From the City to the Mountain

So the trains came and went... three nights, 2300 kilometers from Varkala to Calcutta, approximately 215 cups of chai and very little food. It was actually far more painless than I was expecting, almost enjoyable... probably due to the fact that it was the first time I had been in an air conditioned environment since my train down to Goa. In fact that's definately why I enjoyed it.

Calcutta was amazing. Without question my favorite city so far. It just felt so comfortable, so easy to walk around, the people so easy to chat to and the hassle so easy to deflect. I'm not sure whether I am just getting a bit more used to things but it just seemed far easier, as if the city was a bit more coherent, a bit more together with itself, less disjointed and aggressive and desperate... as other cities have seemed. I spent approximately ten of the thirty-six hours I spent in Calcutta aimlessly walking around, something I haven't been tempted to do so much in other places mainly due to the traffic and filth and the hassle and the confusion... not so much in Calcutta. The street food stalls were amazing, and all more inviting and more relaxed than elsewhere I have been. So far it's been the only city (and this includes small towns) where I've been able to sit outside on the street and drink tea and coffee without getting hassled which felt great. To cut a short story shorter, I loved it and if you go to India and enjoy cities you have to visit it... great food, great people (probably the most good looking too, not that I'm superficial or anything)... just pretty darned cool.

And now I am in the mountains... an overnight train and a hairy shared jeep ride and I suddenly find myself in another India... Darjeeling. Two thousand metres up, I feel a million miles away from the last three months. The faces, the landscape, the climate, the attitudes... all so different here... it feels like I imagine Nepal will be and Tibet might be. And the Himalayas... I am in them but I can't see them... the weather is very cloudy right now as I sit writing this from an internet cafe literally in the middle of quite a loud storm cloud. I caught a glimpse of Kanchenjunga this morning, the third highest peak in the world... it sent a chill down my spine... I am so excited about seeing more of the Himalayas I can't begin to describe...

...well I can, but that will have to wait till the next post which I will write in Sikkim - home to beautiful mountains and the Yumthang Valley which I have been waiting the whole trip to see...