Siliguri....our second Calcutta

12.04.2008 to 14.04.2008 Out of the train station we were attacked by jeep drivers shouting ‘Darjeeling, Darjeeling’...it took us quite some time to convince them that we did not want to go to Darjeeling. Instead we took a pre-paid auto rickshaw to town. The drive was a dangerous one to say the least. The auto-rickshaw is similar to a tuk-tuk which is basically a small carriage pushed by a motor-bike, with one particular feature... the drivers tend to forget that they have a carriage behind them. So off we went, riding like hell, approximately nearly killing three people on our way, in a town where we concluded Shcumacher had had his training before starting his racing career....Siliguri....a miniature of Calcutta....a hateful shit hole full of cars, noise and pollution. No not again!!!! Our only consolation was that this was only for a couple of days until we make our way to visit Jaldaphara Wildlife Sanctuary. Here Janet tried for the very first time her salwar kamazee, but unluckily, nothing changed, the staring was there to remain. We managed pretty easily to find the tourist information office where we learned that we could easily take a train to Jaldaphara...this option attracted us much more than the bus. Back at our guesthouse we decided to take a short nap before going to check out the train times for the following morning. At around six we set off, heading for the booking office. A few metres away from our guesthouse Janet had a small accident. A beggar pushed into Yakof asking for money as Janet was stepping down off the pavement, spraining her ankle badly in the process. The pain was atrocious and she nearly fainted....in fact she barely made it back to the guesthouse. Yakof carried her all the way up to the first floor and left her to get some ice for her swollen foot. He came back with two ice-lollies which served the purpose anyway. Once the lollies melted, we made it slowly up to our room....in the third floor. Janet had to hop all the way up on one foot. Back in the room, she spent the rest of the day and the following one, in bed for her foot to heal. This meant that we did not make it to Jaldaphara the following day, but luckily, the foot was healing quickly, so we made it there the following day. The train ride was an enjoyable one. We had to spend the first thirty minutes seated on the floor as there was no place....after that a local gave up his seat to let us sit and from there it was a very comfortable ride. As we approached our destination some kids came on the train. One of the girls sat next to Yakof....she looked like a little woman, with her salwar kameeze and jingle bangles. Her ways was very relaxed as well as she eased herself comfortably with her hand on Yakof's foot. Janet, from her end, shared her seat with two small girls and a boy. Once at Jaldaphara we were up for a dissapointment....we were too late to get a jeep or elephant ride....all we could do was a 12km tour sort of thing which was not worth it at all. So we decided to head back to Siliguri, straight away since and overnight stay threre was incredibly expensive. Unluckily the bus ride was not as comfortable or picturesce, especially considering the fact that for all the way, around four hours in total, the bus screened a Bollywood movie, at full volume. We arrived in Siliguri at around 4 o'clock, starved. We headed towards Monarch restaurant and had some very nice indian food there. Back at our guesthouse we packed everything to prepare for our next destination......Darjeeling.

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OFF TO INDIA.....!!!!!!

India....it gets a smile to our faces to recall what different people told us about this place. Whatever you hear or read does not prepare you for the real thing. India is literally and assault to all the senses.... it's something totally unique, both in good and bad ways...what is experienced cannot be fully described in words. Try it and you will understand.

Unbelievable Calcutta (08.03.2008 to 11.03.2008) The two and a half hours flight went pretty smooth, though it took us quite a while to get our luggages. On our way out of the airport we were welcomed by some eight taxi drivers all offering us their service with a smile on their face. One of them was so kind to offer us a ride for Rs800 (which by Indian standard is a hell of a lot of money). We settled for a friendly looking guy who offered us the ride for only Rs 250...and off we went on his vehicle : an English-style, English-time, yellow cab with an equally old, non-functional taxi metre. The ride towards the centre of Calcutta was an experience by itself, and the action started as soon as we were nearing the centre. We were welcomed by a horde of vehicles, mostly public buses and taxis all jammed into each other....we could literally spit at the person seated in the vehicle next to us (which, by way of note, is not so uncommon in India...). Our ears were literally violated by the disarming hooting of the horns, irrelevant of what the vehicle was doing, the driver used the horn for an in numerous number of times. Needless to say this landed us at our guesthouse with a terrible headache. On the way our eyes feasted on the joyous colours of the saris and salwar kameezes worn by the Indian women. Most of the women, especially if they are Hindu, wore these traditional clothes. The diversity and beauty of the colours is impressive. This came as a big contrast to the dullness and gravity of the beggars occupying some corners of the streets. After around ninety minutes we finally made it to our destination and settled at the Salvation Army Guesthouse. We had a good room with shower inside for a good price. After checking in we immediately made our way to a tailor as we thought it was a good idea for Janet to get a couple of salwar kamezee done, so as not to attract too much attention. This proved to be a fascinating experience. The salesman asked us to sit comfortably, offered us some chai (tea with masala spice) and started showing us a huge amount of different cottons (all based on Janet's favourite colours : orange and maroon). It was nearly impossible to settle for something as all of them were beautiful, but she had to. We chose two particular designs and the tailor came to take Janet's measurements. The salwar would be ready on Friday, which unluckily meant we had to spend three more days in Calcutta! We decided to head on to a small tour of the surroundings. This proved to be a very tiring experience given the amount of Indians who tried to talk us into going to the shopping mall or to buy something from their shops. Before we mentioned that India was an assault to all senses. We tackled hearing as regards to the car horns; sight as regards to the colourful clothes of the Indian women. Next comes smell. The smells which hits you when you walk along the roads where the street stalls stand is capturing. The food, spices, chai together with everything else just engulfs your senses. This is then mixed with another kind of smell...that of dirt, pee and other unmentionable things which hit these roads as well. After a tiring hour getting round we decided to head back to our guesthouse. On the way to the guesthouse we met Ska and Carm and decided to have dinner at Zurich Restaurant. At first we were a little bit apprehensive on what to order given Indian food's reputation of being very spicy. Our experience proved totally satisfactory. We savoured some excellent thali which consists of a selection of different dishes, usually served in small bowls on a round tray. The round tray is generally made with steel with multiple compartments. Typical dishes include rice, dal, vegetables, chapati, papad, curd (yoghurt), small amounts of chutney or pickle, and a sweet dish to top it. Thus, after this meal, we had tickled yet another one of our senses....taste. After dinner we headed for a drink and then straight back to our guesthouse. Before we settled down to sleep Yakof noticed that he had something moving on his bed. When we switched on the light we discovered that his bed was infested with our persistent enemies the bed bugs!!! There were some thirty of them...all on Yakof's mattresses. He did his best to kill them but eventaully he gave up and went to complain at the reception. The person on duty came to have a look, smiled and said that , yes, they were bed bugs (as if we needed any further confirmation), but there was nothing they could do until the following morning. In conclusion, we had to sleep two on one single bed, so one can imagine the comfort of our first night in Calcutta. The following morning we woke up to discover that the bed bugs had feasted on Yakof’s blood galore. He had bites all over his feet and hands and even in his scalp! Luckily enough, Janet was spared. As soon as we went out from our room we discovered a number of mattresses all thrown on the floor. Yakof’s complaint had raised a whole chain of complaints from the entire guesthouse....everyone had bed bugs in their rooms....but we definetely outnumbered the rest. Our second day in Calcutta was dedicated to quite a lot of walking. First we went to the tourist information office to get some information on the trains to Darjeeling and the Jaldaphara Wildlife Sanctuary. Then, after a small rest at our guesthouse, we headed to the computerised booking office to book our train tickets to New Jalpaiguri. We decided not to head directly towards Darjeeling but to make a deviation towards Siliguri to be able to visit the Jaldaphara Wildlife Sanctuary. Walking in the streets of Calcutta proved to be an extremely tiring experience. Apart from the cars honking their horns, the number of people hitting the road is incredible. Adding to this, the fact that most of them stopped to literally stare at Janet, results in a very irritating experience. We eventually started to realise that they were not mainly staring at her but mostly at her hair. And when we say staring we mean staring, the open-mouthed kind of staring, like they were seeing some kind of alien from another planet. The evening proved to be a much more pleasant experience. We dined at a very nice restaurant, Peter Cat, where we stimulated our taste buds to some exquisite Indian food. One thing which bugged us the most in Calcutta were the beggars. First and foremost it’s the fact that they mainly ask charity to foreigners, as if we have more money than their Indian compatriots!! Second is the fact that they grab us sometimes to ask for charity...it gets really on our nerves. Most of the beggars begging on main streets, like Park Street and Chowringee are given the privilege to work on those roads in exchange for a big chunck of their ‘earnings’. That is why we were really put off from giving any charity. On our third day we went to visit the Victoria Memorial which basically represents a memorial to Queen Victoria. Though we set off with the intention of visiting the place we changed our minds when we saw that foreigners are charged Rs150 to enter the place whilst Indian only Rs20!!! We do accept the reality of having to pay more than Indians but this was a total rip-off. So we settled just to go inside the garden, which cost us just a minimal fee. After spending some time in the gardens we headed off for lunch and then back to our guesthouse for a three-hour nap...it was the first time we really actually slept since we have been in India. We said our goodbyes to Ska and Carm as they were heading towards Darjeeling that same night.... Our last day (thankfully) in Calcutta was spent in much of a relaxed way. We checked out of our room and left our back packs for storage. We checked our emails and went to have breakfast. We spent most of the time at our guesthouse playing cards or reading and in between we went to pick up Janet’s clothes, which were really gorgeous. We set off to find a taxi for the train station at around 19:30. The short drive was quite frightening considering the way our taxi driver was zig-zaging in between vehicles. We were at the train station two hour prior to our departure, so we settled down on two chairs and looked at the crowd flowing by...or rather should we say the crowd flowing by were looking at us. Janet wonders whether she will get used to it....if we had to ask for Rs1 from each person that looks at her we would cover the cost of our trip :) The train came on time and we were pleased with our ‘beds’...just the two of us right next to the window. The engine of the train started, we settled comfortable in our seats, and prepared for the night journey towards New Jalpaiguri.

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Chilled out Rayong and Hectic Bangkok

07.03.2008 to 03.04.2008

Rayong...our home for nearly a month. It was nice to settle in one place for some time and establish some kind of routine. Our decision on whether or not to stay in Rayong for a month changed a million times. First we decided to stay for a month to save some money from our daily budget to make up for the tickets we purchased to India. As soon as we got to the place we changed our mind as it was different from what we expected. So after talking it over we decided to stay for three days in a small and cheap room and then head to one of the islands. This decision changed again a couple of minutes later and we decided to stay for the month taking the ocean room view. If we had to stay for such a long stay at least we had to make it worth it. We drafted our budget plan for the coming month and it made sense. So the final decision was taken...we were staying in Rayong. Needless to say we chose the best room...luckily we were the only guests at the time! Janet was happy to settle for a while as she could have a 'toileteries' corner, a 'clothes' corner, a 'kitchen' corner, a 'shoes' corner, a 'laundry' corner...it was quite comforting to have all these corners around a 36 square metre room. We also had the luxury of a balcony... the same size of the room!!. So that was it... we where happily settled, unless one considers two 'small' instances which occured in the first couple of days. Well the term 'small' is appropriate as the main characters were insects! The first situation had Janet's good friends, the bloody cockroaches, twenty-five of them, madly running all over our balcony as soon as the rain started hitting.... it was a disgusting scene! The second instance was much worse...main character...bed bugs!! It was the first time ever that they hit us...and hit us they did...with a 'carnivourous' appetite. Yakof was their first victim...they tortured him....draining most of his blood (well this last part is a bit exagerated). Janet was struck on the second day, though not as badly as Yakof. The most irritating part of this story (apart from the fact that we could not leave as we had just paid the owner one month in advance to get a 40% discount) was that the owner was failing to admit that the bites were bed bugs. He insisted it could not be the case as there was a man who stayed in the same room just before us for about three weeks. We tried to explain that individuals differ from one to the other but this information, apparently, did not hit the right spot. At last we managed to get him to change our mattresses and get some sleep. It would have been a pity to leave the place, especially given all the organised 'corners' we had. After that day we never got bitten again. A couple of days after we got to Rayong, Carm, Lee and Kaiah joined. They spent some days there before deciding to hit off to Koh Chang. It was the last time we were seeing Lee and Kaiah as they were heading back to South Africa. Ska also joined us there for a couple of weeks. And the days went by with a kind of day-to-day routine. We woke up, opened all curtains and windows to let the breeze come in, get fresh milk to eat our cereal. After breakfast (which time-wise ranged anything between 09:30 to 13:00) we either read a book or India Lonely Planet. Then we either spent some time on the internet or played cards or go for a swim. Eventually at around 17:30 we started cooking our dinner. Yes, that's right, we bought an electric wok, a kettle and food supplies for a month...well our food variety did not go far but it was satisfying. Sometimes it was rice with tuna, tomatoes and corn, sometimes past with tomato and garlic sauce, one-time french toast, sometimes instant noodles...but definetely our most important ingredient was pepper which we used in everything!! Every other day we indulged ourselves in some luxury like a Kit Kat, or better still, an ice-cream. After dinner we would either watch a dvd downstairs or on our own, or spend the rest of the night talking about different topics. Without any doubt our most important activity in Rayong was being lazy. It's impressive in how many ways you can do that. The options are vast. Waking up at 13:00 and sleeping again after breakfast; doing nothing on a hammock; bathing in the sea; easing oneself on one side to play cards and then changing eventually to the other side; turning slowly the pages of a book and having a break by playing solitaire....etc. One of the most important things here is see all of Prison Break Season 2.... Getting back to those horrendous creatures which are labelled as insects, we have to declare we saw the worst one ever till now. A huge flying creature, black in colour and enermous in dimension. Luckily Yakof stopped it from coming into the room but, in so doing, the balcony door came off!!! It was already on its way to break irrespective of the many times we asked the owner to have a look at it. And now it was sacrificed in favour of the prospect of not sharing the night with the horrendous creature. We finished it off with an overdoes of Baygon. We called the owner to come and have a look at the door...which he did...and he announced after a couple of minutes that we had no more door...and just walked out!!! We thought he might back to tell us to change the room or something of the sort but this never happened. So we sat looking at each other for some moments before Yakof (who by the way was very pissed off) came up with the idea of borrowing a mosquito net from another room and use it as screen. And so was our door for the rest of our stay....

One of our days was dedicated to visiting Koh Samet.

We made our way to the ferry at around 08:30 and spent till around 15:30 on the island. We managed to avoid the 200 Baht entrance fee by walking round the main entrance. We walked around some of the island's beaches and stopped at one particular quite one. We made friends with a dog there and Yakof spent some time shell collecting. We moved on to another beach where we found a ferry point, which saved us from having to walk all the way back to where we had docked. We started to settle in the white sand of this beach and hit off the cool sea. We were really enjoying our swim until Yakof landed his foot on a sea urchin...and unluckily that was the end of our fun. Although he manged to remove part of the urchin, some of it was still stuck inside which was quite painful. We made our way towards the nearby restaurant and decided to have lunch there. At 15:30 we took the ferry back to Ban Phe. Given the late hour we were finding problems to find transport back to our guesthouse. After some miserable tries, we met with a songthaw (local transport) full of teachers who were kind enough to let us join them. We were already dreading of going back all the way on foot, especially Yakof considering his mishap.

The rest of our days in Rayong went by slowly and gently until the day we actually had to leave. We both felt a bit sad to leave this place, a place which we had started to consider a little bit like home...it was like leaving Malta a second time....without the hearthace though. Leaving Rayong to head to Bangkok was a greater heartache, but the thought of India coming up the following week filled our hearts with pure excitement....

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04.04.2008 to 07.04.2008

Back in Bangkok for the last days in preperation for our trip to India. It's our third time in Bangkok now and we are starting to feel pretty at ease at this place. The most important thing we had to get done here was the visa application for India, which we got a couple of days before we left.... a 6 months multiple entry visa.

The rest of the days were spent pursuing one mission....eating :) We wanted to make sure to eat, as much as possible, food which we thought could not be found in India....mainly beef!! This mission was totally accomplished.

So we made sure everything was settled before we left...pending matters in Malta, stuff for storage, stuff to be sent back to Malta, visa and passport copies, exchange of Thai bahts for Indian rupees. This is it....we are leaving Thailand for good now and head towards our ultimate destination.....India!