Sikkim, Darjeeling and 2008!

Hello 2008.. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and grand New Year!

James and I are very well. We spent Christmas up in Sikkim at the base of the Himalayas. It was amazing. I have never seen anything so beautiful in my life! (Some pictures are on facebook).

We arrived late in the dark after a very long train journey and just as long jeep journey. As it was dark we had no idea we’d arrived into another world! We woke up the next day, stepped out of our room only to be greeted by Kachenjunga. The 3rd biggest mountain in the world. There were Tibetan prayer flags everywhere. The place was magical… but freezing! We were not used to this at all. So we spent 4 days wondering around monasteries and relaxing. Christmas day was strange; we woke up in our freezing cold, non heated room. We did have a 6 inch Christmas tree and some chocolate coins from my mum.. I mean Santa. We ate wontons and soup and plum cake with some other travelers we’d met. This was really nice but we missed our families and of course the Christmas dinner. I’m still craving stuffing and gravy!

There was a Christmas festival in Sikkim so we went along, James was rocking out to Nepali rock after a go on the local brew. EVERYONE stared, and then joined in!

We then headed to Darjeeling on Boxing day. This again was beautiful but for different reasons. We could still see the Himalayas in the background which was again beautiful. We spent most of our time drinking tea. One day we spent the day tea tasting. We had 17 different types (not full cups of course). It was ACE! I don’t think the shop owner was too happy that we didn’t buy the most expensive though. I think he thought he was on to a winner with us!

We also stumbled upon a hotel that looked like it had been pulled straight out of old England. There was a roaring fire and a huge Christmas tree. We had high tea there everyday!…

One sad thing about Darjeeling was the Zoo. The animals were in tiny cages and were pacing up and down. They looked like they were slowly going mad. We didn’t like it at all and have decided not to go to another Zoo… Especially in India.

Then we have spent New Year back in Kolkata. We headed to Park Street. The ‘happening’ place for New Year. It was fun but a little too overcrowded. The West Bengali men were getting far too excited at the amount of women in skirts. It was all a bit gross really. We had food but headed back to our guest house to see the New Year in with the other volunteers.

Today we have been back to work and we’re off to see a Bollywood film tonight. A perfect start to the New Year I think!

I hope everyone had there own holiday fun. Love Amy xxxx