| see a couple of metres in front of us and we were damp from the moisture! We continued round past tea plantations and always going downhill until we found a sign for the Tibetan Refuge Centre, where we started to climb steeply back up to Chowrasta - quite an effort considering the little exercise we've done and the little food we've eaten! Went back to Glenary's for dinner! 29th May 2006 Walked down to the zoo, which we had to pay to get into in order to see the HMI Centre (Himalayan Mountain Institute) and Everest Museum which were on sight. The HMI Centre was founded by Tenzing Norgay (first person with Edmund Hillary to climb Everest) and gives lots of information about various expeditions, especially to Everest. There's also a lot equipment displayed that was used on these expeditions from the 1950s. It's amazing the difference between it and todays. I liked the electric socks - woollen socks connected to a battery pack to help against frostbite - and also Raymond Lambert's boots from his attempt on Everest a year before Ed Hillary - they were tiny with hardly any front (later on, whilst reading one of our books, I discovered that he'd lost his toes from frostbite). We also saw Tenzing's final resting place and a statue of him - he really is a hero round here! Back to Glenary's to try their Chinese food - not great! 30th May 2006 Had intended to walk down to the staion today to book our tickets to Delhi, ubt stopped at the internet to look for hotels in Delhi and ended up spending all day on it! No views again and raining on and off. Bought yet another book to read from the Oxford Bookstore - now carrying 10 books! Back to Glenary's for dinner! 31st May 2006 We actually ventured quite away today! Down to Laden La Road to Nuthmall's to buy some tea! Had a look round the Tibetan and Nepali curio shops too, but nothing took our fancy. Spent more time looking at the nice hotels in Delhi for our final few days, but not made any decisions. Also, still haven't booked a train out so might get stuck here! Obviously, we went back to Glenary's for dinner and tried different curries that were absolutely delicious - best yet (in India). Back in our room the power was out - had been all day - couldn't have a hot shower and water far too cold to attempt otherwise. Staff brought candles round and eventually managed to connect light bulbs up to the generator. 1st June 2006 Still no hot water so had to brave the cold shower - the first of the day's 'hardships'! Warmed up with our daily breakfast of porridge, then walked down to the railway station with the ntention of booking tickets to Varanasi, Agra and Delhi. Queued up for ages and managed to get forms, so stepped out of the queue to fill them in, only to find out we needed to queue again to get the info, then again to pay and only one journey could be done at a time, so we'd have been queueing for hours. I'm sure Terry would have had the patience, but I lost the travel bug as soon as we arrived in India and couldn't stand to wait around, didn't really want to do 25 hour train journies and wasn't keen on visiting Varanasi anymore (too hot, too many locals.....), so we walked back up the hill and booked a flight to Delhi instead, changing our plans to do an organised tour to Agra, while leaving our bags in storage (3 rucksacks and 2 day bags is a lot to lumber round). Spent the rest of the afternoon on the internet and up on the veranda reading (surprise, surprise), then went to Glenary's (surprise, surprise) and then came back to discover the electricity finally working so we had scorching hot showers, before climbing into the increasingly hard and lumpy bed! 2nd June 2006 Anoter non-descript, but relaxing day - breakfast, internet, booked cheap hotel in Delhi for the first night, veranda reading, Glenary's, bought a Tibetan hand bell and went back to the room. Received our laundry back, damp in a plastic bag so it reeked! Also had more stains than when it went in! Hung it round the room and lit the fire and sat playing cards trying to ignore the smell! 3rd June 2006 Spent the day on the internet again! Then back to Glenary's, where an Indian asked to take a photo of us because I look like his daughter???!!! Our last chance to go to Tiger Hill for the view of the Himalayas was gone - poured with rain constantly all last night and very misty and cloudy today, but after dinner the sky cleared and we caught our first view of the snow caps in the distance - sun already gone down though so too dark to take photos! 4th June 2006 Got up early in order to get a 'taxi' to the airport. Clouds back! Found a very mini minibus to take us at 9am, thinking it would take 4-5 hours to get back down and descended the narrow, winding roads with several emergency stops and the heat increasing. Arrived at the airport just after 10am - great! Sat and waited till our delayed flight left at 4.30pm and arrived in Delhi at 7pm where it was 34 degrees C. Shared a taxi with 3 Hungarians to downtown Delhi and after walking up the main bazaar with all our bags and down a side alley, we finally found the hotel that we'd booked - talk about save the best till last - although the inside was ok (not the worst we've had, but not far off), the outside takes a little explaining....... so you walk down the main bazaar jostling for space with pedestrians staring at you or hassling you to buy something or give them money, bicycles, rickshaws, tuk tuks, motor bikes, cars, cows, this is whilst walking through the dirt and rubbish trying to avoid cow dung and people throwing water in the street, waving frantically at the flies. You then turn into the alley way and hold your breath as you wakl past the open urinal, being careful where you step and hoping a motor bike doesn't come along because it won't stop for you and you might have to jump out the way towards the men relieving themselves! So, definitely an experience, but we have to say it's better than Kolkata!!!! 5th June 2006 Spent the day around the main bazaar and then had dinner on a rooftop where we enjoyed the relative peace! |