Darjeeling

26^th - 27^th November

I left quite early (5 am), and I had a hard time finding my bus. I had a bus ride with only local people, for 10 hours, then 2 hours bus ride to get to Janakpur. I did the ride on the rooftop, as he bus was packed… I still have pain in my legs and butt, and the trail was so dusty that I was coughing for 2 days.

It was still a nice ride, especially the old drunk Nepali fighting with another old one, so wasted that we eventually would stand up while the bus was going, and kept on falling on me.

It’s quite hard to maintain yourself in a proper position, as the bus is bumping all the time, as you are sitting on a metal grid, which is not very comfy, as you try to dodge the drunk guy, the wires, the tree branches and eventually try to stop breathing for a while when there’s a bus coming the other way, in a big dusty cloud.

Janakpur seems to be a quite different city, way less tourists and very holy.

Sadly, I have to leave at 5 am the next morning, so I don’t have time to visit the city.

I take a bus to the border, meet a French couple, and cross Indian border by foot. After 8 hours of traveling, it’s very nice to have a walk.

I then took a jeep to Siliguri and an other one to Darjeeling, where I arrived around 5pm.

I had dinner with a nice English girl, Lucy, who worked for NGO’s in India and Nepal.

Darjeeling seems to be a way more developed and richer city than Nepalese cities.

It’s standing on a hill, and is a bit messy as you always have to go up and down to find you way around. However, you have a really nice view on the Himalayas, and it reminds me a bit of the Khumbu towns, on a different scale, considering the fact that Darjeeling is not really a moutain city, as it has a jungle flora.

I’m a bit surprised, because all the Nepali told me that I would have a real shock in India, and to tell you the truth, Darjeeling is really easier than Nepal for a westerner, probably because of its colonial heritage. I’m still wondering about Calcutta though.

28^th - 29^th November 2009

We had a walk around Darjeeling, visited the Zoo saw Red pandas, Snow Leopards… but sadly the Tigers were asleep. I really wish I could see a wild Tiger, and when I’ll go to Calcutta, I’ll probably spend 2 days south west in a Reserve where supposedly loads of Tigers live.

We also had a look in a Tibetan Refugee Center, and I learned a bit more about Tibet struggle for freedom.

The figures are quite impressive : more than 1,2 million Tibetans have been killed by Chinese, and loads of them have been tortured & raped. Chinese’s army is occupying their territory, stealing natural resources, as Tibet has loads of different resources (oil, uranium etc.), crushing their culture, banning their religion and symbols, destroying the quite unique environment of this plateau. Thousands of Tibetans ran away from the Chinese occupation, and became refugees in India, Nepal, Bhutan and Pakistan.

I don’t really know how objective this scary presentation was, but they may be some truth in it.