December 2008
17 posts
Darjeeling - Day 1
Arrived in this gorgeous hillside city of 100,000+ and immediately booked a room in Hotel Ailment. The temperature (in the low 40s) and lack of heat in the building — not to mention that we could see our own breath in our room — annoyed us only mildly after spending the last 25 hours in a bus. Plus, for 300 Rs a night ($6), we thought it was a great deal since the hotel provides hot...
The Night Bus
Already somewhat hesistant about spending 12 hours on a night bus to Siliguri, Claire and I happily boarded at 6:00pm December 29th knowing that we were finally leaving Kolkata. Oh, the adventure in store for us that night … most likely best told via timeline.
December 28, 2008
1:00pm - Meal 6:00pm - Boarded bus 7:30pm - Departed Middle of the night - Bus stops to replace damaged tire...
Claire's Update
Dear friends,
Josh and I are having a whale of a time in India but have been unfortunately stranded in Kolkata for an extra night after we tried to navigate the extremely bizarre/complex Indian Railway online booking system. We are beginning to understand why the creaking bureaucratic machine that is the Indian government has gone out of its way to try tourist quotas for train tickets!
We have...
On the Night Bus to Siliguri
Contuining to explore West Bengal, we are leaving Calcutta tonight aboard a dreaded! night! bus! to Siliguri which is in the bottlekneck of India. Our plan is to spend only a few hours in the city before boarding either a rented jeep, bus, or train to Darjeeling. We are looking forward getting to the hill country where it will be much colder and seeing the mountains. Darjeeling is nestled between...
WatchJust a little clip of Calcutta
Delhi has 12,000,000 people
And they all want to say hello.
Arrived without incident after nearly 18 hours of traveling. Claire greeted me at the airport and then our driver whisked us away to Hotel Ajanta. We only ran into one car on the way to the hotel, so overall it seemed like a pretty safe journey.
Christmas Eve went by quickly as I found myself awake and fully rested at 5:30am (and thus asleep and collapsed at...
Delhi
Arrived in Delhi. Claire is beautiful as always!
Amsterdam
So modern … so sleek … so cool.
Freeze!
Photo by spanaut
Fleet Foxes: White Winter Hymnal
Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there is some mistake. The only other sound’s the sweep ...