Travelogue..Part I

With great patience and a sense of foreboding(whether I might be able to finish this before I sleep) I begin this inked-up ( or rather electron-ed on a picture screen) version of our exploits this june 4-14. We payed (nice usage!!) a visit to calcutta(I like this name better), darjeeling and gangtok.
It all materialised due to the lapse of my mom's LFC every two years. :)..Better not waste them right?

So we went to chennai by train. It was a busy schedule. We landed at 2 in my patti's house and the plane was at 6:30. Giving me very little time to eat the sumptuous-how-many-times-u-eat-you-don't-get-bored patti's food. It was a special menu as asked by none other than me!. Super food. Then a hurried departure only to find that the plane was delayed by 2 hours. I was stranded as Tom hanks from the terminal ( too much. free a vidu!!). I spent my time roaming around the airport and looking around innocently.(Hmm..) Went to a bookstore to find out that the two books which I had my eyes on cost 1000 bucks. Not so dejected I went to the waiting area. Without further delay the plane took off. Oh my God, the make up had a face of a air hostess if u ask me. I could scrape of a cm thick layer and still have a lot to work on. They would have been cuter without that!

The plane landed...blah blah..(Fast forward yuo see!!) And we reached the hotel at midnight. Midnight snack time!! After two hours on the plane with darkness outside and cookies inside, the likes of roti with aloo made me drool. A quick bite, Some reading then snore.

Next day we drove around calcutta in the sultry weather. Nothing of much significance other than the usual places except the fact that we ate lunch at a restaurant in which the people spoke madrasi tamil and had been there for 20 years!

Next day we took a train to siliguri. As mettupalayam is to ooty siliguri is to darjeeling. From siliguri we took a taxi to darjeeling. The driver was an exhuberant guy named Robin. There's his photo in the album- (the one with the slit eyes and without the beige coat). He took us through mirik and jorpokhri, sukhiya pokhri ( his hometown), all kinds of towns whose names you are more likely to come across in a fairy tale than in real life!! We set our feet upon the sands (Tar, to be precise) of nepal. just a km or two in the market there. I got myself an original nike bag for like 40 percent its original cost.(Human's seventh sense- The power to bargain)

The lake at mirik was serene as one of the photos shows. So silent with the lake acting as the sky's mirror, the horizon being the end of reality and the beginning of the reflection. A couple of ducks quacked around at jorpokhri and we trudged on a road which was bordered by nepali houses on one side and indian houses on the other. Cool huh??

The roads were excellent. The scenery was mystic(Literally). My camera had a field day! Then we reached darjeeling and found a good hotel to rest in. For two hours atleast. We met a really fun guy called Jimmy who acted as our guide and a friend in the end. He was one of the few guys who spoke english in this place where they spoke nepali.

There are apparently four different tours in darjeeling. The two point the three point, the five point and the seven point. In total this included some 4 monasteries and three view points.(the view is as great from the road as these view points!!) But we learned a lot form that guy!

*There are two sects of budhists. The ones who wear the red gown and the ones with the yellow one. he was a red-der. The red people treat buddha as God and believe in his re-incarnation among men. The yellow ones who originate from Japan treat Buddha as a leader and don't believe in re-incarnation.

*The spin wheels (As in the album)

*When they give birth to atleast two sons, one is given to the monastery as in, they are made to study there grow there, eat there, sleep there and occasionally they come out have fun with the family and stuff. They don't marry even. Complete detachment from wordliness.

*The gorkha stadium which is the highest in India( highest stadium I mean)

*He was a sherpa and he took us to tenzing's house.(The gate I mean..Oh did you imagine me having a chat with him?? Talk about a far-fetched tale!!)

*His daughter's name was poonam!!

*But the best of all was Ava art gallery which exhibited the works of Mrs. Ava devi. The base used was black charts or easels. The medium used was...guess?..No not oil paints. No not pencil shading. No not water colours or vegetable colours. The medium used was thread. All her works were hand embroidered on black sheets. The result was phenomenal. One particular work depicted a man's face half shrouded in shadow. The shadow part was, in fact, the background itself. She had the enterprise to imagine the face half shrouded and better thread only the areas which revealed the features. Imagine that. Good if you can. Not too bad if you can't because google might have something about her! Sad part was she died some two years back and so no sale or photos were allowed. The last time somebody offered to buy was two years back when the sale was allowed. And the cost went in lakhs. Bravo!

*Unfortunately tiger hill was shrouded in mist and we couldn't see the panoramic view that R.K saw.

*Then we visited other places like the zoo, Mountaineering institute etc..

The third day was eventful for many reasons. We had very little places to see so had time to roam about. We walked up to the mall and visited a few curio shops.(The dagger, I saw there)
We tried to walk to the shop but my dad was a bit winded from walking so we rested at the mall for a while. The centre of the mall is actually a circular are where people gather to spend time. I magine a park without grass but surrounded by curious shaped buildings on either side. It was there that I took the photo of the pigeon and the girl in pink. Her cap had ponytails attached in it!! I was tempted to buy one myself. But the effect would have been rather disastrous.

Then my dad went to grab some shut eye but me and my mom decided to see a movie at the INOX there. Spiderman 3 was running. I hadn't seen it. My mom came along to get a feel of theatre. The pop corn was amazing! Tomato cheese flavored bucket(Literally) of popcorn. And the other stuff were great too. But the funny part is. In the whole arena only nine people were sitting but nevertheless the show was run. There you go. A show for just nine people in a theatre of capacity 300 I guess!

I had all kinds of food there. Chinese, Jain, South Indian , continental etc. The Jain bhojanalya was OMG-amazing. Unlimited thali (Rotis hot form the stove with a drop of ghee on it with three side dishes and rice if u wanted..(O yes I wanted!!)). Sumptuous treat!

I had my fair share of chocolates too! I laid my hands on some dark chocolates I'd never tried before. And also some other choc called Go-fresh. It was good too. And then the usual take-home- Fox's candy box!

A few hotels you might like to eat in when you visit:

Hasty tasty (Way to the mall)
Lunar (ditto) for south indian stuff
Jain bhojanalaya
Big bite ( on the way to INOX)

One more treat was WAI -WAI noodles which is seldom available at my place. Have a cup or a mug of them after getting drenched in rain and then you'd understand what I mean. I was tempted into buying whatever stock they had. Another unfinished business...:(

That's about it till darjeeling. More in part II in the near future. (:D). My eyes are drooping. It was a hectic day(Yea right!!) at college. The first day(or rather first half day) of the second year was a drag except the part that we met up after 15 days with our exploits and snide comments on each other's holiday transformations!! .More on the first day in the a-little-far away in the future but not so far post after the near-future part II of the travelogue.

Cia then!

Get off your asses and continue your work!! (After leaving a comment of course!!)

Cia!!