From Calcutta to Darjeeling

Hello everybody,

Nearly a week since I last wrote on the blog, and what a week.

We left Puri and arrived in Calcutta on the 3rd Nov. We got there by train which was an experience, not only because it took 8h to get there but also because of all the stuff going on in the train, never a dull moment!Between people coming all the time to sell food, chai, coffee, the number of people on the train, the smells (poo poo go straight on the train track!), and the bugs! We got there safe though and checked in our weird hotel, to find out a later when we went to the bar that it was a brothel! Nice, we did not realised that we were staying in the red light district! Still we had a good laugh about it and got very amused watching the women dancing and singing on stage whilst being handed out cash!

We visited Calcutta over the next 2 days, an amazing city, with a lot of poverty (so many people living on the streets, children and disable people begging), but also with a lot going on (city never seem to sleep), lots of energy, and resilience. There are 17m of people living there, with lots of poor people coming from Bangladesh, crazy hey! We saw the flower market, walked through Ghandi Road, took the tram to the Victoria memorial, Andrew plaid cricket with some Indian kids which was very cool! It was chaos, so much traffic (which changes direction at 2pm every day, nightmare, the tram was going against the traffic most of the time, bit scary!), so many people yet we always feel very safe!

We were in Calcutta went Obama won the US presidential election, all the US guys from the trip are very pleased with this result. We visited Mother Theresa house (were Andrew and I bought each other a copper ring on the market as we have left our wedding bands in the UK, very romantic, we both now have a green finger too!), Kali temple, took the metro (so busy again! people were like litle crazy and busy ants!) to the marble palace which I loved reminded me of the film Great Expectation, amazing and amazing art collection inside.

Its weird the English made Calcutta look like London (there is Saint Paul Cathedral, and the building look just like London!), but now everything has faded, is dirty it is a bit sad really.

After Calcutta we visited a kids school from the Bangali Service Society, very humbling as thanks to this place 200 kids get educated and fed, so please check it out on internet and give them a little money it make a big difference. Loved it there we played a lot with the kids and had a great time.

After a long and painfull drive and another 2 bush camps (1 in a graveyard...) we arrived in Darjeling and this is the best place ever, I so love it and want to live here.

Its beatifull, people are so friendly and smiley, the views on the Himalayas are breath taking, warm weather, clean and pure air. Our hotel is amazing - well with our new standards (!) it is called the Bellevue hotel, (Twinings guys should check it out), and we are in the old part of the hotel which has a lot of character, hot water (1st time since we left Bahrain!), it is located right at the top of Darjeleling with the best view ever. We found a shop and God I could have kissed the guy, we found crisps, chocolate, wine, it was like Christmas had arrive early, we were all so excited about it! Makes you think that you should go on this kind of trip every so often to really appreciate things and how fun life can be even with hardly anything, quite humbling experience so far.

We got up yesterday at 3am to go and watch the sun rise on the Himalayas on Tiger Hill, it was amazing, beatifull (bit crowded though, popular spot!) loved it so much, we even could see a bit of Everest but will get a better view when we gate to Katmandu. Rest of the day was spent chilling, walking round the city (very hilly, my legs do hurt this am!), visiting some botanical gardens. We had a big party last night for Missy's birthday, drank a bit, and laughed so much, I had not laughed so much for ages (makes you realise that I had become a bit too serious, caught up in work / life routine). The group is really getting togeter, we all get on great and I am having the time of my life!

Off to the toy train in an hour or so, and we leave tomorrow am. Will be sad, as this place is just awsome, but I am so happy I have seen it that it is all that matters.

I hope you are all well and I speak to you all soon to keep you updated on our adventures.

The roses xxx

Puri, India - few photos

We are leaving Puri tomorrow to take the train to Calcutta (I am very excited about the train journey!!), but apparently it's hell there, or so people we have met said, should be fun!So far I loved Puri, lovely and relaxed, if anyone wants to go on holiday there I can give you some tips!! We got up at 5am today and went to the beach to watch the sun rises amazing as the fisherman were getting out to the sea to do some fishing (whatelse hey!) which they will sell on the market later (nice and smelly!). Went back to bed afterwards though!Loving it. We are getting our bearings here and discovering all sorts of things (including a ganja shop! Governement authorised apparently! Took a picture of it, very funny!), taylors who make everything you want and amend stuff, guy from the corner shop is our new friend!! People are so friendly here (and always trying to sell you something or rip you off, haggling is a must!). We are starting to get travel savy which is great and make us both feel good! Hope you enjoy the few pictures and if someone knows about a web site where you can dowload photos quickly let me know as failing on photo bucket, it takes hours, and would love to show you all more than a few photos!Love from the Roses xxx