Thimpu

Posted on October 7, 2011 by debbie

Our first stop today was the Iron Bridge. Bridges were made of wood, until a Tibetan bridge-builder named Thangtong Gyalpo came along and introduced using iron to support the bridge deck.  Great chain links span the river and support a wire mesh deck, where bamboo was laid over top.

Bridges are used by more than just people!

We saw house ruins along the way.  An uninhabited house is not demolished as the spirit needs to leave the house in its own time, so the house is left to fall apart on its own.

We are off to Thimpu today.  Thimpu is the capital of Bhutan and has a population of about 100,000. The city stretches down the Thimpu Valley.  There are architectural controls on the buildings, which must be designed in the traditional style and have Buddhist motifs.  Thimpu is the only capital city in the world without traffic lights, just policemen directing traffic with ballet like arm movements.  There is a surprising amount of traffic congestion.

Banks are always an interesting experience.  If your business is with a standard teller, they have adopted a “take a number and wait in the queue”.  As we needed to exchange Travelers Cheques, we went to the foreign exchange counter, where we got involved in a scrum.  There was no formal queue, but it was all elbows to get to the counter. On a side note, neither the Bank of Bhutan nor the Bhutan National Bank would cash Canadian dollar Travellers Cheques.  Although at the Bank of Bhutan, they did cash another tourist’s Canadian cash.

Drying handmade paper at the paper factory

Thimpu has all the necessary attractions.  Soccer field, 60 ft high Buddha, Palace, Folk Heritage Museum, Textile Museum, Painting School, Jungshi Handmade Paper Factory. We visited a number of these and have gotten a good feel for life in Bhutan, both long ago and now.

Our last stop is the Dochula Resort up and over the Dochula Pass, a meager 3,100 m (10,000 ft) in elevation.

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Archery and Peppers

Posted on October 3, 2011 by murray

It was early to rise this morning we were trying to pick up L&R at the airport in Paro at 10:15, and it is a 5 hour drive away. We hit the ground running at 4:30. As we left the hotel at 5:00, there were actually people on the street waiting for buses and shared taxis. We climbed up through a teak forest; unfortunately it was too dark to see it. Then we climbed and then we climbed and then we climbed some more. At about 10,000 feet we finally leveled out for a while then started down towards Paro, which sits at about 7,500 ft.

The horns in Bhutan do speak the same language as in India, but as with the people here, the horns are very polite and discreet. Our driver will touch the horn twice when passing another vehicle rather than giving a good loud blare.

We arrived at the airport on time and collected L&R, fresh off their flight from Edmonton, through Vancouver, Hong Kong and Bangkok. We travelled half way around the world to meet up with someone from our own city.

Archery is a big thing in Bhutan and we stumbled upon a tournament as we drove into Paro. Three teams compete in 15 rounds.  The archers shoot two arrows each 150 meters (1 ½ football fields) at a wooden board with a target about 30 cm in diameter.  The bows were very high tech made of metal with hinges and pulleys – they’re worth 1,000 Euros or more. When an archer hits the target, a short celebratory dance and song ensues.  Something like giving thanks to the “arrow god”. These guys are pretty accurate as 6 out of 18 attempted shots landed on the target – not forgetting that they are shooting 150 meters.

Chili peppers are a dietary staple here.  The Bhutanese eat peppers as vegetables, rather than use them as a spice.  Consequently, peppers are grown in abundance.  Once picked, the peppers are dried on the roofs on houses, or hanging on the outside of windows.

Chili peppers drying on the roof

Today, we saw more tourists in the couple of hours we were in Paro than we saw the whole time we were in the hills of West Bengal.  Paro is the main entry and exit point for all who visit Bhutan and October is peak tourist season. It is little wonder that we would run into this many foreigners.  As we head east, the number of tourists will decrease as most stay in the western part of Bhutan.

Early to rise today, means early to bed…..Goodnight All.

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Off to Bhutan

Posted on October 3, 2011 by debbie

Sitting on the edge of a cliff, we ate our breakfast overlooking a beautiful valley. The Teesta River, which is fed from the Himalayans, runs through the bottom of the valley.  The hills rise up on all sides and some, like Kanchenjunga and its neighbours, are privileged to be crowned with the snowy peaks.  How can we leave this view and being served breakfast each morning?

But, alas, we are off to Phuentsholing, Bhutan today.  Our taxi driver, the one with the big smile, arrived and we are off.  The trip was uneventful and sometimes even fast. There is a National Road leading to Assam, which is quite well maintained and we managed a cool 90 kph on sections.

After getting our exit stamps from the Indian side and entering Bhutan, we found ourselves in the lap of luxury again.  The Hotel Druk, where we are spending the night, is pretty much a 5 star hotel in my books.  Air conditioning, well appointed, bathroom goodies, all the niceties. I said to Mur “I could get used to this luxury thing!”

When crossing from India to Bhutan, it was like crossing from night into day.  Less traffic, less noise, less people, less congestion.  The line was right at the border and it was definitely noticeable, we have never crossed a border and noticed such a dramatic difference.

Met Tashi, our guide for the next 14 days. Well spoken, very gentile but enthusiastic.

We wandered around Phuentsholing, which, by the way does not see many tourists; we figured. Saw a sign advertising a soccer game between India’s Kalimpong Football Club and Bhutan’s Phuentsholing Football Club.  We realized the game was on, so walked over to the soccer pitch.  It was half time and the score was 3 to 2 for India.  We watched some of the second half – the teams were evenly matched and there was a lot of back and forth. We have done pretty good – 3 soccer games in 3 days.

Dinner, laundry, showers and to bed as we rise early tomorrow for our drive to Paro.

Stage two of the journey , Bhutan, begins.

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Talking Horns

Posted on October 1, 2011 by debbie

BEEP, BEEP……..BEEP………..BEEP. Look out I’m coming around the corner, Heads up, I’m behind you, I’m going to pass, Thanks a lot for letting me know, Hey Raju. The car horns here are constantly in use, to those of us from places where the horn is rarely used it sounds totally random when you first arrive. The longer you are here and the more times you ride in a vehicle the more you can see that it is all part of the ballet of driving. Sure there are those drivers that do not use any discretion and are blowing the horn just because it is there, but for those folks that use it properly it is an instrument to be played as if they were playing the oboe in a symphony orchestra. Every beep has a meaning and is meant to be beeped only at prescribed times and for a prescribed duration. The sound can be just a beautiful as it can be annoying, and it works.

Hopped in a shared cab today.  There was already a lady and her son (about 8 years old) in the cab. Mur sat by himself on the “middle” wooden bench and I shared the “back” seat with the lady and her son. The driver stopped to pick up two young ladies (20ish).  They took a look at Mur on the middle seat and the only 2 empty seats which were beside him and baulked.  Honest, he doesn’t bite. The Mom quickly told her son to sit next to Mur and the two ladies crammed into the back seat making 4 on the back seat and 2 on the middle seat.  The women all wiggled around until we fit – this is a “Happy Bus” size vehicle (spelled TINY!). It is India and that boy/girl thing does mean something.

"Happy Bus" size Shared Taxis

We went to Dr. John Graham’s home and school today.  Dr. Graham was a missionary from Scotland and he built an orphanage and school in 1900 to educate tea estate workers’ children. We walked around the grounds and looked at his house, the school and the church.  It is a large campus and currently has about 1,400 students, most of which stay in dorms on campus. The buildings are a little worse for wear, to our standard. We noticed a number of plaques from alumni classes that indicate that funds for repairs to buildings are being donated.

Dr. Graham's house

One of the buildings on the campus

We walked back to Kalimpong to the Haat Bazaar, which was extremely crowded due to the festival in town this weekend and this being the day the local farmers came to town to sell their wares. Spices, shoes, tablecloths, vegetables, fish, rice, kitchen utensils, fruit, tools, anything you want or need. As opposed to markets elsewhere in the world we have visited, this market actually catered to the local inhabitants not the tourists.

We had a lovely and very tasty supper at the Windsongs followed by a long chat with Subhadra, the owner. The vegetables were organic and grown in the nursery attached to the property. Subhadra even arranged the meal around my dairy intolerance. As we have said, this is heaven.

I have said this before but here it is; the people make the place. The number of nice, polite, happy, people we have met so far in India is huge. With a population as big as India’s, there should be a lot of opportunity for people to be mad at the world, but it does not seem to be the case. We have been made most welcome, which makes our experience top notch. The big city is our next destination in this country and we’ll have to see if the Indians can maintain their hospitality. I don’t think they will disappoint us.

We are heading to Phuentsholing, on the Bhutan border tomorrow (Sunday). We meet up with our tour guide on Monday and drive to Paro.  We are not sure what the internet connection will be like in Bhutan, but we will try to post every day.  See you in Bhutan.

I wonder if the horns in Bhutan talk the same language as the ones in India.

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Kalimpong

Posted on September 30, 2011 by murray

The skies had cleared overnight and when we woke up there was Mt Kanchenjunga . The sky was a pristine blue colour with no clouds and Mt Kanchenjunga and neighbouring mountains held a commanding view.  Our Rocky Mountains are big, but these mountains are enormous.

 

Mt Kanchenjunga over Darjeeling

We both woke up today anxious.  It’s our first travel day and it is still only day number 3 for us. We ate, packed, checked the room for hiding socks and headed down to our prearranged taxi. Yesterday, we were approached by a taxi driver, Sanjeet, who stopped to chat and was a very nice fellow.  We asked him how much to Kalimpong did some very lame bargaining to get the price to match the price of the big operators, shook hands and hoped we had a taxi.

We had to chuckle because Sanjeet, and all his fellow taxi drivers were on the lookout for us as we exited the hotel.  Sanjeet was there in a flash to make sure he did not miss a long distance fare. We loaded his little car and set off.  Sanjeet is very personable and he kept up his end of the conversation and allowed us to stop for photo ops along the way.

Kanchenjunga was visible for quite a while as we progressed along our travel route and it was hard to keep our eyes off it.

The road from Darjeeling to Kalimpong is maintained by the Public Works Department. That explains the smooth surface, lack of potholes and the lack of sections of missing pavement. The road from Bagdogra to Darjeeling is maintained by the political party in power, and is therefore in horrible condition. mmmmmmm.

OMG! The Windsongs is from heaven! Quite frankly, after staying in the dank Dekeling (with a window looking into the interior of the residence quarters), the Windsongs is a piece of heaven.  Our room is as big as our living room at home, immaculately clean, well-appointed and has a million dollar view. Subhadra, the owner, is extremely genteel and more than willing to answer questions and help us.  Can you tell we like the place?

Its proximity to town is probably the Windsongs only shortcoming. It is a little too far from Kalimpong to walk. So we hopped in a shared taxi (Rs 10 each(25 cents)) at the end of the driveway and went for a short trip to the town centre.

We wandered around town looking for the taxi stand to arrange a ride to Phuentsholing on Sunday. As it turns out, this weekend is a holiday weekend and all the buses and shared taxis are booked. We managed to find a driver willing to take only us but he wanted more money than we had planned on spending.  Mur did a better job of bargaining this time but the driver still walked away with a big smile on his face!

We needed a pause to gather ourselves and cool off after the intense session at the taxi stand. A soccer team was warming up on the pitch in the local stadium, so we sat on the stairs to watch for a few minutes.  Next thing we know, some chairs were laid out at center field and we were being invited to sit down and watch the game.  We chatted with one of the officials and his friend. The friend was interested in Canada as he had applied to go to Dalhousie U in Halifax. The game about to start was between two teams comprised of alumni from two schools, the President of the Alumni Soccer Association came over to greet us and thank us for watching. We felt like celebs! At this point we were committed to watching the game.

St. Roberts School, from Darjeeling, had bright yellow and blue uniforms, matching socks and they looked very professional.  They passed well and had a lot of hustle. Dr. Graham School, from Kalimpong, had light blue jerseys and an assortment of shorts and socks.  The looked more like a pick up soccer team.

At the beginning of the game, the players lined up, hands were shaken with dignitaries and then prayer scarves were given to each player.  The players exchanged their scarves with players on the opposing team.  All soccer matches should start this way to instill sportsmanship.

Soccer teams exchanging scarves

When we left at half time, the score was 2 to 1 for St. Roberts.

The restaurants here are not as touristy as Darjeeling, but we managed to find the “King Thai”. We had a delicious supper of shrimp fried rice and honey chicken.  As we were the only patrons in the restaurant, the service was exceptional.

Another $.25 ride back to paradise and it is time to relax.

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Darjeeling Walkabout 2

Posted on September 29, 2011 by debbie

The hotel is quite full. A tour group from Germany showed up last night. We were going down to eat breakfast and the dining area was full, so we wandered down the street. We ate at Glenary’s. OK place, the food was good. I still cannot believe how cheap food is in India. Debbie and I eat what we want and we spend $15/day for the both of us. Today we were discussing the fact that ½ of a Tandoori chicken was $.50 more at one place than another. It doesn’t take long to get into the swing of Rupees rather than dollars.

The people here are very nice. When you are walking on the street they are much the same as at home. Some will say ‘Hi’, most won’t. They will all acknowledge our hellos. It is when you stop to chat or if you engage a shop owner in conversation that you notice that they are all willing to discuss the state of the union, or tell me for the twentieth time how to say ‘thank you’ in Hindi.

It’s the day to visit the tea plantation. Happy Valley Tea Plantation to be exact. We find out later it is owned by Harrods of Kingsbridge, a throwback to the colonial era I presume. The trip is easy, all downhill, no matter where you go from the town centre it is downhill. A small side trip resulted from me indulging in too much water at breakfast and a stop at the worst can I personally have ever had the chance to pee in.

We found the road down to the plantation and headed down.  Part way down a couple of fellows started talking to us, asking where we were from. A worker (who was sharpening his vicious looking short scythe) told us the path to the building was closed due to the landslide and we shouldn’t bother to go down.  We decided to go part way down anyway as there were a number of groups of tea pickers working and we wanted to get pics.

 

Tea Pickers

We noticed a path/road heading back to town and decided to keep walking down and connect with that path.  One of the fellows we chatted with earlier showed us a way to cut through the tea growth to avoid the slide area. Very helpful he was.

This part of our walk was what Mur was waiting for.  We definitely walked through residential Indian Darjeeling. It wasn’t the slums, it was middle class or so. Met more kids whose pics were taken.  Said hello to more folks sitting outside their homes or going about their daily routine and passed ladies wearing, crisp, clean and bright saris, walking the mud path home from their errands. Ladies doing laundry and laundry laying out to dry.

The most disturbing sight was the garbage in the water ways.  We saw a number of streams flowing down the slopes just filled with garbage. It is sad that this happens and that there is no understanding of the hazard of this practise. Again it is the ideas passed on from ‘first world nations’ to a people with no history of packaging and not helping them deal with the ever increasing amount of garbage. I don’t understand the fascination that the east has with western ideology and it only seems to cause them grief from what I can make out.

Although we did not know exactly where we were and were traveling on instinct we entered the ‘downtown’ area exactly where we wanted to. Still not at the top, we walked up on a couple of paths yet unknown to us and when we emerged we were 50 m from the hotel.

The next couple of hours were spent ass to a park bench in the Chowrasta, the central square, watching the world progress.

Lunch was at Hasty Tasty, an Indian vegetarian version of a fast food place that makes everything from scratch as it is ordered. It advertised a minimum of 30 minutes for the order to be made. Momo, pakora, and a cheese dosa all very tasty, just as the name implies. The hasty part needs a little work, but I would rather they changed the name and kept the system the same. The folks that worked there really hustled and looked like they liked the work.

Debbie was pooped, but I decided to go for another long jaunt.  I headed for the Lama Gumpa, not the official name, which was 3 km out and back in a direction we had not ventured yet. It was an OK walk to a disappointing destination but I did see another quadrant of India we had not ventured into.

I’m getting used to walking along the edge of the road with the cars buzzing so close you can feel the breeze. Most of the drivers here are somewhat cautious, there is the occasional nut but they are few. That makes it easier to trust them. I still have to remember not to get too complacent as there is only so much room on the road and it is only polite to share.

All in all, I would say to others visiting Darjeeling to allot 4 whole days. With that amount of time, most of the town could be covered at a leisurely rate. More time would be needed to visit the hinterland and do some hiking. I like the place, it is an easy entry into India, different enough to sharpen the senses but not so intense that the culture shock is overwhelming. I have the feeling that it is rather laid back by Indian standards and it makes for a great place to visit.

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Darjeeling Walkabout – September 28

Posted on September 29, 2011 by debbie

We slept in, showered and did some laundry, so we got a late start on the day.  We ate breakfast in the hotel common area.  Mur had scrambled eggs and toast and the cook was kind enough to make me some veggie fried rice. Note to self-fried rice is not enough to sustain me!

We headed out for a long walkabout of Darjeeling. Darjeeling is situated on a hill and it flows down, along and over the hill.  We decided to walk one of the roads that goes all the way around the hill. The walk started out as a “city” walk, with traffic and people and school kids and congestion and noise and smells.

Transporting goods

The further we walked, it became less of a “city” walk and more of a “country” walk. More greenery, less people and less noise.

View down below the road we are walking on

We are enjoying talking to the children.  They will usually say hello to us first, then Mur will offer to take their picture and then show them the picture.  We had many friendly encounters with these kids who laugh and smile when their picture is being taken.

We were continually heading in a downward direction and we knew to get back to Chowrasta Square, we had to start heading up, so we took a path that led up past the Tibetan Refugee Self Help Centre. The grades made it quite a climb in the sunshine and the heat, but we found ourselves back on a small road we had been to before and before long we were in Chowrasta. Ten km all in. We bought some lunch from a bakery – cheese pie for Mur, chicken in pastry for me and a cinnamon bun to share.  Grabbed a seat in the square and munched, drank water and people watched. We sat until my feet said I could move again.

We then wandered down to the taxi stand to inquire about a taxi to Kalimpong for Friday. Only found one taxi operation that advertised going to Kalimpong and they charge Rs 1200 to rent the whole vehicle. Since then we have talked to a few more taxis that charge up to Rs 1800 for the trip.  We talked about paying Rs 90 each and going in the same size vehicle but with 11 other paying passengers. 4 in the back, 4 in the middle and 3 plus the driver in the front. If we were in our twenties and wanted to stretch our travel money as far as it could go, we would be doing this.  We decided that comfort is a big factor for us, and we are going to spend $25 instead of $4. OUCH!

We ran into a young Spanish couple, in their mid-twenties, and had a great chat with them.  They had been traveling in India for 17 days and had just loved it.  This was their last stop before heading home. It was encouraging to see them so excited about traveling. We even talked about the Vuelta (a bike race recently held in Spain) as the young couple had gone to watch a stage of the race.

After parting from the Spaniards, we headed into the commercial district to look for an adapter for our 3 prang plug.  After a few tries, we ended up in a hardware store talking to an older fellow. His English was amazing, so Mur asked him how he got his English so precise.  He said that in school he had to learn to read in English. He had an adapter that we all thought would work so Mur tried to bargain with him.  After some fun, he paid Rs 130 instead of Rs 135! (It cost about $3 CDN.)

A colourful house along our route

The walk we were on was mostly on main type roads – not enough back roads for Mur, so the next day we are going to go on another walk and see if we can get down some back roads or residential roads to see how the locals live.

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It’s So Real

Posted on September 28, 2011 by murray

The security at the Kolkata airport is vaguely similar to most airports in the world. There are a few differences. First, checked baggage gets x-rayed before going to the check-in counter and each of the airlines has an x-ray machine of their own. All of the equipment is randomly spaced throughout the concourse and makes for a not to orderly experience. The bags get tagged and then they can be checked. The other weird thing is that the boys and the girls go through security in different lines. I mentioned before that this still seems to matter in India.

The flight from Kolkata to Bagdogra is uneventful and is spent mostly……SLEEPING!

Bagdogra. OK Debbie “it’s showtime.” We are all prepared for an on-slot of over exuberant taxi drivers and lo and behold there is a pre-paid taxi booth. 1295 Rs for an entire cab to Darjeeling. $30. It is 90 km and will take 3 hrs says the man. Even though we can do it cheaper with a shared jeep, we go for it. The share jeep option incorporates 12 people on 3 bench seats in a normal wide jeep and that does not sound like it is to be too comfortable.

We hit the road. Two minutes into the trip and we know this is India. It is so real. There are cars and trucks bumper to bumper, bicycles, pedestrians, cows, and assorted other obstacles all on a road 1/2 as wide as a Canadian residential street, just like the pictures you have seen. The vehicles are not necessarily moving on the side of the street that they are suppose to but everything works. It is a ballet. Very organic driving. Everything flows and it works quite well. No matter how well it works, I still do not think I would ride my bike on the road here.

The other thing that is so distinctive about India is the odor. I have read that before and wondered what it meant. As soon as we landed there was this dank smell of decaying matter with sort of a smoky overtones.

The condition of the road is questionable in some spots. The road looks like it used to be just like our roads – not too many potholes.  Now there are whole sections of the paving gone and we are driving on the rocks laid below the paving.  BUMPITY BUMP! We were told it was bad and bad it was, I cannot remember ever being on a road that bad, anywhere.

We drive on flat terrain for awhile and then we spot hills.  And up we go.  Some of the grades are very steep and I wonder whether our little Mitsubishi van (Happy Bus size for those in the know) will make it up.  We climb forever, at times our speed is slower than a snail’s crawl. The scenery is gorgeous and Mur is taking pictures through the window like mad. At one point we headed into the clouds and it felt like we were heading to Shangri-la.

Three and a half hours after we started, we arrived in Darjeeling in one piece and got out of the taxi in one of the central squares. One of the hotels that made our short list, The Dekeling, was right there so we went in.  They had a room available for 3 nights and we took it.

The Dekeling is owned by Tibetans.  There are many Tibetans and Nepalese working here.  The staff are super friendly and have even lent us an adapter so we can actually charge our computer. These people just confirm what we learned last year in Tibet….that Tibetans are the most friendly people!

The room is a little worse for wear, but it is clean and no bugs. It has a slight musty smell from not enough dry air blowing through. It’s also a little dark as a couple of the lights do not work. But how long do you stay in your room anyway!

Dinner that night was at the restaurant below the hotel, called the Dekevas.  A Tibetan/Chinese/American restaurant. We had a tasty meal of rice, veggie momos, veggie soup and Chilly Chicken Boneless Dry.  The food hit the spot.

As in Bonaire, we went back to the room, Debbie fell asleep and Murray wrote a post.

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And So It Begins

Posted on September 28, 2011 by murray

I don’t know how many days we have strung together, but I do know that we are trying to put out a blog each day and that does not make any sense the way the days and hours meld when you are traveling against the clock.

Our first big glitch. Last year in preparation for visiting China we purchased a skookum electrical plug adapter. It works really well for most things. It has the plugs required for all over the world but it does not have the North American plug that has a ground, commonly known in Canada as the 3 prang prong. Our new netbook has a 3 prang prong.  We brought our netbook along to blog and enable us to post each day and now we are not sure we can even charge the computer.  I know, I know, shoulda checked before we left home.

Frankfurt airport, although large, is alright and easy to navigate. Last night on the way back to the hotel, Debbie and I counted 10 visible planes in the air. It is an amazingly busy airport.

Frankfurt to Kolkata. The plane is full to the nuts, every single seat is taken. English is no longer the dominant language, although it seems to be the “go to” language when folks with different mother tongues converse.

The plane lands. We get on an airport bus, and you know you are in India. I’m guessing the buses are 50 yrs. old. They are not handicap friendly, the stairs are 30cm high for each 15cm tread. But they still work and they provide a person with a job to drive us the 150M we could have easily walked.

Immigration is OK, customs is easy and everybody speaks English (to some degree). The air terminal is also worse for wear. It is 11pm and the crowds are not looking that bad. We’re looking for the Airport Manager’s Office in search of a ‘retiring room’ (a bed in the airport for passengers in transit). Folks in the office only speak rudimentary English. We fail in our goal. No room at the inn. There was a dorm bed in the men’s dorm but none in the ladies. They still differentiate such things in India.

We have 2 fall back plans. Plan ‘B’ is we try to stay at the Hotel Airways. According to their web site, the hotel is supposed to be “just across from Gate 2”. Trouble was it was late at night, dark, in unknown area of an unknown city and we have no way of determining if there is even a room available.

Plan ‘C’, sleep in the airport departure lounge and I use the term lounge loosely. We are in the international terminal and in the morning we’re leaving from the domestic terminal. Close by but a totally different entity. The other minor detail is that there are armed guards (machine guns) at all of the doors and if we leave the terminal we are in, the guards at the other terminal may not let us in which would mean we would have spend the night outdoors or go back to Plan ‘B’.

We live dangerous and decide to spend the night on the departure lounge benches. We gather our wits, walk out of the first terminal and head towards the domestic building. Only one tout accosts us as we leave and we basically ignore him, he goes away. We walk maybe 5 mins. and arrive looking into a completely vacated domestic terminal. We keep walking until we reach the far end of the building and the entrance doors are open, with the gun toting army guys as guards. We sweet talk our way in even though our plane ride is over 12 hours away.

There is quite a gathering on the other side of the night and they all look like they are here for the night. (Like the airports in the western world would let that happen.) The prime sleeping spots are already taken long before we arrived.  There are some folks sleeping on the tile (on concrete) floor. Debbie and I find a relatively quite corner and TRY to get some sleep.

There is lots of hubbub and we manage to doze on and off until 4 or 5.  At 4am the plane action starts up, the hubbub increases.

The place is actually quite secure. You can’t even get in without a plane ticket and who would chance stealing something with a machine gun packing army guy at each door. Can’t say one can get much sleep though.

The airport itself is old and since a new one is being built maintenance on both airports is being done to a minimum. It does provide the place with a git of character. The new one looks like any one of a dozen glitzy airports elsewhere. It’s not very clean. I can’t compare it to India in general yet because it is the one and only place we have been to this point. I can say I would not sleep on the floor even if the seating is the standard airport issue, designed to discourage its use as a bed.

We decided to try and take an earlier flight. Jet Air was perfectly willing to do that but they only have one flight to Bagdogra a day and 12:20 is it. The system will not let us into the flight gate until 2 hrs before the flight time so we sit in the waiting area patiently counting down the hours. We did find a bench with 2 broken arm rests and Debbie managed to get a little more sleep – in a horizontal position.

Interesting night spent within the local culture. Go with the flow, don’t worry too much about the creature comforts and save a buck or two by not staying at a hotel. I’ve done all that before but it was because of my hippie background which, for the most part, is somewhat counter culture. Spending the night on the airport floor seems like an acceptable thing to do here.

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Frankfurt on a Sunday

Posted on September 25, 2011 by debbie

Arriving in Frankfurt on Sunday was the perfect accident. After checking into the Ibis Hotel near the airport, we walked to the nearest train station and took the train into downtown Frankfurt. Being a Sunday, everyone was out and about.  Families, seniors, lovers, friends, tourists. The downtown area felt very welcoming with so many people out.

Our first order of business was to find food.  Had pizza and teriyaki chicken with rice and veggies in the Urban Kitchen, and then headed out for a long walk.  Frankfurt is filled with pedestrian only streets and squares.

Along the river, there were people sunning, playing, singing, and picnicking. It was very relaxing to wander amongst all these locals enjoying the sunny day.  We headed across a pedestrian bridge towards the Keiserdom Church, a huge cathedral built for magnificence.

We wandered and wandered and suddenly realized we were lost, asked directions and got back on the right path back to the train station.

While we ate, we talked about a photographic theme for our trip, and decided that it is going to be colour and movement.

Tomorrow we head to Kolkata and India. Touch base soon.

Debbie

Mur’s 2 bits worth

Air Canada redeemed itself a slight bit on the flight from Calgary to Frankfurt yesterday. The airplane had some room. Probably more Boeing than AC but at least, not very big me, had some room. Then the hosts were actually pleasant, or at least 2 of the 3 were. Somewhat beyond pleasant, they were downright happy. Then they served dinner, pasta, and it was actually quite good. I hope this is a trend for the future.

I do not understand why so many people get as far into life without understanding that they exist with numerous other humans. Most of the people on the plane are asleep and some jackass opens the blind, to read, maybe???? There are task lights that shine exactly where ones holds their book so why does this guy have to illuminate three or four rows of the plane? But the entire world revolves around him I guess.

Landed in Frankfurt before but have never left the airport. Today we stepped outside, got to the Ibis Hotel close to the airport in a small town called Kelsterbach. The reviews about the hotel say it is not such good a place to stay mostly because it is in an industrial area. It is, but if the people writing the reviews had made a short walk of about 15 minutes, they would have discovered the nice little town of Kelsterbach.  There are several restaurants and the town is quite pretty. We have to stay here on our return trip so we have decided to explore it rather than going back into Frankfurt.

Germany is leaving a good impression on us. The first person we talked to was an agent for Lufthansa Airlines. He was extremely nice, answered all of our crazy tourist questions and still had a little time to kibitz. Everything has gone smooth from the time our feet touched the ground here until we returned back to the hotel a short while ago.

Frankfurt looks like a likely place to make a longer stopover sometime. There are lots of museums, galleries and theatres that can be taken in and even though it is quite big it does not seem too scary. It was a great day to start our trip.

It’s bedtime now.

Ciao

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