Taste of India
Trip Start
Oct 31, 2007
1
10
Trip End
Jan 07, 2008
Kolkata (Calcutta),
West Bengal,
India
Thursday, November 8, 2007
The flight with Air India from LAX was not the best (don't fly with them if you can - even local Indian people say that): plane looked like 20 years old and never remodeled, stewardesses were awefully unfriendly during the 16 hours flight with stopover in Francfort. Even Indian citizens on the plane were upset. We arrived in Delhi at 5 AM. Sunset hour is probably the best time to see something from still sleeping Delhi, as two hours later traffic gets worse and during the day really bad.
Sitting in a taxi driving thru Indian big cities made me feel like being on the backseat in a car chase - in the Bourne Identity! The horn and sometimes the brakes are the two most important elements when driving in India. Delhi is not worth mentioning - a loud capital that doesn't have - on first glance - really the aura of a capital. But I don't know too much about Indian history - somehow we just decided to go to India without a detailed preparation. The flight to Bagdogra, close to Siliguri and then a four hours jeep drive up to Himalayan hills into Darjeeling were probably the highlights of the Indian trip. Beautiful landscapes, green tea hills, monkeys and cows on the streets. Speaking of streets: the road is just a narrow path all the way up to 4300 m and higher. A trip into "town" Siliguri would take locals an entire day, as you can only drive about 20 km/hour. Darjeeling was cold, rainy and somehow dark. Kalimpong, another Himalayan city about 2.5 hours jeep trip away, is much more charming. The Tibetan or Himalayan locals are very relaxed (completely different than in the big cities), friendly and beautiful (well, most women at least). Since it's quite rainy and chilly, and Dirk still has the cold he took along from California, we decide (to my relief) to continue our way to Kolkatta, and fly from there to Bangkok! Kolkatta, the city of joy - loud, aggressive and kind of weird. The drivers are really aggressive here, they only use their brakes for cows crossing the streets, but otherwise ... no one in India cares about driving lanes, every three seconds they use the horns. Slums everywhere next to big posters advertising luxury houses and apartments to buy. We decide to give us a treat after five days in budget hotels and check into the luxurious The Park Hotel for one night. Nice to get a hot shower again ;-)
I am sooo glad when we finally get on the plane, after passing the passport control where the officer throws my passport at me without comment! The attitude of most Indians working in tourism toward foreigners was really interesting: they aren't really welcoming, treating you with desinterest, letting you wait longer. But when the hotel staff or restaurant staff is very polite, sometimes I had the impression they even had a trained submissive attitude. I think it's different when you meet local people you can hang out with, and people who are more westernized, are also more welcoming. But just going into big cities as a backpacker tourist is not really something I can recommend. So we took the Jet Airways (private Indian airline - great service and good value for your bucks. Absolutely recommended) plane yesterday and at 4 PM local time, we arrive in Bangkok. Complete change of attitude already at the airport: everyone smiles at you, especially the officers at the passport controls. Driving through Bangkok in a taxi, normally considered by travel guides as a stressful experience, is sooo relaxing after one week in India! No one uses the honk, no one swears, spits or throws up out of the bus window next to your taxi ...
Here we are in good old Thailand, the land of smiles. Not really sure yet, where to go next. But we are more relaxed and happier, because everyone else is always smiling and happy and polite. We want to relax now with good food (I think I lost about 5 pounds in India, because I would only eat Chinese vegetable soups for lunch and dinner - everything else just tasted like Madras curry, even the salami at breakfast), before we will head toward the end of the month to Vietnam. Maybe we will visit all the beautiful islands and then take the bus into Laos or Cambodia, before going to Vietnam. We will see!
Cheers for now and hugs to all of you!!! xxx
