Back to Reality

After just over a week of chilling and relaxing in Darjeeling I have arrived in Siliguri. How best to describe Siliguri? Well if we can think of India as an animal that is full incredible joy and happiness, bursting with misery and despair. With many heads holding many minds that lead to wondrous excitement and adventure. Many faces and mouths with tongues speaking many languages. With many arms and legs reaching out in all directions to touch the lives of over 1 billion people. With multiple beating hearts pushing the blood of hope and filling the many souls that live within with dreams of joy and despair. Then it also stands to reason that this incredible and unique animal would also have many arses. Well Siliguri is a one of the holes.


As the jeep hit the plains from Darjeeling the temperature immediately rose, and I got bitten by a mozzie before I had chance to apply lotion. I got touted immediately as soon as the jeep stopped. The cycle rickshaw was actually a nice fella as he peddled like mad past the open sewers to my hotel. It's a Sunday so it's kinda quite. There is not much to do in this rather uninspired transport hub other than to burn time until my train to Varanasi tomorrow morning. This is a return to India proper after finding the small hill station oasis
In Darjeeling I was getting too lazy, it was getting to be a joke. I am glad to be on the road again after over 1 week chilling. Each day I did almost nothing, setting lazy goals like " buy a book and some AA batteries", next day "go back to Internet cafe to find books I bought and left there", sit in town square chatting to 83 year old Gurkha veteran from WW2, play billiards with new pal in the Old English Gentleman's club the Planters.
Sigh.....what a life.....I left just in time really, I was reverting back to being a kind of student subspecies.
Not much else to say, tomorrow will probably be a 12hr train ride to Varanasi with lots of bites.
The pictures posted are a bit random. One of the Planters club Tea garden, a Japanese Buddhist temple. A man selling coloured balloons. A crazy woman feeding flying rats. One picture is of the hotel owners nephew with one of the little girls that "works" in the hotel. I don't think child labour is illegal in yet West Bengal. They made it illegal when i was in Karnatika (Bangalore). At least the girls working in our hotel get to play. The hotel owners give them school lessons, not quite as bad as working "down-pit'.