 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
San
Francisco to Singapore Singapore Courier Springboards to India By John Heinzel Contributing Editor, California (c) Copyright 1989 - 2004 |
||||||||||
| |
Crowded Calcutta & Train to the Hills I flew as a courier for Jupiter Air, from San Francisco to Singapore via Tokyo on a $200 roundtrip last-minute special. The fare included all airport taxes and a complimentary overnight in Tokyo on the return leg. The flights and courier duties went smoothly in both directions. I spent two days in Singapore at Lee's boarding house, recovering from jetlag and awaiting a flight to Calcutta. The city-state is still clean and the food is great, but prices are higher than in the U.S. A beer was $4. My roundtrip ticket to Calcutta was $460; I took the first available flight. India is so crowded that population density is approximately ten times that of the United States, which creates lots of problems. All forms of transportation are overloaded - reservations are almost always required. First-class train travel with a berth may take up to six weeks' advance reservation. I was there during May which is India's high season for travel. I stayed in Calcutta for two days, at the Gulistan Guest House. My double room was US$9.50 a night including air conditioning, private bath, TV and telephone. This very nice hotel was the best value lodging I found during my time in India. The Khwaja Juice Center caf‚ is just around the corner from the guesthouse, where tea is 17 cents, Pepsi 30 cents, a breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast costs 50 cents and Indian lunches are US$1. The Juice Center is a good place to meet other travelers, where the hippie culture is alive and well as in other places across India. Temperatures were 104§F with high humidity. I left for the mountains after two days, by air-conditioned train in a three-tier sleeper car for US$20 one way. All trains were leaving between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. in the evening, arriving "around" 5 a.m. the next morning. The train is always full, late arrival is routine. There were no dining cars, there was a set meal available, but it was too spicy for me. The toilets are dirty and stink. Venders ply the train, but none sold bottled water. I saw fellow passengers chaining their suitcases to their bunks and asked why. "Thieves pass through the cars during the night. Precautions are necessary," I was told. I noticed steel cables under the lower bunk for this purpose, so I padlocked my bag as well. Others slept on their suitcases. Darling Darjeeling We arrived at the Northern Train Junction (NTJ), at 6:30 a.m. Everyone bolted from the train when we stopped, and rushed out of the station. I found my way up the stairs, across an overpass and down to the dirt parking lot without benefit of directions, signs or anyone at the information booth. The crowd of passengers had quickly filled all the onward buses and share-taxis. I was left with a choice between a private car for the 2«-hour drive, or the small, novelty train which is a popular diversion but takes eight hours to complete the journey. I hired a private car for US$7. We drove 20 miles to the base of the mountains, then followed a switchback road straight up into the clouds at 6,600 feet. The road varied from single lane to two lanes with few guardrails, and most of the hairpin turns were blind. The driver blew his horn to warn oncoming traffic of our approach. We reached the summit and continued for two hours across the ridge to Darjeeling. The views were great and temperatures had dropped into the 70s. Darjeeling, an old English hill station, had been built for English colonials to escape the heat during the dry season, and as a place for hospital patients to recover. It's about three miles long, situated on a steep mountainside, and is friendly and relatively clean. Food and lodgings are very cheap, but imported food like wine, beef and cheese are expensive and hard to find. There are no shopping bargains. Facilities are minimal and lack the conveniences we take for granted, like heat, hot water, toilets and safe buildings. Hotel rooms cost $10 in central Darjeeling, and drop in price as you go higher up the hill. Backpackers congregate at the top near the TV tower, where dorm bunks are US$1 a night. Views from atop the hill are spectacular. Morning and evening clouds rise up like mists, obscuring vision and muting the sounds of the city. My room at the Treveni Guest House, one of several budget-priced guesthouses along the ridge of the hill, was actually a triple - all they had left - for US$2.50 with private bath. It was rather primitive, but a great place for meeting people and there's a nice little restaurant in the hotel where I had breakfast and lunch. I preferred dining in the evenings at the four-table caf‚ at Greenwood Lodge, one of the other budget guesthouses. It's a pleasant place for quiet conversation and small dinner parties. Gourmet meals complete with fresh flowers and CD music cost about US$2, but they have to be pre-ordered by 3 p.m. I spent several nights enjoying the company of other travelers, mostly backpackers, over dinner. They hailed from England, Australia, New Zealand, Holland, Israel and Germany, with English as the common language. The bottle of California wine I brought along went over well. The hill people tended to be friendly, helpful and industrious. Kalimpong & Bhutan After three days I left Darjeeling for Kalimpong, a smaller city on the next mountain. I went by jeep with 11 other passengers and a driver. The per-person fare was US$1.28, so I paid double and took two seats in the front for added comfort. It never ceased to amaze me how some travelers took the prices so seriously and even counted out each rupiah - valued at 23 cents each. Some even used the coins worth fractions of a rupiah. We descended from 6,600 feet to the river at 600 feet, then climbed again to about 2,500 feet above sea level. The jeep broke down only once. Kalimpong was less crowded than Darjeeling, with better shopping and a warmer climate. I stayed at the Deki Lodge, a nice clean place, ten minutes up the hill. My private room was US$2.32 a night with bath down the hall, real toilets and hot water. The people were friendly and there was a nice view from the terrace. While checking in, I heard the owner telling someone that it was possible to spend a day shopping in Bhutan without paying the usual $200 visa fee. I bought some old Tibetan red coral rings at an antique shop in the market, then went to the bus station to check on buses to Bhutan. "Yes," the clerk told me, "it is possible to spend a single day across the border in Bhutan, but you can't stay overnight without a visa." So I jumped at the chance and left at 8 a.m. the next morning. The full bus took a circuitous six-hour route to cover what should have amounted to a distance of 30 miles. We passed tribes of monkeys that live along the river, as well as 18" lizards, and herds of goats and cattle. The bus broke down three times. It was hot and humid but not too bad when we were moving. We arrived in the dirty little border town of Jaipaog, where Indians sold goods, mostly fabric, to Bhutanese natives. There were no apparent border guards, I was able to just walk across to the Bhutan side where I learned why the trip was such an attraction. Across the border in Bhutan, Indians sell whiskey and pork or mutton dishes to Indian tourists - indulgences not acceptable in their own country. I spent the night at a new hotel in Jaipaog for $3; it was 107§F, with a power failure most of the evening. At 8 a.m. the next morning I returned to Kalimpong on the same bus. The overnight trip wasn't really worth it, and it was wonderful to get back to the mountains. I bought some silver in Kalimpong, then headed back to Darjeeling the next day where I returned to Trevani Guest House and took a double for US$1.86. Slow computers for email rent for $1-$3 an hour, and only work intermittently. I traded a 10k gold ring for three silver bracelets and five amber beads, then went to a silversmith to have them examined. All were false. I returned them and got my ring back. The rest of my time in Darjeeling focused on meeting and "collecting" people during the day, for quiet dinners and conversation at Greenwood Lodge restaurant. How the Airline Got an Extra $100 On return to Calcutta I found that the Gulistan Guesthouse was full, so took a room at the Astoria Hotel on Sudder Street for US$7 a night. It was adequate but not as good as the Gulistan. I met some interesting travelers around town including a few Europeans and fellow Americans who were working with Mother Theresa's Sisters of Mercy. On my last night in India I was delighted to dine on a decent $3 steak at the Olympic on Lake Street. I was glad to find a venue serving red meat in that mostly vegetarian country. There were a number of us gathered together, and we moved on to an outdoor beer garden near the hotel after dinner. It was a pleasant farewell to the great subcontinent of India. When I arrived at the airport in the morning, I learned that I was to be victim to a kind of airline scam that's new to me. When I'd purchased my roundtrip ticket in Singapore, Royal Brunei Airlines instructed me to call and confirm my return flight three days before departure. On Thursday I tried to call from Darjeeling, and when I got to Calcutta on Friday I called 16 times. The line was always busy or didn't answer. Finally I contacted a travel agent and he got through. My reservation had been cancelled and the flight was full. I went to the airline office to complain. "You should have called to reconfirm," I was told. When I explained how often I had tried, the manager just shrugged his shoulders and said there was nothing they could do - they would put me on a waiting list. Royal Brunei's next flight wouldn't get me into Singapore in time for the return courier flight. In the end, I paid $100 in addition to my original ticket price, to upgrade to business class - and was issued a new Royal Brunei ticket that read "voluntary upgrade!" After two days of good shopping in Singapore I left for San Francisco via Tokyo. Jupiter Air put me up at the lovely Hotel Nikko at Narita Airport near Tokyo. I slept all day and returned home refreshed. I really liked my time in India and look forward to returning one day to visit the Western part of the country. RESOURCES Singapore: Lee Boarding House, 46-52 Bencoolen Street, Tel: (011-65) 388 3149. Jalan Besar, good steak restaurant in Little India. Airpower Travel, 131A Bencoolen Street, bucketshop for air tickets. India:
All Indian tel. #'s listed below begin with country code 91 if
dialed from another country; if long distance from within India,
place 0 before the number in parentheses. |
||||||||||
 |