Viceroy Hotel Darjeeling

... make the trail a pretty miserable experience. The payoff, however, was quite spectacular. The view from base camp surpassed anything that can be seen from the Circuit trek. It was a full 360 degree panorama. Was it worth it? I guess. I'll post pics soon.<br><br>I'm back in India now after about 24 hours of bus &amp; jeep rides. Not sure what I'll do next. Those beaches in Goa sound awfully tempting...<br><br><br><br>

... the next ... we like Darjeeling so much we decided to skip going to Sikkim, as this would mean wasting virtually a whole day getting permits etc and would cut in to our time here as we need to be in west Nepal for the wedding on 20th..., so now we can just relax and enjoy more of this picturesque place....maybe sikkim can come at a later date, disappointing but we think the right decision... The views and scenery in this place is awesome and i love ...

... stinking!!!! what a relief to get in the shower I can tell you, i just never wanted to get out and was in here for ages just enjoying standing under the hot water...bliss!!! the bed was clean except i think they must have forgotten to put the mattress on ...sooo hard .... Analising things i think i have come to terms with the different standards in rooms here in india but what does bother me always, is the thought of bed bugs or cockroaches (even though i have never come ...

... rather unimpressed by the offerings so far. Perhaps our taste buds just arent sophisticated enough ? There's lots of Tibetan people living here, which means some great momo's (these delicious stuffed dumplings) and some excellent wooly gloves and hats! We decided to do a 5 day trek from Darjeeling, in order to limber up a bit for some more trekking in Nepal. Our trek ...

... been in India for a short while I've become pretty familiar with some of the big Indian hits - 'Singh is King', 'Hare Ram, Hare Krishna', 'Om Shanti Om' (it's old but it's still HUGE) and various others. As we are in the Mountains with a lot of Nepalese people there were also hits from Nepal, old and new. Before long we were all carving up the dancefloor, eagerly joined by a team of teenage boys, one of who - Sabar - adopted me as his own and spun me ...

... countries. It became evident pretty quickly that the trek was not going to be easy. It started at a pretty steep uphill. It took enough effort that layers of clothing came off after the first 20 minutes, despite the weather being freezing. It was a very pretty hike, with Darjeeling off in the distance and the Himalayas in the other direction. Our trekking guide, Nema Sherpa, was a cool guy and great to talk to about the history of the area and many other topics ...

... anywhere from 2-4 days but considering its so much nicer than calcutta, I suspect we'll stay as long as we can &amp; just venture out from here. You have to be with a guide to do any trekking - its a way the youth can have a job &amp; keep up foreigners by falling off a cliff or being mauled by an animal! I will be able to keep up fairly well with this blog as long as we're here as this computer is so much easier to type on than the others Ive used. Best wishes to all....namaste.

... isolation at Samdruptse, completed 3 years ago. The other is the unfinished 33m statue of Shiva, Hindu god, which will be surrounded by a temple complex. That's going to be very impressive indeed and will attract many pilgrims to the area. After that we visited a couple of more gompas then left to return to Darjeeling. The newspapers are talking about 40 degrees in Kolkata so that should be interesting after the higher altitude coolness of Darjeeling and Sikkim.

... of papers, and I thought it was Mark was stealing from the sweet packet again. We then realised that we had a visitor and soon discovered it was in my backpack and had gone to work on our reserve food stash of banana bread!!! Damn. The problem from then on was my paranoia that the mouse was in my sleeping bag, in my bed, running over my face and I drove Mark mad with the screams and constant panic attacks. Anyway needless to say after almost no sleep I was delighted when the ...

... since this allows only little change in the country. Kanchenjunga (3rd top mountain in the world, 8598m) can only climbed to 10m below the top since the top belongs to the mountain's ghost(s). What happens with the mountaneers climbing the top from the Nepalese side I didn't learn. - Günter Grass' "Zunge zeigen" (showing tongue, referring to Kali's gesture of shame when she killed - or better slaughtered - her husband) accompanies me better than any traveller's guide ...