Travel Location: Uyuni,Bolivia

Travel About: natural-wonder,train,misadventure,bus,salt-flats,bolivia,awesome,thief,miserable

Greetings from the great continent of South America and the not so great country of Bolivia!!! We have had quite an adventure since I talked to you all last. I believe my last entry was typed in Corumba, so I will start from there.

We crossed the Brazil-Bolivian border via bus, and arrived in a town call Quijarro (pronounced `kee-HAR-oh`). From Quijarro we boarded a train called ´The Death Train´ bound for Santa Cruz, Bolivia. The train ride was somewhat miserable, due to the fact that we bounced around on the tracks like the train-cars were on pogo-sticks or something (maybe this is why it`s called the death train). We rode all through the night, stopping at little villages along the way for food and stretching. After 22 hours we arrived in Santa Cruz and stepped off the train groggy, sore, and not looking forward to any more traveling. However, traveling was the special on the menu-of-the-day, so we researched busses destined for Sucre, boarded the appropriate one (after getting scammed out of 100 Bolivianos with the bus tickets; people here have no integrity and most are trying to cheat you out of as much money as they can), and laid our heads down for the long trip to Sucre. After a miserable busride (the buses are at least 20 years old and none of the roads are paved), we arrived in Sucre groggy, sore, and not looking foward to more traveling. But, once again, we had places to be and things to see, so we boarded yet another bus bound for Potosi. This ride proved to be the second worst ride yet (I`ll describe the worst later on). You see, these people are so poor that the bus companies cram as many people onto the busses as they can. When the seats are filled up, people stand/sit/sleep in the aisles, which makes for a very uncomfortable/smelly/miserable ride. In fact, it was on this ride that a small child vomited all over Jema`s right foot. Combine that with the fact that we were very fatigued and a little ill, and we thought we might be making a bad decision to travel through Bolivia. We arrived in Potosi in pretty bad condition (emotions: angry, depressed, hopeless, crazy) (physical state: sleep deprived, sore, hungry, ill, and desperately need to use the toilet). Potosi is the highest city in the world (13,000 ft), and at elevations this high, altitude sickness can take it´s toll. We walked as slow as we could and didn´t eat much so as to ward off the altitude sickness. During our time in Potosi I was able to call my Mom on her birthday, which made both of us very happy. After a lot of walking around and eating fried potatoes, we boarded yet another bus for Uyuni (pronounced `you-YOU-nee`), which was our final destination. We rode on the bus with a group of very nice Russians whom offered to trade seats with me so I could have more leg room. However, this was the absolute worst ride so far because of the mental and physical state we were in, and because the bus was basically a big van and the dirt roads were especially worn. We arrived in Uyuni at midnight, which made the situation worse. We were in desperate need for a warm bed and a good night´s sleep. A nice man who was trying to get us to go on a Salar tour with him (more on the Salar later) drove us around until we found a hotel. At last we found one that had a vacancy and we got a room. The room was ice cold (we were at about 12,000 feet elevation in the winter and there was no heat in the room). We crawled into bed with all of our warm layers on and slowly warmed up and slowly drifted off to sleep.

His beady little eyes spelled guilt!

The next day we decided to hang around town, wash clothes, recharge our bodies and minds, and find a good tour agency for our tour of the most expansive salt flats in the world. We did all of this, including eating at a delicious pizza place owned and operated by a guy from Amherst, Massachusetts. The food was great and we drank excellent wine and good beer. The next day at 11:00 we packed our bags on top of a Toyota LandCruiser, and set off on a three day tour of the Salar de Uyuni with three Australian girls, one Bolivian girl, and the guide/driver and cook. The Salar de Uyuni is what is left from a huge, ancient sea that evaporated a long time ago. The salt flat covers 8,000 square miles and at some places is 30 feet thick. Our first stop on the tour was where they were mining the salt. Mining isn`t the right word, though, because basically what they were doing was digging the salt by hand with shovels and throwing it into the back of a small dump-truck. The workers let Jema and I do a bit of salt-shoveling, which is suprisingly similar to shoveling snow. We picked up a little chunk and tasted it, but to our suprise it didn`t really taste all that salty. The miners told us that the salt in that particular area wasn`t very good quality, and it will be mixed with more pure salt from another flat. After another ride in the Landcruiser we stopped at an `island` that was covered in giant cactus. The island was just a mass of earth sticking up out of the salt flat, and looking out onto the flat from the island made it feel like you were in the middle of the ocean. Here we ate lunch made by our cook (the food was suprisingly good), and jumped into the landcruiser again for a ride to our accomidation. The small hotel we stayed at was made almost entirely of salt; walls, tables, and chairs were made of bricks of salt and the floor was loose salt. Jema and I ate some more good food made by the cook and played cards and shared a bottle of wine with the Australian girls. We then retired to our beds (the frames were block salt, mattresses were fair quality), for the best sleep I`ve had in days. We were up and eating breakfast with the sun, then loaded up the mochillas (backpacks), onto the top of the Landcruiser and headed off to see more sights. We saw several different lakes; one was even red because of the chemicals. We stopped at an active volcano and saw some really cool rock formations. All in all the day was mostly comprised of riding in the landcruiser and stopping at different lakes for 10 minutes at a time. In the evening we arrived at our accomidation for the night, which was a building made out of earthen brick. We played more cards, talked to some rich kids from the east coast who were volunteering in Bolivia, ate some delicious spaghetti, drank wine, rum, and vodka, and then laid our heads down for some sleep. The next morning we awoke about one hour before sunrise so we could make it to some hot springs before light. We arrived at the hot springs and the Aussies, Jema, and I debated whether or not to get in. After 30 minutes of wavering back and forth three of us (Jema, me, and Kylie) decided to strip down to our underwear and jump into the natural hot water. Our decision was genius. The water was super refreshing. We relaxed in the steamy pool for about half-an-hour before it was time to get out and eat breakfast. The eggs, toast, and coffee filled us up for the long ride ahead. Our first sight was a valley called `The Valley of Salvador Dali`, so named because Dali spent several days here one time and the scenery is very surreal, much like his paintings. We had stops at some more cool rock formations, some nice little villages in the middle of nowhere. The long drive back to Uyuni was almost torture. After three days stuffed into a landcruiser with seven other people, I was ready to be done with driving. It was after dark that I shouted out in joy when we arrived in Uyuni. Our bus to La Paz left at 8:00 pm, and it was roughly 7:00 when our guide, Alejandro, was unloading our mochillas off the top of the landcruiser. Jema and the Aussies went into the bus office to square away the ticket business, and I stood outside watching the bags. Jema quickly alerted me that the our tickets were fine but the Australian girls had gotten cheated by the tour company. The girls ran accross town to the tour company office to get their money back. When they returned, a deal was made for the girls to take our tickets and get on the bus, and Jema and I took their money so we could buy bus tickets for the next day. While the girls were inside the office making the arrangements for the exchange, I was still outside watching the bags. While I was standing there, leaning against the wall with the backs to my left, a man came up to me on my right and started talking to me in Spanish. I said to him `No hablo Español`, but he kept rambling on and on like he was asking me questions. After a few sentences of this he ubruptly turned and walked away. I sensed something was amiss but I could not quite figure it out right way. It wasn`t until I looked down at the bags that I realized Jema`s bag was missing. What had happened was this: The man who was talking to me was a diversion, and he averted my attention to the right while another man was on my left stealing Jema`s bag. As soon as I realized what had happened I grabbed all the other bags into my arms, ran into the bus office, and yelled, `Jema, your bag just got stolen`. I then dropped the bags in the office, turned around as fast as I could, and ran in the direction I suspected the thief had gone. I rounded the corner of the building and scanned frantically at all the people in front of me. Most were wearing backpacks, but in the dark I could not identify if one was Jema`s or not. I ran from person to person to get a better look, but none of them were it. I stopped at an old man who was carrying a large black sack filled with something. After frantically asking him if he had seen anything, I realized he didn`t speak English, so I ran to the next person, and the next. After exhausted from searching, I slowed down and was almost ready to give up, when I man in dark blue overalls stopped me. He did not speak English either, but he made it clear which direction I should be searching. I thanked him for his help and ran down the street, and around a corner as he had instructed. My eyes fell upon the old man with the big black sack that I had tried to talk to earlier. As I watched him move away from me down the sidewalk, I noticed he was walking a little faster than he needed to, and he was clutching his big black back a little to firmly. As I ran up to him, he turned his head towards me and picked up his pace a little. His beady little eyes spelled guilt! I spyed the big black bag slung over his shoulder and a part of me wanted to rip it away from him and find out if Jema`s bag was in there. Thankfully, it didn`t come to this, because after saying `amigo, mochilla`, about five times, he took the black sack off his shoulder and dumped Jema`s bag onto the ground. Maybe part of the reason he gave it up was because I was at least 8 feet taller than him, or maybe he was suprised at being caught. I picked the bag up off the ground with great relief. All of her belongings were in this backpack, and if it had been lost a huge dent would have been put into the rest of our trip. I look back now and think I should have run after the guy and tackled him and screamed at him, or at least gotten a better look at his face. Instead all I could do was smile with joy and walk back to the bus office, looking forward to telling Jema I had chased the crook down and gotten her bag back. When I arrived at the bus office, however, Jema was not there. The Australian girls told me that she had ran after me. I remembered seeing her in the intersection before I ran up to the old man. I decided to go back out onto the streets and look for her. I searched and searched for nearly an hour, shouting her name and getting more worried by the minute. We were in an unfamiliar town, and if some guys are willing to steal a backpack, what else are they willing to do? My mind was racing with all the possible situations and that made my search more frantic. I ran down the streets with my fists clenched. Stopping at every intersection, I looked down the streets at all the people in the darkness to see if I could recognize her walk. With every passing second I got more worried and more scared. I prayed to God that I would find her and swore to myself that if anyone hurt her I would hurt them more. Every ten minutes I would run back to the bus station to see if she had returned. Everytime the other girls told me she was still out there. After checking back the last time, I ran out of the office, breathless and exhausted from the high elevation. I decided to search a different neighborhood, and headed off in that direction. All of a sudden I heard a whistle, which is Jema`s often prefered attention-getter. I turned around to see if it was her. I then heard another whistle, and then another. It seemed as if everyone around me was whistling. I kept turning around to see if it was Jema. Finally, after rabidly spinning around searching for my girlfriend, I saw her walking towards me with her arms outstretched. When I saw her I started running and picked her up in my arms, thankful that she was alright. After much hugging and telling eachother what we had done (Jema had run a different direction), and rejoicing over having the bag back, we said goodbye to the Jess and Julie (who boarded a bus for La Paz), and got a room at the hostel we had stayed in the first night. We tried for dinner at Minuteman Pizza, but it had closed early for some reason. So we walked to the Plaza and found a nice pizza joint inhabited by two drunk men, one Scottish and one Australian. The rest of the night was spent talking about the missing backpack adventure, and our plans for the next day, next week, and rest of the trip.

I hope everyone is having a great July!!! I`ll be in California in five weeks, so if anyone is headed that way this fall, drop me a line. Bye!!!

Patrick =:-)

Stay tuned for the next installment, when I describe `The Most Dangerous Road`, `120 miles in 9 hours`, and `Trinidad`.

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Travel Location: Arthur’s-Pass,New-Zealand

Travel About: natural-wonder,nightlife,train

Greymouth – Christchurch via Arthur’s Pass

We bought a 7 day rail pass so we could journey back to Auckland via some world famous train lines. We first caught a train to Greymouth where we had lunch before backing our tracks back to Arthur’s Pass National Park. It was meant to be one of the most beautiful train journeys in the world. We started off going over the canterbury plains , which is made up of the sediment that has been carried by the glaciers from the Southern Alps and then dumped. Then we slowly climbed up to the mountains, passing spectacular views of gorges, rivers, forests and the mountains themselves.

We got off at Arthur’s Pass where we went on a few short walks. We were lucky to see the mountains as the previous few days had been rainy and cloudy (apparently we had colder and wetter weather than the UK!!). We went on a walk up one of the sides of a mountain where we had great views of the valley north of Arthur’s Pass. We then climbed a lot of stairs to reach Devil’s Punchball Waterfall before catching the train back to Christchurch.

Christchurch – Kaikoura

The next day we caught the train to Kaikoura, where we got stunning views of the coast line on one side and the mountains on the other. The train goes along some stretches that are inaccessible by car. We also passed salt plains, which were an impressive pink colour.

Kaikoura is the place to go whale watching…but decided not to bother, as we had both been before! We really enjoyed pottering about the town… we went shopping…we found an amazing cafe which baked very yummy cakes….and had a very nice glass of wine with an interesting french lady we had met previously in Arthur’s Pass.

Kaikoura – Wellington

We caught the train up to Picton before catching the ferry to Wellington, where Tony very kindly came to pick us up from the station (check out all the stuff we were carrying!! Thank you Tony) Although in return for the lift we had to shift all this smelly garden waste to a skip outside the house…well we volunteered and it was quite good fun throwing it over the fence into the skip!

We loved Wellinton and staying at Tony and Megan’s so much we extended the one night we were going to stay, to three! We spent our time visiting our favourite cafe’s, visiting Freak Street(as Tony calls it) aka Cuba Street to the rest of Wellington. On Cuba Street we saw the bucket fountain and even avoided getting drenched by it. We also had a night out and even went for a boogie…yipee!! It was good fun and we sort of went for a dance crawl (instead of a pub crawl) as we visited about 5/6 bars and clubs, and had a dance in each! Tony you should put on your dancing shoes more often! We once again had a brilliant time in the capital and were very sad to leave…Thank you Tony and Megan for making us feel so welcome.

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Travel Location: Ko-Samui-Region,Thailand

Travel About: beach,island,train,swimming

So we left Bangkok on Thursday and we couldn’t get out of there fast enough. One night was definetely enough with being bombarded by tuk tuk drivers who didn’t speak any english and just wanted to take you places that you didn’t want to go. Our favourite word there was no thank you but even then they didn’t listen to you. We ended up taking the night train down to Surat Thani which actually wasn’t that bad. 12 hour train ride and we left shortly after 5pm. We met a couple from England and a guy from the States and that made the trip so much better. We pretty much spent a majority of the ride getting acquainted and having some beers until we went to sleep. We arrived just after 5am, very early start to the day had to wait 2 hours for the bus that took us to the ferry. They tried to con us into paying them money to go in a pick up truck that left half an hour earlier, we said no, thank god because the bus ended up leaving at 7 am. We got to the ferry on this bus that was packed like sardines and really uncomfortable seats. They are definetely made for Thai people who are small not the average North American.

So we got to Koh Samui and after walking which seemed like forever with our packs and sweating out about 5 pounds we made it to our place we were staying at. The first thing was get into our bathing suits and go swimming. We stayed at Lamui beach which is beautiful. The water is crystal blue/green very warm, the sand is more grainy but we’re not complaining. Better than snow that’s back at home. We finally feel that after all that travelling we can relax and enjoy the trip. No schedules to worry about just working on our tans. We both already have sunburns that are quite painful where one day out of the sun is needed. We got Thai massages which were the best hours of our lives on the beach. They massage everything from your feet all the way up to your head. So relaxing and for only 200 baht. Definetely will be taking advantage of that a lot more often. Just walking the beach we have seen so many guys wearing speedos. Some of them shouldn’t but you can tell they just don’t care. We saw some beef cakes in speedos who were pretty ripped but thier tans where just over the top. IT actually looks like their layer of skin is going to peel right off. IT’s not even a brown color anymore. We have seen some women go topless and one we saw floating on the ocean totally naked. A little uncomfortable but you get over it really fast.

The first night we went out the 5 of us met up with 2 other guys from England and went for dinner and drinks. Had dinner right on the beach. The food here is so good and cheap. We then made it to the main street and went to an Irish pub, can’t go wrong there. There was a live band that was setting up and they were an Phillipine band, so we thought they weren’t going to be all that good. They were so entertaining, dancing around in their platform shoes, even the guy had them on. They just played covers from the 90\s and Tina Turner. The girl who did Tina Turner was bang on, so awesome. We were really impressed and they just gave it their all with head banging. One went to town with the tamborine, I thought her head was going to detach from her body with her shaking it and headbanging. They were the best cover band we have ever seen. They opened up with Angel by Robbie Williams, and we thought if you are going to open a set maybe you want to start with something a little more upbeat. The guys from England were saying that that song is the most popular funeral song in the UK. How depressing. They went on and sang Dire Straits, Belinda Carlise, The Eagles and on and on. After there we went to a bar that was a foam party. THey filled the dance floor up with what looked like bubble bath. We all went in and played around in it and once we inhaled it we couldn’t stop coughing. The strongest perfume smell we have ever smelt. So we didn’t go in there again, but one of the guys from England went in and was so drunk he fell in it and couldn’t get back up.. pretty enteraining to say the least.

Yesterday we took it easy by the pool and worked on our tans. Erin was in the shade most of the day and still managed to get a wicked sunburn all over her body. Right of our hotel there were these rocks, so I went with Toni and did a bit of rockclimbing to get a better view. With sandals and the heat not the best combination for climbing big steep rocks. Did lots of swimming in the ocean. Another day of really absolutely nothing. We met 2 girls from Austrailia and another couple from England by the pool. We all went out last night for dinner and drinks. Experienced my first bucket night where 4 os us shared 4 of them and now I know why all you need is one. It’s crazy man, a whole mickey of samsung 2 bottles of red bull and a bit of coke for color. The red bull here is nothing like back home. It isn’t fizzy and way stronger. It’s so nice to hear about other stories from different traveller’s.

We are now heading to the north of the island for a night to just check it out up there then off to Koh Pan Nnang tomorrow to gear up for the full moon party.

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Travel Location: Hyderabad,India

Travel About: art-&-museum,wildlife-viewing,train,zoo

Time for sleep… I’ll catch you up on Hyderabad and Aurangabad next time.

Ok… Hyderabad.

I met some really nice people on my 24 hour journey to Hyderabad. I went in 3-tier sleeper, which means there are 3 cushioned bunks on each side of the section and then there are 2 on the end… i was on the end, so only 2. During the day, the middle bunk drops down as a seat back, so everyone sits on the bottom bunks. I was with an older couple, two men in their 20s, two men in their late 30s or early 40s and a guy around 50. They were all very good to me… and very curious… lots of questions… but also lots of advice about India. It was a nice trip.

My friend met me at the train and took me to my hotel and got me settled. The next day we went to Charminer – a tower built by Mohammed Quli Qutb Shah in 1591 to commemorate the end of an epidemic. It has four columns each topped by a minaret, in the Islamic architectural style. There are stairs inside the columns to climb up to the mosque. There are great city views from there… which you will see as soon as I can upload the pictures.

We also went to the Salar Jung Museum to see a special collection of jewelry owned by the Nizam family, former rulers of Hyderabad. It includes the Jacob diamond, one of the seven biggest in the world – almost 185 carats!

The next day I went to the Nehru Zoo. The animals had much more room than other Asian zoos I’ve seen… I was happy about that. They had a lot of the local animals including a couple of white tigers… very pretty cats. There was also this hysterical sloth bear. The zoo keepers were next door feeding some other animals and I guess he was excited… he kept bouncing up and down while sidestepping along the edge of his moat…then he would walk back and do it all again… sloth bears have this big patch of longer hair that’s kind of like a mane and it was flying up and down as he bounced… very comical.

My final day in Hyderabad we went to Golconda Fort, which was built in the 16th century. It was the capital for about 80 years before the king moved into Hyderabad and abandoned the fort. In the 17th century, the Moghuls invaded and the current king holed up in the fort for eight months. The fort held up to the invasion, unfortunately the guard at the gate wasn’t so trustworthy and the kingdom fell to emperor Auranzeb’s forces.

The fort is a beautiful place and while we were there they were filming “Satyam Shivam Sundavam” starring Nitin, who was there at the time. Apparently, the film is coming out soon. They were doing a dance scene – it was quite interesting.

That evening I caught a train to Aurungabad.

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Travel Location: Brussels,Belgium

Travel About: architecture,art-&-museum,big-city,train

Okay, so I know I have been to some pretty amazing places already so it might be hard to impress me, but I thought at least Brussels would have something to see. I was wrong. Val and I arrived by train, and called our hotel for their free shuttle service. While I had seen this hotel online, and it appeared nice, it was not! We both felt like we were staying at a Motel 6 by an airport. Despite the bit sketchy hotel, we knew we werent going to be there long, so we just dealt. The room did have a shower and a tv though. We watched Patch Adams in French that night. Sorry guys, I was desperate.

We left the hotel to explore the city. According to my Lets Go Europe book and the map the hotel gave us, we needed to head to the Grand Place. We walked down a questionable street to get to a very small square. While it is pretty in its building facades and golden statues, that is about it. There were local performers scattered throughout the square juggling, playing tubas, and walking on stilts. After we saw the unimpressive central square, we had dinner at a cafe and then returned to the hotel.

Val left early the next morning to catch her flight home, and I enjoyed the breakfast at the hotel. I met members of a Russian rugby team that were in Brussels for a tournament. They were all in high school, and pretty much stuck in the hotel when not playing, so they were a bit bored. I later found out why. I left the hotel to find an internet cafe, and had to walk all the way down to the central square again. I ended up wandering around the same streets over and over around the square. They were the only some what interesting areas to see! I came across the famous Mannequin de Pis by accident. This statue is in the book of 1000 Things to See Before You Die. I am not quite sure why. It is just a bronze statue of a little boy peeing! Anyway, as I strolled back to the square one last time, I came across a wedding party out taking pictures. It was very pretty. The bride and groom looked very happy, and there doting family was snapping a million pictures! A group of performers moved in to entertain the crowd with juggling and music again. I headed to an Italian cafe for lunch, and ended up entertained watching the local older ladies come and go gossiping with their friends over lunch. As each of them walked into this particular cafe, the waiters would shake their hands and say, Bonjour Madam. It was sweet. I picked up some groceries on the way back to the hotel, and enjoyed some tv over a picnic dinner.

My last day in Brussels I tried to find something to do. I ended up emailing, and then reading in a coffeehouse. I had to be to the airport by 4pm, so I headed to the hotel to get the shuttle to the train station. I had reserved the shuttle the day before, but when I asked at the front desk, they had no record of it! Ahhh! I panicked for a second, and then the guy at the reception desk asked the maid who was leaving to give me a lift. Can you imagine?! She was a very sweet Italian lady who was listening to Andrea Bocelli in her small sedan. She gladly took me right to the station to catch my train. I easily made it to the Brussels airport, and then took my short flight into Berlin. I was able to navigate my way to my friend, Johns apartment, and I plan to be in Berlin a week. More updates to come!

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Travel Location: Kurseong,India

Travel About: natural-wonder,train,garden

Kurseong, once again is a slightly offbeat place, which is enroute to Darjeeling, and most tourists stop by for a cup of tea before proceeding to Darjeeling. It is also a place that houses some of the most famous Christian Missionary schools of Eastern India. Being on the lookout for some unconventional place to stay in, we luckily came across Makaibari Tea Estate, one of the most respected names worldwide for Darjeeling tea. ( infact Makaibari tea holds the world record for the costliest tea @ Rs 22,000/- per kg in 2005). Makaibari is one of the three tea estates to introduce tea tourism and they have at present, three cottages with 6 double rooms that are being offered on rent. Normally the cottages are occupied mostly by foreigners who stay here on a longterm basis with some research work etc. Luckily all of them had gone home on Christmas and hence I could get the necessary bookings done in advance, after interacting with Mrs Srirupa Banerjee, the owners wife.

Dec 28th was a memorable day for us as the manager of the tea estate, Mr. Ghosh took us around the tea garden plantations in his own vehicle, stopping by at various places to share the vast wealth of his experience. We also visited the Makaibari factory, and were explained about the tea manufacturing process. Makaibari is one of the first bio organic tea gardens of the country – which means that no chemical fertilizers are used. Out of the total area of approx 1000 acres, approx 650 acres are kept as forests. Wildlife is encouraged, and the tea estate even employs 12 forest rangers to monitor the progress of its wildlife !!! Incidentally the plucking season is set to begin in April, and during this time all visitors are welcome to visit the Makaibari factory. This visit is free of charge and you do not need to stay in their guest house to avail of this once in a lifetime opportunity. We also had the rare honour of attending a tea tasting session which was specially organised for us. And on our way back, we did buy plenty of boxes of Makaibari tea from the factory outlet, just outside the main gate.

Stay and experience the organic tea garden that produces the world’s costliest tea !!!

AS we are all aware, the darjeeling Himalayan railway is now a UN Heritage property – but almost all the trains ( from Siliguri to Darjeeling ) are hauled by diesel engines — and therefore they have lost some of the charm. The only train that is still hugged by a steam loco is that toy train that departs from Kurseong at 6am to arrive at darjeeling at 8.45 am. At my son’s insistence, we took this joyride for a paltry ticket of Rs 10/- ( can you believe it). It was a tiny little 3 bogied train that huffed and puffed its way by the side of the Hill Cart Road, gaining maximum speeds of 15 km per hour. As the train whistled away, school going kids came right out of their houses and hopped onto the running train, took a joyride and hopped down once their school approached !!! As the train reached Ghoom railway station we alighted and reached the famous Batasia loop, just in time to catch this train make two picturesque 360 degree turns and chug on towards Darjeeling.

For travellers wishing to make this trip from Darjeeling, there is a diesel engine hauled toy train that runs upto Ghoom station and returns to Darjeeling, covering a total distance of 18 kms in two and a half hours. Tickets are priced at Rs 260/- each.

We proceeded to Darjeeling and spent the entire day at the Mall, chatting with friends whom we met for the first time there and thronging the numerous curio shops all around. We returned to Makaibari by road in the evening ( distance of 36 kms) and the next day we were back in the pile of concrete named Kolkata.

All that we have with us now is fond memories of those 10 days !!!!!

Essential Tips and Information :-

1) Getting There :-

a) The nearest airport is located at Bagdogra (which is close to the city of Siliguri). Bagdogra is connected by direct flights from New Delhi ( 2.5 hrs), Kolkata ( 1 hr) and Guwahati ( 50 mins).

b) The nearest railway station is at New Jalpaiguri ( approx 6 kms from Siliguri ). It is well connected with Kolkata ( approx 10 to 12 hrs) and new Delhi ( approx 24 hrs) .

c) Darjeeling and Kurseong are also connected by a narrow gauge toy train with New Jalpaiguri. However this is a long and tedious journey, with an average speed of just 10 kms per hr. Hence travelers are better advised to travel by road . There is a special 2 hr toy train joyride that originates and terminates in Darjeeling, which can be availed by tourists.

2) Distances from Bagdogra / New Jalpaiguri Rly Stn :- Darjeeling ( 83 kms), Kurseong ( 55 kms), Kalimpong ( 80 kms), Lava ( 115 kms), Loleygaon ( 136 kms), Rishyap ( 112 kms).

3) West Bengal Forest Development Corporation cottages can be booked from 6/1 Raja Subodh Chandra Mallick Square , Kolkata. Refer to their website at wbfdc.com for room availability and rates.

4) For hotel booking at Rishyap, log onto www.hotelsonarbangla.com.

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Travel Location: London,United-Kingdom

Travel About: food-&-wine,art-&-museum,big-city,market,train

As you all know, thanksgiving was a little over a week ago and since I could not spend it with my biological family in Texas, Gen and I decided to cross the English Channel and spend Thanksgiving with our southwestern family in London.  We have quite a few friends in London this semester because our school has a program called the London Semester (go figure) where SU students and 2 faculty members go to London and have lots of London-themed classes.  So a lot of our friends are living in teeny-tiny dorm rooms in South Kensington and attempting to be British.

Gen and I managed to get discount tickets on the Eurostar train, aka the chunnel, so we set off at about 5:15 from chez nous (our house) for our train to London at 6:15.  Riding the Eurostar was a completely different experience from the other train I’ve ridden, the Thalys.  On the Thalys all you had to do was show up and get on the train, but that’s not how the British work.  We had to go to the top floor of the train station and get our bags scanned, go through metal dectectors, and in my case get questioned by customs.  Gen and I were both standing in a line with our passports out, waiting to get it stamped by the little woman behind the counter.  No one had been getting asked any questions, she would just scan your passport, look at you, and then send you on your way.  For some reason when I got up there she felt the need to question me.    “Are you traveling alone?” she asked in a very proper British accent.    “No, I’m with my friend” I countered back trying my hardest not to do a fake british accent even though I really wanted to.

“Have you ever been to London before?” she said while staring at my passport.    “No, I haven’t” I replied back.    “Well then, how long are you going to be there?” again said with that overly-proper british accent.

“3 days” I said, starting to wonder what it was about me that compelled her to ask all these questions.

“So just on holiday then?”    “Yes, just on holiday” I said back.

After that nonsense she finally scanned my passport, stamped it and allowed me to proceed.  The rest of the train ride to London was uneventful and when we got to the station our friend Rob was there to meet us.  We went back to Ken House  (their dorm) and put up our stuff then quickly went to a pub for our thanksgiving dinner.  Unfortunately we missed the thanksgiving dinner all the other students had gone to at the Holiday Inn, so it was just the three of us, but it was still fun.  We all three had fish and chips and it was delicious!  Even though England is known for having bad food, we ate pretty good the whole weekend because our friends knew where to take us.  We ate at pubs quite a few times – a welcome change from food in france.  Once we finished dinner we went back to Ken house and meet up with a lot of our “mates” and had a “jolly good time” (haha, I can’t help but add in things that I think British people say).

The next morning Rob, Kristin, Gen, and I all got up at 9, ate breakfast and went to the Tate Modern Museum.  It was so amazing – all the exhibits were really interesting, but the best part was the “interactive exhibit” in the main area.  The reason we went there so early was so we could get the free tickets to it because they normally run out of tickets by noon.  You’re probably wondering what this exhibit could be and there’s no way you’ll guess it so I’ll just tell you – it was a 5-story slide!  Haha, that’s right, a very very large slide.  It was so much fun and you can’t help but come out of it smiling and giggling.  It seems a bit strange, but it was great.

After that we met up with our friend Brantley for lunch at a pub where I had a great burger and then we went back to Ken House for a bit.  I ended up taking a nap for about an hour while they went to the park.  After my pleasant nap I got up and went to the Sports Bar with Rob, Gen, and Brantley to watch the UT vs. A&M game.  During half time Rob and I went and walked around the area that we were in and ended up climbing onto this huge lion statue.  I should clarify that by “climbing” I mean Rob easily getting up there and me struggling and laughing, then finally throwing as much of my weight as I can over the top and Rob dragging me to safety.  From our lion statue we could see a lot of London and it was dark out and very pretty.  After that we went back to the sports bar, but Gen, Brantley and I ended up leaving before the game was over.  Once again we ended the night at the Ken house with all our friends and a good time was had by all.

The next day we once again woke up at 9 and went with Brantley and Rob to the Camden Town market.  This place was so cool.  It’s like any big market in a city with people everywhere but this one is where the british punks are and it’s also the cheapest.  We spent few hours there looking at all the stuff and at one point it starting pouring rain so we ate there too.  The food was good (again) but the cool thing was that you could get pretty much any type of food you wanted at the market.  Our choices were a little limited though since we had to stay out of the rain, Gen and Rob got Indian food while Brantley and I got Chinese.

After the market we went back to Ken House for about an hour and then set out to find Abby Road.  Unfortunately none of us knew where it was and also unfortunately, it gets dark in London at about 4 o’clock in the afternoon.  We spent a while looking for it, then gave up and walked around the Thames and saw Westminster Abby, Parliament, Big Ben, and the eye of London.  All very very cool.  We came back around 6:30 and gen left to go to an art exhibit while I decided to stay and get some dinner.  Caroline, Anthony, Rob, Brantley and I all went to a pub called the Queens Hands where I had fish and chips again and they were excellent, again.  After that we went back to the Ken House and I ended up going to bed semi-early because we had to be downstairs to meet our cab at 6:45 am to catch our train at 8 am.

*Interesting fact about London:  There are camera’s everywhere – down alleys etc, Big Brother is everywhere.

London was definitely a blast, but I have to say, Paris is better

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Travel Location: McLeod-Ganj-(Upper-Dharamsala),India

Travel About: natural-wonder,cultural-immersion,train,mountain

Train to Dharamasala: After 5 days in Rishikesh we were ready for a change. We booked an overnight train ticket to Dharamasala–though the train only went as far as Chucky Banks –or at least thats what I think its called… I have no idea how to spell it!—when we arrived at the station at 3am we would take a bus the rest of the way. The young men at the ashram assured us that we would be fine… lots of tourists go there, the bus leaves every 15 minutes! We weren’t too confident but it seemed we had no other choice.

Then due to a misunderstanding about when our train was leaving we had to Tuk Tuk it down to Hardiwar to catch it, chasing the train from station to station.

We climb aboard with all our bags and found our spot (right near the toilets, how convienient!) and find it full of Indian women talking and a small boy crawling around on the floor. These 4 women are some kind of family unit and are having a great time socializing as we wait for the train to depart. We have the top and the middle bunks on one side and Hillary climbs up to the top bunk and settles in as much as she can while I stay down below, since the middle bunk is at the moment being used as a back rest for the seat, and try to make myself comfortable amonst the chatter.

At this point I notice the boy who at first I had assumed belonged to them was tapping on my foot and shaking some coins at me. I tell him no and the ample women sitting accross from me in a dark blue sari tells him to beat it. After a bit he slinks off.

I’m told by my guide book not to give children money directly because they often use it to buy drugs. Instead give to NGOs that help the children.

Here are 2 links to a story about kids living at the New Delhi railway station just a few “blocks” from where we stayed in Delhi, as well as a link to Unicef so you can donate if you wish.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5421058&ft=1&f=1004

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2006/04/20/stories/2006042001240100.htm

http://www.unicef.org/india/support.html

The dark blue sari calls to the wallah outside on the platform. He is selling something fried and she asks me if I would like one. I think about it for a second and think since its fried I can’t possibly get sick from it so I say ok.

Turns out to be a triangle of fried cheese! but this indian cheese is so young that it is quite flavorless and I think at first it is bread… coming served up on an old piece of newspaper and a squirt of mildly spicey ketchup. Delicious!

she speaks a little English and asks me the usual questions (where from, how old, married? children? ) and points to every object I have, facinated by its origin. (Inevitably it is from China).

Eventually I am allowed by the women to bring my bunk down so i can hunker down a bit with my bags as a pillow. It is a very hard and uncomfortable bunk and as the train starts and pulls in and out of stations people are constantly moving through the car staring and talking loudly. I am told by my guidebook not to return the men’s stares as it might encourage them so I resist the urge to return the confrontation. A book in front of my face is helpful. sigh. it is only 7pm and we have till 3! All I can say is that it is not a great nights sleep. The light in our car never goes off, I assume because it is so near the door and the Chai Wallah is through there every stop yelling…. Also, we keep stopping in the middle of the night for apparently no reason… nothing around. 20 minutes at a time. This was when you could really hear the snoring. One guy in the next car sounded literally like he was underwater. I thought he would choke on his own saliva! So loud! Police with giant guns came by at one point looked around, opened the door and looked out… came back in. What was going on? In my sleepy state I was confused and dreaming, I thought.

Around 3:30 we finally pile out, not completely sure we are supposed to: no station names are ever called out, I just kept asking everyone around….”is this ‘chucky banks’? OK. We made it! Just outside as we are hoisting our backpacks on a man with an eastern european acccent asks us if we know what we are doing? Ha! supposed to be a bus we say! Outside the station we hit a stroke of luck and fall upon another small group of westerners already haggling with a jeep driver to take us direct to McLeod Ganj, Dharamasala where our hotel is. I don’t see any buses….

The negotiated price is about 240 Rs each. It takes us two hours… up and up these steep, twisty, narrow, bumby roads. The air is clear (except for the fumes from the jeep we are in!) and we can see a million stars and the sillouettes of mountain peaks!

Ahhh!

the next day after we sleep in we wander around and see the place where the Tibeten’s live in exile. While we are there there is a demonstration to protest the Chinese president, Hu Jintao’s visit to Delhi.

Read about it here:

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/20/asia/AS_GEN_India_China_Tibet.php

Also, I’m lazy… Here is my friend Hillary’s blog about McLeod Ganj. No need to repeat!

http://realtravel.com/mcleod_ganj-journals-j2871184.html

love, b

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Travel Location: Edinburgh,United-Kingdom

Travel About: adventure,train,cycling

We all decided it was safest to get to the airport the afternoon

before

Tony’s 1:30pm flight, just in case there was some difficulty getting

the bikes to the station. We started the day on the Craigs and

headed our way to the bike shop that had disassembled and boxed our

bikes and the majority of Tony’s belongings. I was craving

breakfast, so after attending morning mass at St. Patricks Church we

marched our way to a good looking pub and all enjoyed an enormous

English Breakfast. Nate was entranced by the

Liverpool/Manchester football game and requested to hang out until the game’s end.

Tony left in search of his sunglasses and we planned to meet in front

of the Library around 3.

The game ended, I barely paid attention, so I don’t remember who won or what the score was. We met Tony

and the three of us meandered to the bike shop where we picked up our

bikes. To say the least, they had lost their convenience in the

packing. We carried the two bikes between the three of us.

The box that held my bike was heavier due to the enormous amount of

random things we managed to pack into the box, so there was one person

walking in front carring my bike’s box behind and to their side, the

second person carried the back end of my bike box with one hand and

then front of Tony’s bike’s box with the other, stumbling and such but

making headway. The third person was at the rear of the caravan

carrying Tony’s bike box and trying to assist the middle man by not

letting the box nip his or her heels on the way. We made it a

good 7 blocks before the box handles began to tear. We tried

repairing with the remnants of my electrical tape with no avail.

Thank God for my Dad’s insistance on packing for all kinds of

emergencies. I whipped out two 25 foot lengths of rope and did my

best to wound one around each box in order to create handholds for our

journey’s continuation. We didn’t get far before realizing that I didn’t tie the

ropes tight enough. As we began to resistuate a Frech exchange

student studying business at the Edinburgh University offered to help

us. With four we made wind and arrived at our destination in a

fraction of the time we had allowed. I did some talking and got

the three of us, along with our two enormous boxes onto a shuttle to

the airport. We all shook our heads as the shuttle retraced our

path and came to a stop only 10 blocks from our bike-box-adventure’s

destination. We arrived at the airport with a good 19 hours to

spare. I’ve had some pretty long layovers, and even spent a night

or two in an airport, but time began to do funny things in that

concrete fortress. Luckily we scored some free sandwiches and

enormous cups of coffee.

Morning came and Nate and Tony said

their goodbyes, a bit of a heart break since they may not see eachother

for a couple years from now. Nate’s train left from Edinburgh to

Manchester at noon, whereas mine didn’t leave until closer to

5pm. I stayed with Tony until security prevented me from doing

so. Words don’t quite capture how hard it was to just let go, but

that’s another story altogether. I took the shuttle back to city center and visited

the museums we never found time to go into and tried to widdle the

remaining hours away until my train left. It was a very odd

feeling, traveling alone again, despite the fact that I knew it was

temporary it was an unsettling feeling that I was looking forward to

ridding myself of. It was my first time on a train and it was absolutly

amazing. As I looked out the window I wished for my bike,

peddling up and down the rolling hills rather than racing past

them. I nearly missed my connecting train to Manchester but

thanks to a kind attendant got on just in time. I arrived just as

Nate approached the gate to greet me. He walked me through part

of the city and it was interesting to note that Manchester had been his

home for a good month and a half. He knew it well, my

navagational skills were no longer needed. We arrived at the

squat and I was introduced to the residents and another way of life.

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Travel Location: Portree,United-Kingdom

Travel About: architecture,food-&-wine,tour,train,garden

Day 1: Today was nice, as we didn’t have to get up at 7am. We treated ourselves to an 8.30 breaky, which we hadn’t done since Edinburgh.

We departed on the Jacobite Steam Train, which apparently features in a Harry Potter movie, along side the Glenfinnan viaduct. I don’t do Harry Potter.

This place is so different fro any other place in Scotland. One might call it a ‘Wild Celtic Appeal’.

The train took us all the way to Mallaig, known for its fishing, according to a Southern Scotsman we met on the train. “If you can get fish and chips in Mallaig, its well worth it” he told us. The fare for the train was £20pp one way, and I would class it in the overrated-tourist-attraction-rip-off scheme. The service on board was good, but when we made our bookings, the girl was a bit out of it, making a half hearted job, not really trying to help, and groaning at our seat request. And she got it wrong too.

But we didn’t know to request a seat on the left side of the carriage (left being as train travells Fort William – Mallaig), and I think if we had have thought to research that, it might have made the ride just that little bit more enjoyable seeing as about 70% of the views were on the left of the train — including 5 star views of the Glenfinnan Viaduct.

Upon arrival in Mallaig, we queued for the toilets – or should I say toilet for a good amount of time (why do the guys always get 5 toilets and the girls only one?). Then we wandered down to the main town area. Its a nice town, Mallaig, with plenty of colourful fishing boats and sea birds. Remembering the fish and chip advice, we ducked into the nearest fish and chip shop to get lunch.

Let me just say this: We spent £11 for the worst tasting fish and chips I have ever had in my entire life! At least now I will find it easier justifying handing over that kind of money for something that will actually last.

After that we jumped on the ferry, which took us from Mallaig across to Armadale, in Skye. It was a funny thing, but the views leaving Mallaig are to die for. Mountain formations are indescribable. Pity it only takes 20 minutes to cross.

The bus driver from Armadale to Portree was a laugh and a half. He told us about all his stories where he had created his own answers for the Americans when they ask him about landmarks along the journey. I can’t resist chucking in an example:

Tourist 1, pointing to a thing in an inlet which looks like the top cabin of a submarine: “what’s that?”

Driver: “Oh, that’s an old sunken German submarine from WWII. We can’t move that  because its a war grave” He even sounds like such a know-it-all.

Tourist 1,3,4 & 7-12′s cameras: *click click click*

If you really thing about it, there is no way on earth a submarine could have possibly manoeuvred it’s way into shallow waters like that. Really, it is a simple power plant which powers the nearby town – this dude is hilarious! I must admit, he did make up some crap which I believed, like how the council built a road over a large boggy area by laying four layers of logs criss-crossed on each other then filling it with all kinds of interesting items, held together with the road seal. And don’t let him try to tell you that the road signs in Gaelic are cryptic clues for the school kids to solve on their way to and from school every day.

He does deserve credit for his efforts, however. We received an informative commentary, along with some true stories, facts and experiences of life on Skye, including one story of some of the worst weather Skye has experienced (not much less than a cyclone), which left trees snapped in half. Now that ticket was value for money.

Skye is just amazing. It looks like some kind of moonscape, only theres clouds. There are huge rugged wind-blown mountains consisting of only dirt and grass, but still as mesmerising as any other mountain. Theres not many trees, and some islands seen on various bus rides consist of huge mountains with a black-roofed white cottage right by the water. This place is so different from home, even compared to other places in Scotland. One might call it a ‘Wild Celtic Appeal’.

Day 2: Part of the reason for visiting this isle was to see Dunvegan Castle. We set off this morning for it – even after a warning from the B&B host that it really isnt worth the money (£6 or something). So we went anyway, our curiosity getting the better of us. But I have to say, our host was spot on. It really isnt worth it.

The gardens there are fantastic, there’s about seven of them. But they’re are free, so walk round the gardens first, and if you think those are boring, then stay away from the castle. I thought they were quite good, but unfortunately couldn’t see them all thanks to the bus timetable, which only visited the castle twice a day. There was no way on earth we were about to hang out with the castle for another 4 or 5 hours for the next bus to arrive.

You can get inside the castle, but you can’t take pictures. There’s nothing much to take pictures of anyway. There’s a few nice Scottish…. things – furniture, paintings, weapons and stuff… but it is all furnished like any 400 year old house-  nothing castle like, you seriously could nearly have been in any rich person’s show house anywhere in the world.

So we got over that pretty fast.

Next in line was actually another recommendation of our B&B host. Which was good, because she recommended something we had already planned. A nice long bus route on the Floddigarry Circular, which takes you as north as I will go on my Scottish holiday. After riding this route, seeing the castle and arriving from the ferry port in the south, there really isn’t much of Sky that you miss out on.

The biggest bummer of the bus ride was that the bus windows were really dirty, really really dirty. It takes 2 hours to travel the loop, as most of the road is one lane with passing points, and is windy and hilly. Theres not a huge amount of attractions you get to see from the bus window – no Kilt Rock or Quairang (that I noticed). The best view I got was of Old Man of Storr (of course, featured in another bus driver tale). And even thats not fantastic with dirty bus windows and sun shining in your eyes. Still was better than the castle and I enjoyed it a lot.

I found Skye to be not all I had expected, although still very different. It’s just one of those places which is a ‘must do’ in any Scottish holiday, and even if it may not be the highlight, its great to say you have been there, none the less.

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