Day 133 May 13

Goodbye damp Darjeeling, Hello steamy Siliguri.
We zipped down to Siliguri in our shared jeep and made it in half the time it took us to get up there. When we arrived the heat overpowered us. Phew. No more sweatshirts and layers.
Our bus to Calcutta wasn't until the evening so we hung out and read in a restaurant. We were thinking about checking out the city a little more, but we weren't mentally nor physically ready to undertake that adventure.



Day 132

A day at the post office. Nice. :)
We needed to send some packages home so we picked up some boxes and were ready to send our stuff. Yup. 10 minutes at the Post Office. In and Out.

Yeah, it's India. Things don't work like that.

We got to the counter and they said we needed to wrap our box. Wrap our box? What?
There was a man in the corner of the building with about 5 people around him and a needle and thread in his hands. Turns out what he does is he takes a white piece of cloth, measures it out to fit your package, hand stitches every edge of it, proceeds to use his candle and wax and seal the stitches, then gives us 3 forms to fill out, stitches one of the forms to the package, gives us a permanent marker and has us write our e-mail, address, and return address on the package.

Cost: $4



Day 131

We ventured around Darjeeling today after switching hostels. We decided to move to Long Island hostel where the owners aren't so odd and there is hot water.

Darjeeling is known for their tea so obviously we went to the tea plantation. On our way there we meandered through the back roads and randomly saw 2 women looking out of a window from their house and smiling at us. A few seconds later we realized they were in the shared jeep with us from Siliguri. The small joys in life.

We eventually made it to the tea plantation and asked how much a tour guide would cost. They said we could pay whatever we thought was appropriate, so we said our price and they didn't think that was appropriate...hmmm. Interesting. We decided to walk around the building by ourselves and come up with our own tour :) We took this picture in one of the stairwells.




Day 130

We took a bus to Siliguri today and then, after much debate about price, we found a shared jeep that was heading to Darjeeling later that afternoon. While we were driving there I took this photo, but I was shocked at the number of school kids as well as women walking down these switchback roads on an extremely foggy day with these shared jeeps zipping around the curves.
Thankfully we didn't injure anyone on the way up.
Once we got into town we absolutely fell in love with it. It had a small town feel to it and it was in the mountains...nice. We arrived in the evening and thought we had enough daylight and time to find a hostel. We've never had trouble before so why would places be full now? Oh yes, because it's sweltering hot in the rest of India and they all come up here to escape the heat.

We searched for a few hours trying to find a vacant room. In fairness, there were rooms that were empty, but they were empty for a reason.... Eventually we did find a hostel owned by some rather odd people, but it was a roof over our heads! ;) It'll do for a night.

This picture was taken when we were close to Darjeeling where the fog wasn't too bad.



Day 129

Because it was an overnight bus ride we actually arrived in India this morning. Crossing the border was rather interesting. Once we got off the bus we had to search to try and find the Immigration Office as well as the Officer. It seemed that everyone else was just walking across the border bridge and we were the crazy ones trying to find Immigration.

Eventually he showed up and stamped our passports. We were disgusted though that he didn't even glance at our "mandatory" re-entry visa back into India that we (along with hundreds of other backpackers) paid 700 Rupees for and wasted a full day in Kathmandu waiting around for.

Not cool.



Day 128

So we took a 700 Rupee overnight bus ride east across Nepal and exited via Kakarivitta. Phew. What a trip. Luckily we grabbed the seats behind the driver making the 17 hour bus ride a little more bearable.

May 8

And the strike is finished.



May 7

Entering day 6 of the strike. People are getting restless and frustrated. The schools are closed and are now living accommodations for people who (both willingly and unwillingly) are participating in the strike.

In regards to the picture. I thought I had taken pictures on this day but realized I deleted all the ones I took (they weren't very good) and only have these to show for for this day.

Picture: Me surrounded by deadly snakes...yup.


May 6

Yet another eventful day. During the 7 hour journey back to the capital our journey was only interrupted twice due to road blocks (i.e. logs covering the roads). Other than that it was a smooth journey. When we reached the outskirts of the city, the protesters said we had to walk the rest of the way into the city (about a 20 min. walk). Only media, police, and food/water delivery vehicles were allowed into the city during the strike.

It was such a surreal experience walking into the capital and seeing children playing badminton rather than go to school, and adults sitting on the sidewalks drinking chai and talking rather than working.

The shops and restaurants in the Capital were only allowed to be open from 6-8 p.m making it very difficult to find a decent restaurant that wasn't full and ordering something other than a sandwich, pasta, or soup. If any shop owner was bold enough to break the curfew protesters would vandalize their shops and most likely injure the owner as well. There were a few small shops that got away with it which we were lucky enough to discover. They happened to have some of the best momos and kebabs as well. Mmmmm.... momo's (dumplings)


Picture below: Streets of Kathmandu.

May 5, 2010- Day 124

The strike was more of a hassle than what we expected. Our visa was going to expire in a couple days so we had to make our way back to the capital a.s.a.p. There was one tourist van heading back to the capital but it was already "full", however if you had 2000 Rupees ($30) they could find a spot for you. It doesn't seem like a lot for a 7-10 hour journey (depending on the driver) but you must take into consideration that the government bus we took from Kathmandu to Dhunche was 240 Rupees ($4). Interesting what money can buy you.

Seeing that we didn't know when the regular buses would be running again, we planned on trekking back to the capital which would take about 4 days, depending on weather and Maoists activists. But that morning there was a group of trekkers who organized a government bus that had a massive white cloth with "Tourist Bus" painted on the front and 5 Nepalese locals in the front. Nice. Well thinking that it's better than walking for 4 days down a dirt road, we decided to join. We paid 850 Rupees ($18). This picture was taken out of a bus window on the way to Kathmandu.

When we neared Kathmandu the driver thought it would be best to put some foreigners in the front of the bus so that protesters wouldn't attack us. Seeing that I supposedly look Nepalese (as well as Chinese, Korea, and Tibetan) I wasn't surprised they didn't want me near the front.... interesting.


Day 123

We then spent the night in Shyaphru Besi, met some other backpackers and realized there weren't any buses running back to Kathmandu due to the Maoist strike in the capital. None of the locals had a clue as to when the city would be up and running again.

We heard there was one tourist bus that left Dhunche (a 3 hour hike away) and decided to make our way there next. On the way there I took this picture of the weaver. I love his bowl of popcorn in the background.

Nice afternoon snack. We aren't so different after all.




Day 122

We decided to do a home stay in Briddhim which was a great experience. They cooked us amazing daal bhat over an open fire in the house for dinner and kept refilling our plates! For breakfast we had omelets, Tibetan bread, and tea. The Tibetan tea (also known as po cha) was a little too intense for us. It consisted of yak butter, salt, and tea leaves. Don't be too jealous of us. It was a little hard for me to swallow but it was an interesting experience! :)

The language barrier was a bit of a problem at times, but it's amazing how creative you can become when you want to communicate with someone (e.g. hand motions, pictures, calendars, facial expressions)



Day 121

Our journey to Briddham. Beautiful.



Day 120

On the hike to Timure we went through a couple more charming villages. Here is a picture of one of the children that we met along the way. She was outside hanging out with her siblings and I had to capture her face. Precious face.

During one of the breaks my Timex watch that has been apart of me for the last 3 years slipped off of me somehow. Of course I didn't realize it until we descended 500 meters into the valley. Ugh. A piece of my heart sank. Enda volunteered to rescue it (and I don't think he wanted me constantly asking him the time) and journeyed back up the mountain.

Thank you Enda!





Day 119

Before we left Gatlang, I decided to wander through the village and try and get a better feel of the daily life. I saw a group of children and loved their colour and facial expressions.

Here is one of the photos that I really enjoyed taking.

April 28

We bought our map, food, clothes, park permit (1000 rupees), and TIMS card (also a new law that started a month before- 1427 rupees-$20)
And we are off into the mountains! Ah the peace and quiet.

Some of the popular treks in Nepal are the Annapurna Circuit and Base Camp as well as Everest base camp, but we decided to do a less popular trek, the Tamang Heritage trek, which turned out to be great.

Our first stop was Gatlang where we stayed at a local village that was actually in the midst of a 5 day festival. There was a German guy and his guide staying at the village as well, but that was all in terms of foreigners. Nice :) It was great eating by headlamp light with the sounds of singing in the background. Unfortunately Enda wasn't feeling so good and had to lay low...



April 27

Yay! More buses!
.

This was the most painful bus ride I have ever experienced....My bum hurts just thinking about it. Since we were late buying our tickets, we had the back seats....Oi. People were sitting on bags of cement in the aisle, puking out the windows, and hanging on for dear life. The seats in front of us had handles to hang on to, but eventually their seats literally came to pieces and we had nothing to grab on to. It was rather frustrating to see the people in the front looking out the window with not a care in the world, while we were getting bumps and bruises in the back wondering if we were going to make it to Shyaphru Besi in one piece...

Lesson learned: buy tickets in advance.


P.S. We did make it in one piece.

April 26

So the visa we decided to get for Nepal was a 15 day visa which was 1400 Rupees (around $30) and our Indian one was 6 months re-entry which we organized in Korea. We discovered while we were in India that they just made a new law stating that if you leave the country you can't re-enter for at least 2 months regardless of the type of visa you have now. The problem with this is that we had a flight out of Calcutta and we would miss it if we went to Nepal and couldn't re-enter India.

So, like hundreds of other foreigners, we made our way to the Indian Embassy, filled out forms, read the new laws, and paid $10 for a re-entry visa into India (Even though we already have a multiple entry visa). Ugh. Bureaucracy. Money. Ugh.

This picture was taken on our way to the Embassy.



April 25

We had more drama with people lying to us, bringing us to the wrong hostel and then demanding that we pay the taxi driver even though they said they would pay. My oh my...

This picture is taken in Kathmandu.
Cycle-rickshaw with some shade. Nice :)


April 24

We finally made it to Nepal! Ah Himalayas here we come!!
This is a picture of the border crossing. You could actually just walk across the border without going through any type of immigration, but if you get caught while in the country, it could cost you dearly.



April 23

So it was a rather dramatic event organizing a bus to take us up to Sonauli (a border city between India and Nepal). We were planning on going through a tourist agency to make the trip into the Nepal painless and easy. But of course, it's India so nothing really goes as planned.

We signed up and paid through our hostel a few days prior to the tourist bus departure. The hostels that offer this get a commission off of us if we go through them, but all the money ends up at the one agency in town.

We paid 750 Rupees (about $15) that included a breakfast in Varanasi, the bus trip (about 10 hours), and a hostel at the border city. We thought that was a decent deal....hmm...

On the day we were planning on leaving, we made our way to the bus pick up point near the main agency by the train station, which is a ways outside the city centre. There we saw about 7 other backpackers waiting around as well. (Spanish, Canadian, Japanese, and Russian, most of whom could not speak English).

So we ate our "breakfast"(which turned out to be the worlds tiniest cup of chai tea and a sad looking egg sandwich) and were starting to get restless because the bus was supposed to leave around 9 a.m. and was running rather late. We checked out what was up and eventually discovered around 10 a.m. that we weren't going to leave because there weren't enough people to go on the bus! It wouldn't have been such a big problem if they would have told us before we bought the tickets that we need a minimum of 20 people before we could go, but they failed to mention that. I don't actually know when they were planning on telling us that we weren't going. I believe they were going to let us wait around until they found enough foreigners, and who knows when that would have been.

After we explain to the other foreigners what is going on, we ask for our money back and they tell us they can give us 50 rupees back ($1) and put us on the next government run bus, or we have to go back to where we initially bought our tickets and get the full refund there (even though they are the main H.Q and have money in their office which is a block away). The main problem with this is that most of the hostels are back in the centre and we all want to be on our way to Nepal a.s.a.p.

Well we argue for awhile and eventually we all get a full refund and head to the government bus station ourselves and organize our own bus. (This pic is taken while we were on the long journey north).

Ah the adventures of travelling. It can be tiresome but it definitely makes you get tough skin.

April 22

Street food in Varanasi.





April 21

After continuous bargaining with a boat driver we finally decided on a price and took a sunrise boat ride along the Ghats. It was a very surreal experience to say the least.

There are people praying, washing clothes, and engaging in swimming lessons all within the same water that ashes of those that have been cremated are flowing in the River Ganges. We also saw a water buffalo cooling down next to a women rinsing her clothes.

It was amazing though being in such a holy city where people from various religions and places throughout India travel to to bring the deceased or take part in a pilgrimage. Unfortunately we were there doing the wrong month. The weather was unbearable in the afternoon (around 45 degree Celsius or 113 degree Fahrenheit) and the city just seemed to stop for a few hours until the evening breeze relieved us of the heat.





April 20

One of those days. --Varanasi, India Day 1.




April 19

After we left the farm we began our 22 hour train journey from Ramnagar to Varanasi. It was one of the hottest train journeys I've ever been on. And of course it was the one journey that I didn't bring enough H2O...oi.

Thankfully our train arrived in the evening letting us slip away unnoticed by the rickshaw/taxi drivers. We were tired and dirty and not in the mood to deal with people following us and trying to convince us we need their rickshaw and that walking regardless of where we were going would be too far.



April 18

Here is our last day in Kotabagh at Arun's farm. L-R Arun, Erica, Julian.



April 17

Arun has returned! With only 2 days left of wwoofing we finally get a chance to meet our host. One of the projects that he started with his new farm is that each wwoofer that visits his farm choose a slab of stone and engrave their names into it and place it wherever they deem fit.

This is ours. It went under a mango tree.





April 16

I've accidentally uploaded 2 photos for the same day so I hope you enjoy!

So at this time our situation consisted of:

• No running water
  
• No food for the chickens (they were not happy about the few bread crumbs and onions that we gave them...)
• No matches/dish washing soap/veggies other than peas and mini-onions

This is Erica, one of the other wwoofers that was there at the same time as us. She was the fill in chef who made some great meals.

(Preparing Chapatis)


April 15

Eventually we ran out of some basic supplies and, seeing that there was no vehicle for us, we walked to town (30-45 min, not bad). On the way to town we saw some locals kids cooling off. Oh to be young again :) As soon as I took out my camera the boys' faces lit up and it soon became a competition to see who could jump in the quickest.



April 14

When we arrived for our first WWOOFing farm we were rather surprised to discover that our main WWOOF contact and his cook were both gone due to previous commitments. Arun, the owner of the farm, eventually came back but we never got the chance to meet the cook.

It wouldn't have been much of a problem with only the 4 of us wwoofers on the farm except that the water wasn't working in the house (therefore no shower, no drinking water, and no water for the plants), and other problems arose...

This is a picture of our tent that we cooked out of while the cook was MIA. We had a great view, great company, and great daal =) (Thanks Erica)