The cool north

Kolkata was big, congested and very hot. I spent a few days there going through the sights and eating well. On Thursday I met a friend of mine from Delhi. We went to see the Kali temple, had a traditional Bengali fish lunch and got on the bus going up north to Darjeeling. The 40 degrees of Kolkata changed to the little over 10 degrees in the evening in Darjeeling, the “quintessential” hill station in the north-west corner of West Bengal. The people here look more Tibetan than Indian and, I have to say, they are friendlier here. When somebody offers you a taxi and you say no thanks they say OK without any more hassle! Wonderful 🙂

On Monday I went on a five nights long trek in the mountains. I met a couple of other trekkers on the jeep on the way to the starting point of the trek and then did most of the trek with them. The route went up to 3660 meters where it was really cold but the views were great as well. We were really lucky to get clear weather almost throughout the whole trek. We were able to see the 3. highest mountain in the world, Khangchendzonga, very well and even Mount Everest from a far! We also saw a lot of rhododendrons, mountain flowers, many of which are as high as trees.

This day I will spend just relaxing and getting over the trek. Tomorrow I will go to Sikkim, which is the state just north of Darjeeling. After that I am planning to go to Nepal and maybe do the Annapurna trek. North India would be a very interesting place to visit, let’s see how I have time for that.

Go see more pictures from Kolkata and Darjeeling as well as the Sandakphu trek in the gallery.