2. My Himalaya trip – 2. From Calculta to Darjeeling

In March 2013.  I had a trip to 3 countries which surround the 3 different sides of the Himalaya ranges. They are India, Bhutan and Nepal. I was not going by myself as usual. I was with 13 other Vietnamese men. Never been with such so many men in my life, hehe! My first impression of India started from me being on the Indian airplane. I was frustrated to learn that with over 200 people who were on board, among which there were roughly only about 5 to 6 women. So Indian women don’t fly? Or there are too many Indian men in this world? Reading all those news about raping in India would seriously scared a bit of hell out of me. I knew I was with 13 men but I was not sure even them would be safe, hehe! This is not anything offended, it’s just a fact, so don’t take it too seriously with me! But then I had a wonderful start when I first landed in Kolkata. It was 4AM, we’ll have another flight to Darjeeling at 8AM so we decided to rent a bus for a little exploration of Kolkata. It was still so dark and the roads were quiet. I saw little yellow vintage taxis parking in rows to wait for passengers. They said only Kolkata has that unique taxi service.  As the bus was wheeling into the central city, old buildings and vehicles appeared along the way. I thought I was back to the 80’s of the last century in my country. Everything was totally out of a modern world. I was surprised and fell deep in a dreamy emotion. The morning started to kick in. Everything started to be lightened up. Amazing things kept bringing in surprises. The bus stopped for a while and let us walk through some morning markets in streets. I was fascinated with all different kinds of vehicles here, all were so colorful and extremely old (as you can see them in the video). I saw hand-drawn commercial posters hung on buildings and I smiled. I thought I was back to the age of 5 when my father took me out to a circus where they have all these posters at the gate. Everything was so vintage and original that my whole morning was filled with childhood memories. The bus also stopped at a park where people were doing some exercises and morning rituals. It was absolutely amazing as the whole ground of the park was covered in the mist. Leaves, birds, cows, horses, people and the rising sun were blurry moving in the mist as if everything was just a surreal dream. They were too beautifully unclear. I wanted to be in the mist and disappeared for a moment. I was thinking to myself: I wanted this dream to last as long as possible. We had a chance to see the गंगा Ganga — the famous river of India too. People were bathing, brushing their teeth and praying all in the river. I don’t have much things to say about Darjeeling though I loved the place. Darjeeling is the highland of India and I loved the tiny twisted roads and little towns here. It was freezing at night when the degree dropped to some Celsius degree. We only had 3 days in Darjeeling before we moved to Bhutan. I did not have many footage. And note that there were always at least 13 men with cameras around me all the time so I could not really capture well anything nice without having them in my frames. It was not much for me to really experience the life here since time was too short. But I am glad I was there even just for a while. I saw something new, I learnt something new, I was happy. That’s all I need in each journey