motorboat to see the ghats in the light of day.  We saw a few bodies floating around, mainly animals and went to the cremation ghat where they burnt the bodies before putting them in the river, with exception to children under 7 years, pregnant women, people with snake bites, animals and some of the religious followers that I cannot remember the name of.  Although they have electric cremation facilities, they mainly use wood because then some of the bones remain, whereas with electric there is nothing left but ashes.

We spent the remainder of our time here just wandering around the narrow streets taking in the sights and atmosphere of this friendly place before heading off on the worst journey of my life!!!  Next stop Darjeeling!