Holiday in India & Bhutan (8): journey to Bhutan
October 9th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
Wednesday was totally a travelling day. In our convoy of six SUVs, we left the Mayfair Hotel in Darjeeling, India (where we had spent three nights) at 8.45 am and finally arrived at the Phuntsholing Hotel in Phuntsholing, Bhutan (where we will spend one night) at 6.30 pm India time and 7 pm Bhutan time – a journey of almost 10 hours.
We did stop three times: a comfort stop at the delightfully-named Mungpoo, another comfort stop somewhere between Anywhere and Nowhere, and lunch at resort called Sinclair’s Retreat in the town of Chalsa.
The real problem came shortly after we left Chalsa. The road we intended to take was closed by the police and we had to take a massive detour though a succession of tea plantations.
When we made it to Jiagon on the Indian side of the border, it was already dark. Here we had to show our India visa again, have a departure stamp in our passport, and then have the passport examined by a second set of officials. Both sets of officials wrote our details in notebook and there was no computer in sight.
We pushed our way through a local market and then, miraculously and mysteriously, we found an entry point in a wall which took us to Bhutan passport control, where we had to show our Bhutan visa and passport (they used a computer to note the details) before entering the country at the border town of Phuntsholing where it was raining and there was thunder and lighting.
It was all a bit like ‘Alice Through The Looking Glass’ – but we are here.
The people of Bhutan call their nation Druk Yul which means ‘the land of the Thunder Dragon’ because of the constant storms which roar in front of the Himalayas. The United Nations only recognised Bhutan as a country in 1974 and Bhutan only allowed (limited) television and internet access in 1999. It is the only country in the world that measures Gross National Happiness.
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Holiday in India & Bhutan (7): Darjeeling
October 8th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
Jenny and I missed the sunrise yesterday but today (Tuesday), together with Gavin and Ann from our group, we caught it. Rising at 4.45 am, it was a mere 10 minute walk from our hotel to a local viewing point for the sun’s appearance at 5.33 am.
It was a magical experience: only a few local people there and clear skies with just a few lines of cloud. Once the sun was up, the birds tweeted and girls from a nearby school sang.
As well as the sunrise, we had wonderful views of the world’s third highest mountain, Kanchenjunga (28,189 feet or 8,586 metres). The only higher mountains are Mount Everest (29,032 feet) and K2 (28,251 feet).
Kanchenjunga means ‘the five treasures of the high snow’ and the local Lhopo people believe that the treasures are hidden but reveal themselves to the devout when the world is in peril. This would seem to be the right time for such a revelation, but clearly we are not devout enough.
Starting at 9 am, our tour group spent the whole day in downtown Darjeeling. The weather was mild (20C) and the town was bustling with celebration of the Durga Puja festival which starts today. We seemed to be the only tourists.
Our Indian guide Kiran took around and provided information. A highlight was the Chowk Bazaar with stalls side by side and opposite each other on narrow lanes selling all kinds of food and clothing especially. We had one stop for tea tasting at a place called “Golden Tips”. A few colonial buildings remain, including the Anglian church of St Andrew’s and the main post office which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
After this morning tour, we had a free afternoon. Jenny and I had lunch with some other group members at a restaurant called “Glenary’s” which was founded in 1885. Then we strolled around, making a few purchases and having a drink at a former colonial building which is now the Windamere Hotel. We were back at the hotel soon after 4 pm so it was a less busy day.
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Holiday in India & Bhutan (6): Ghoom and Darjeeling
October 7th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
On Monday, hardy members of the GRJ group were out at the incredibly early hour of 4 am to travel to a location called Tiger Hill to view the sunrise, but Jenny and I did not make it.
Travel was at a minimum today.
First, we returned to the ‘toy train’, this time reversing our travel to make the short trip (about an hour) from Darjeeling back to Ghoom with a brief scenic stop at a place called Batasia. The main difference from the previous day’s rail travel was that today we had a steam locomotive. One of our group, clearly a rail enthusiast, told us that this steam engine was built in 1925 at the North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow and carries the name ‘Iron Sherpa’.
Next, at Ghoom, we visited the Yiga Choling Monastery, the oldest in the area, having been established in1850. The main distinguishing feature of this monastery is the Maltreya Buddha who is the Buddha of the future, born to teach enlightenment in the next age. It dominates the interior, standing 15 feet (4.6 metres) tall.
Darjeeling is a motorists’ nightmare and today we spent an inordinate amount of time with our convoy of six cars reduced to limping mode, when we were not actually halted still. It took us so long to drive from Ghoom back to our hotel in Darjeeling and it took the hotel staff so long to process our simple lunch order of toasted sandwiches that we finished up eating in the cars on the way to our afternoon destinations.
These two locations are co-located in the same grounds.
First, we strolled around the Himalayan Zoological Park where saw the red panda, the black bear, the Sonbar deer, the blue sheep, the yak, the Mishmi takin, the common leopard, the snow leopard, the snow tiger, the Himalayan wolf and – my favourite – the Royal Bengal tiger.
Next, we had a quick look around the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute whose exhibits include objects from the first expedition to conquer Mount Everest. On that historic occasion in 1953, the British Edmund Hillary was accompanied by the Nepalese-Indian Tenzing Norgay and the latter has his tomb and a statue outside the museum.
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Holiday in India & Bhutan (5): journey to Darjeeling
October 6th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
Next day (Sunday) was essentially about transferring from our hotel in Siliguri (where we spent just one night) to our hotel in Darjeeling (where we will spend three nights). Part of the journey was by road when we were transported by a convoy of six cars. Part of the journey was by a very special railway.
But first we visited the Buddhist shrine of Salugara Monastery just outside Siliguri.This is believed to have been built by the Tibetan Lama, Kanu Rinpoche, and it is notable for its ‘super’ stupa of 100 feet (30 metres). Here our local guide took the opportunity to give us a short talk on the recent history of the region and the main features of Buddhism.
We then started our road trip and stopped after about an hour to stand in a rice field where our local guide gave us an explanation of how the British brought tea cultivation to the region and how there are different types and different flavours of tea.
At this stage, the terrain changed dramatically and we rose steeply though a series of no fewer than 27 steep bends on a single-lane road, which necessitated much hooting or horns and squeezing past other vehicles. It was sometimes hair-raising and stomach-churning, but it was always scenic and exciting.
It was a drive of about a further half hour to reach the town of Kurseong which is located at a height of 4,864 feet (1,483 metres). Here we had lunch at “The Cochrane Place”, a former British colonial house full of all sorts of memorabilia.
Kurseong is a major station on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. Completed in 1881, the the rail line was the brainchild of Franklin Prestage, the agent of the East Bengal State Railway and today it is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Compared to most of the country’s railways, this one is narrow gauge: just two foot (0.6 metre). Unlike other railway line, this one has a tiny, steam-driven locomotive which is used for some trips, although our particular locomotive was diesel-powered but still small.
Over its full length, the railway climbs from about 330 feet (100 metres) above sea level at New Jalpaiguri to about 6,812 feet (2,076 metres). The train hits its zenith at Ghoom,the highest train station in India at 7,407 feet (2,258 metres) before trundling the last four miles (6 kms) to Darjeeling.
We travelled on a single carriage train – with no toilet – over the stretch from Kurseong to Darjeeling which took us almost three hours.
Since the railway is followed by a single-lane road, right alongside it, and since it runs through many small towns, almost brushing houses and shops in those settlements, the piercing warning hoots are continual. Since it is an effort for the small engine to pull carriages and passengers up this constant incline, the steelwheels continuously shriek on the tracks.
As if this wasn’t atmospheric enough, there was the weather: sometimes it rained, sometimes it tried to shine, and the rest of the time it was overcast with thick mist. The journey invited photographs but movement, weather, vegetation and buildings made it really hard to take good photos. However, I did make a short video.
The most notable feature of Darjeeling is its altitude: 6,811 feet (2,076 metres).
In the early 19th century, during East India Company rule in India, Darjeeling was identified as a potential summer retreat for British officials, soldiers and their families. The narrow mountain ridge was leased from the Kingdom of Sikkim, and eventually annexed to British India.
Experimentation with growing tea on the slopes below Darjeeling was highly successful. Thousands of labourers were recruited chiefly from Nepal to clear the forests, build European-style cottages, and work in the tea plantations.
Today, the city is sandwiched in a corner of India – known as ‘the chicken’s neck’ – with Nepal to the west, Bhutan to the east, China to the north and Bangladesh to the south. It is has a small population of about 120,000 which includes a large community of Tibetans exiled from their homeland following the Chinese occupation.
Having left out hotel in Siliguri at 9.15 am, we reached our hotel in Darjeeling – the splendid Mayfair Hotel – at 6 pm, so it was another long day but a really enjoyable one.
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Holiday in India & Bhutan (4): journey to Shiliguri
October 6th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
There is an early start and then there is an EARLY start. On Saturday, my plan was an alarm at 3 am, bags out at 3.45 am, gather in hotel reception at 4 am, and bus to leave for the railway station at 4.15 am. That was the plan. The phone in my hotel room rang at 4 am. I had forgotten to set my alarm! So, no shaving, no showering, no coffee (!). In 15 minutes flat, I was dressed, packed and down in reception, feeling both confused and embarrassed.
We arrived at Howrah Junction in good time to face a fascinating scenario: a huge railway station with thousands of people, literally hundreds asleep on the floors, baggage of every size and description, and announcements of all sorts barring forth.
Compared to my last experience of an intercity train in India (2003), this was a revelation: on the Vande Bharat Express, we were in an air-conditioned carriage with Executive Class seats, Indian and Western style toilets, food and drink (although our guide advised us to stick to the hotel-provided breakfast pack), and even WiFi (if you had an Indian mobile to receive a passcode).
We left Kolkata promptly at 5.55 am, travelled north, and reached New Jalpaiguri (NJP) at 1.35 pm (just 10 minutes late in a journey of seven and a half hours). The views were scenic but repetitive: mostly one green field after another after another, originally rice and then tea. As the journey progressed, we left behind grey sky and the sun came out in a blue and clouded sky.
NJP was like a scene from a Bollywood movie: an undulating sea of colourfully-dressed people jostling for position. Coolies took our suitcases out to the car park, two on each head. We were followed by little children begging, touching us and then their mouths. A set of hired cars took the group members from New Jalpaiguri to the town of Siliguri where we checked into the Lemon Tree Hotel.
We arrived over an hour later than scheduled (3.10 pm) so, after a very early and very basic breakfast, we had a very late, but satisfying, lunch. The rest of the day was free and Jenny and I walked to a local shopping centre where there was a Marks & Spencer and a Starbucks – the reach of global brands.
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Holiday in India & Bhutan (3): Kolkata
October 5th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
It must be admitted that our arrival in Kolkata had been somewhat underwhelming: dazed with jet lag, no sightseeing, and a huge thunderstorm. But the next day (Friday) was utterly different and totally magical.
We left the hotel at 9 am and were not back until 5.45 am, so a day of almost nine hours, but we saw so much – and, although the weather was very gloomy and very humid, it was dry.
First stop was the Mallick Ghat Flower Market.This is one of the largest flower markets in India and, having started in 1855, one of the oldest. It is located underneath the Howrah Bridge, alongside the railway tracks and next to the Mallick Ghat (a ghat is a series of steps leading down to a body of water, in this case the Hooghly River, and something I saw previously in Varanasi).
It is a large, sprawling, nosy market where every day fresh flowers are constructed into elaborate and decorative structures for weddings and festivals. On our visit, the focus of activity was the forthcoming festival of Durga Puja which is massive in West Bengal. Two things struck me: all the work was done by men with hardly any women in sight and all these flowers must cost a lot of money in a country where most people are very poor
Our next destination was the Railway Museum. I confess that railway locomotives are not my thing – my interest is aircraft – but this is a holiday organised by Great Rail Journeys and the history of the Indian railway system is fundamental to the development of India as a unified nation.
The third visit of the morning was to Mother Teresa’s House & Orphanage. Mother, as she is simply called, was actually born in Albania where she was named Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu.She founded The Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta in 1950 and it is now a famous and worldwide endeavour supporting the poor and marginalised. She died in 1997 and she was made a Catholic saint in 2016. We were able to observe the room where she lived and worked and the tomb where she is buried.
The fourth site of the city tour was the Victoria Memorial. This huge edifice was constructed between 1906 and 1921 in honour of Queen Victoria who was Empress of India from 1876 to 1901. Apparently, it is the largest monument to a monarch anywhere in the world.
It is now a museum and, while it does have statues of Queen Victoria and Clive of India, it celebrates the revolutionaries who campaigned for Indian independence, often using violence and murder in the face of a repressive British regime. We need a museum in Britain which presents a balanced view of the history of the British Empire.
It was time for some lunch. Our bus took us to Park Street in the centre of town which is noted for the number and variety of its eating establishments. We ate at a pleasant place called “Flurry’s”.
The main focus of the afternoon was a walking tour of an area known as the Potters’ Colony. There are over 500 pottery workshops in this quarter, where the potters make statues of various sizes and colours of Hindu gods and goddesses from the clay of the Ganges River, a practice known as Kumortuli.
It was like peering into a myriad of Aladdin’s Caves and, given the time of the year, much of the activity was directed at the festival of Durga Puja with many impressive examples of the multi-armed goddess.
Another experience awaited us: a short journey on the city’s circular railway. This was constructed in 1984 and has 20 or so stops. We travelled the five stops from Bagbazar to Princep Ghat. The trains only stop for a few seconds at each station and our group of 15 had to move fast to be on board in the same carriage. The carriages have no doors or windows and they are very basic and very dark with hawkers and beggars moving from carriage to carriage.
The so-called ‘Black Hole of Calcutta’ might come to mind, but actually it was a fun experience to see how locals get around.
Our final site of the day was the Prinsep Memorial, a Palladian porch constructed in memory of an eminent Anglo-India scholar James Prinsep (1799-1840) who made Kolkata his home.
After such a long day, it had to be an early night because we had a really early start next day . What could possibly go wrong?
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Holiday in India & Bhutan (2): getting there
October 3rd, 2024 by Roger Darlington
On Wednesday, we flew to India with Emirates. The flight from London Heathrow to Dubai was in a double-decker Airbus A380 and took six hours. We left over an hour late because of – as the pilot put it – “the situation worldwide” (an oblique reference to the conflict between Israel and Iran). Our second flight from Dubai to Kolkata was in a Boeing 777 and took just under four hours. By this time, our departure was an hour and a half late.
Once at Kolkata, the journey from the airport to the hotel was quite long (an hour and a quarter) but quite fascinating (solid traffic, wild driving, some rickshaws, crumbling buildings, bustling markets, ubiquitous colourful advertisements). So it was noon before we were in our rooms at the Taj Bengal Hotel, long after the hotel breakfast we were promised in our original schedule.
Thursday was allocated as rest and recuperation from our flights. However, ever intrepid, Jenny and I thought we might go for an afternoon stroll, but we found that the hotel is not near anywhere interesting and there was a crashing thunderstorm with thunder, lighting and heavy rain. Tomorrow the group will tour the city …
Calcutta (as it was then called) – nicknamed the city of joy – was founded in 1690 as a trading post for the British East India Company and later served as the de facto capital of British India until 1911. It was the second largest city in the British Empire, after London. In 1756, it became infamous for the incarceration of British prisoners in ‘the Black Hole of Calcutta’.
Today Kolkata (its official name since 2001) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, 50 miles (80 kms) west of the border with Bangladesh.
Kolkata is the seventh most populous city in India with an estimated city proper population of 4.5 million, while the wider region is the third most populous metropolitan region of India with a population of over 15 million. The city is regarded by many as the cultural capital of India. It is known as a city of rickshaws, sweets and wall posters. India’s five Nobel Prize winners all come from Kolkata.
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Holiday in India & Bhutan (1): introduction
October 2nd, 2024 by Roger Darlington
I am about to go on a holiday to India and Bhutan with the company Great Rail Journeys. This is the first time that I’ve travelled with GRJ and it is a rarity for me to have a tour manager from beginning to end, rather than just when one is in the countries concerned. She is Tracey Richards and impressively she contacted each tour member even before we met at Heathrow Airport.
On this holiday, I’ll be with my travel companion Jenny Madden. I met Jenny last year on a visit to Georgia and Armenia and, earlier this year, we travelled together on a trip to Pakistan. I’ve been to India before (2003), but not to Bhutan, which will be the 90th country that I have visited. Amazingly, Jenny has almost reached 100 countries.
GRJ classifies the mobility rating of the trip as “active adventurer” which means: “You love staying active and like to explore on your holiday. You’re more than capable of handling longer walking tours (more than 90 minutes), standing for extended periods of time, and navigating towns and countryside. Itineraries could include early starts, late-night experiences, and full days.” So, it’s a good thing that Jenny and I are young and fit!
India and Bhutan may be both part of the Indian sub-continent, but could hardly be more different from one another.
Geographically, India is huge (the seventh largest nation in the world) and Bhutan is small (about half the size of Scotland or twice the size of Wales). In population terms, India is the most populous country on the planet (1.4 billion), while Bhutan has a tiny fraction of this many citizens (a little over 700,000). Religiously, India is predominately Hindu with a large Muslim minority (about 20%), while Bhutan is overwhelmingly Buddhist with some 20% Hindu.
Politically, India is a (flawed) democracy, while Bhutan is an enlightened monarchy. India has always been a country open to visitors, but Bhutan was closed to visitors until 2018.
India is currently 4½ hours ahead of British time and Bhutan is 5 hours ahead. The currency in India is the rupee and the currency in Bhutan is the ngultrum. Indian currency can be used in Bhutan, but Bhutanese currency cannot be used in India. Currently a British pound is worth about 110 rupees or 110 ngultrum.
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How much do you know about Lebanon?
October 1st, 2024 by Roger Darlington
In my review of a 2010 book about Lebanon entitled “Beware Of Small States”, I wrote:
“Lebanon has so often been the subject of intervention by other states, whether the rule of the Ottoman Empire until the end of the First World War, France in the mandate period from 1918-1943, the presence since 1948 of Palestinian refugees and until 1982 the PLO, the support for different militias by various states during the horrendously bitter civil war of 1975-1990, the presence of UNIFIL peacekeeping troops since 1978, the invasions by Israel in 1982-1985 and again in 2006, the support of Iran for the militia Hezbollah since 1985, and the constant interference, sometime occupation, and repeated political assassinations by neighbouring Syria.”
I visited Lebanon in 2011 and, in my account of the trip, I wrote:
“Lebanon was carved out of the Ottoman Empire and granted independence by the French in 1943. It is a tiny state: geographically around the size of Wales in the UK or Connecticut in the USA, with much of it mountainous. And it has a small population: only around 4 million (although there is a much larger Lebanese diaspora around the world). But religiously, it is one of the most complicated nations on earth.
Lebanon’s population is estimated to be almost 60% Muslim (Shia, Sunni, Druze, Isma’ilite, Alawite, or Nusayri) and almost 40% Christian (Syriac Maronite Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Melkite Catholic, Armenian Orthodox, Syriac Catholic, Armenian Catholic, Syriac Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Chaldean, Assyrian, Copt, or Protestant). Over the past 60 years, there has been a steady decline in the number of Christians as compared to Muslims, due to higher emigration rates among Christians and a higher birth rate among the Muslim population.”
Since the attack on Israel by Gaza-based Hamas on 7 October 2023, there has been growing tension between Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah which this week has led to the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) launching a ground invasion of its northern neighbour. The Middle East is now in a crisis of horrendous proportions.
Of course, the origin of the problem is the creation of Israel in 1948 and I support the right of Israel to exist. For a brief account of how this came about and how the crisis could in theory be resolved, see this book review.
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A review of the new film “The Outrun”
September 29th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
Think you have problems? Well, 30 year old Scottish Rona is coping with a traumatic childhood, a bipolar father, an evangelical mother, the break-up of a relationship, a serious addiction to alcohol and acute depression, plus the wildness, windiness and loneliness of an island in Orkney.
This could, so easily, have been a misery movie, but it is saved by fine acting, wonderful scenery and the ultimate redemption in the narrative. It is, however, a rocky road with constant jumps in time and space in a jagged and erratic storyline. Special mention should be made of the idiosyncratic sound which contributes so much to the atmosphere of each scene.
The film is adapted and lightly fictionalised by German director Nora Fingscheldt and Amy Lipton from the later’s 2016 recovery memoir of the same name. In the central role – she is rarely off the screen – Saoirse Ronan is simply wonderful and, following her four Academy Award nominations, this could well be the performance that bags her that Oscar at last. She puts everything into this harrowing tale and she and her husband Jack Lowden were co-producers.
Incidentally, the titular outrun is an outlying coastal piece of farmland, not suitable for cultivation. In a sense, the film itself is an outrun, something that many would want to avoid but some will find bracing and even invigorating.
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