Darjeeling

It was a must, a classic, we had to go through Darjeeling. Famous for it's endless tea fields in the mountains and for the worlds' best tea, Darjeeling is a nice town that definately has the mountain feel. A top its 2100m and with its vertigo giving view, it's a nice place to relax. Since Julien was leaving soon, we only spent a day and a half, just enough to visit the Happy Valley Tea Estate, which its best brew can be sold for a much as 250$ per kilo. A very nice lady explained us everything about tea, which is quite complicated when you really get into it. I petted a blind cat the whole time. Next I leave for Nepal...alone as Carlos is going to China and Julien back home, I'll miss you guys!

Sikkim - Switzerland of the east

Once in Sikkim, you see all theses billboards "Sikkim, Switzerland of the East". I say it's a bit ambitious of them, but then again, it's good to have ambition. Sikkim is very nice... I mean once you've been so long in India, it's good to escape to the mountains. The people are totally different for the rest of India, physically wise and character wise, as they have more Asian/Tibetan faces. You don't get hassled as much as you usually do in India, which is quite relaxing for once. Sadly with the monsoon we hardly had a chance to see any of the himalayas but at least the weather was more bearable. We went straight to Gangtok, being the capital of the state, and apart from going to be nearby villages to visit monasteries (since many Tibetan buddhist escaped Tibet to come to Sikkim, Nepal and Kashmir) we didn't do much since we barely had time to.

On the way to Sikkim

With Julien being really sick, food poisonning once again, and having over 24 hours of travel in front of us, we were in a quite arkward position. Julien puked a least 5 times in our short flight to Kolkatta (he beated my personal best of 5 times in an 8 hour bus ride in Chile!) and again at the airport, again at the train station, in the train, etc. On top of that, we had to go all the way through Kolkatta, probably the most chaotic city in India, I'll always remember on one corner of the street a young child (2-3 years i guess) standing naked and alone, it actually gave me shivers. Also at the train station, Julien was lying half dead on the floor and this one dude came up and started staring at him, we asked him to please leave but he wouldn't and continued staring as if he was throwing an evil spell at us. Once we got up to move to the train, he followed, Julien lost his patience (with a reason) and asked the police to take him away pushing him at the same time... so strange behaviours. Greatfully we had sleepers all the way we had to go but some crazy people always show up along the way, it makes for an unwanted show... We definately need a break from all this, hopefully Sikkim will be better.

Hyderabad - The city of pearls

Since it was the cheapest way to go to Kolkatta, we were doublely happy to go to Hyderabad. We even go housed by Simon, the guy we met on the train from Quebec, who had been working at Satyam for a year now. He knew his way around so he made it easier for us to check the town around and do the major thing in the city. And so, we visited Charminar, went to a light show at an old castle, shopped around for bangels and pearls. Sadly Carlos got very sick, either by insolation or food poisionning so he had to skip some parts to rest. One night, we went to a club, probably the worst club ever, there were exactly 5 women in the room and the guys were dancing like crazy all ther favorite bollywood hits... not the best sight. Hyderabad is quite specially with its big muslim community, its always weird to see women completly dressed in black with only the eyes uncovered, espcially in this type of heat! Next we have to travel to Kolkatta by plane, and Julien decides to get sick... we have a long way to go!

Hampi - a lost empire

After catching threads of the monsoon in Goa, we finally crossed the Western Ghats to go inland towards Hampi, this time we booked our train tickets in advance not to have to sit next to the door on the ground. Hampi is actually the location of an ancient empire surrounded by boulders and strange rock formations, a climbers' dreamland. Although we thought it would be the worst place ever when we dropped off from the train (I actually had to power my way through to get down and literally knock people down) and got surrounded by rickshaw drivers shouting to come with them, fighting one another, and having many poor women pleading and poking us for money, it was the most annoying thing that happened to us so far. However once in Hampi, everything was smooth, it really was a nice place to relax, in the mist of all the temples and the pilgrims. We rented once again scooters to run around all the temples and boulders around Hampi, we had quite some fun. I was impressed with the music temple, where every stud makes a different sound when you touch with, and the temple itself ws simply gorgeous. Too bad we stayed only one night.