Fellow Tranquilo Travelers

October 27th, 2005 | By Joshua | No Comments »

Martin-from-Wales spent a week in the room across the hall from us at Andy’s. We crossed paths and shared smiles and stories many times—on the rooftop, the front porch, or down the road at Sonam’s Kitchen. After our last breakfast together, Martin waved goodbye from the narrow street outside. He was off to Siliguri; he would decide what to do from there—south to Calcutta, east to Assam, or West to Nepal were his options. The next day I received this message:
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Travel Teaches Toleration

October 25th, 2005 | By Joshua | No Comments »

I found this poster taped to the wall of a phone booth in Birpara, a town where there are no tourists and where few people travel for any reason other than necessity. It is evocative of the first quote I posted on this site, the one by Mark Twain about travel being “fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”
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A Fuller, Warmer Cup of Tea: Fair Trade 101

October 23rd, 2005 | By Joshua | 5 Comments »

October, I just learned, is Fair Trade Month, conveniently coinciding with my travels in Darjeeling and my discovery of a kinder, gentler side of India’s tea industry.

Where does your tea (or coffee, sugar, bananas, chocolate) come from? Knowing the answer to this question is the heart of understanding what Fair Trade is and why it is one of the most important movements of our time.
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Crumpets and Coal: Our First Proper Tea

October 22nd, 2005 | By Joshua | No Comments »

In Paris, we stayed with a French-Moroccan couple who fed us mint tea (at midnight, after dinner) in traditional gold-inlaid glasses; sweet mint tea followed us to the hookah bars of Dubai; then, in Pakistan and India we were deluged with dood chai—black tea with hot milk and sugar, served anytime, anywhere. In West Bengal, our roommates detested milk and sugar in their ca (pronounced “cha”), preferring their tea bitter, so this is what we drank during our two months in Birpara, where we lived and worked among green tea gardens and golden glasses of ca.
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Look what’s on the menu:

October 21st, 2005 | By Joshua | No Comments »

Darjeeling Sunrise: Moonset and Massifs

October 21st, 2005 | By Joshua | 2 Comments »

It took several days to settle into the “Queen of the Hills,” as Darjeeling is known; the town was totally socked in by an unseasonably cold fog, and it took some trial and error before we found the perfect guesthouse, a truly tranquilo haven atop the highest ridge in town. Guesthouse Andy’s (Rs. 300, or less than $8 for a double) is run by a pair of sweet Nepalese Christians named Matilda and Genesis Gurung, who gave us an immaculate and ample room with private toilet and brought-to-our-door buckets of hot water for bathing, as well as hot water bottles for warming up at night.
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Leaving Birpara: The Toy Train Not Taken

October 20th, 2005 | By Joshua | 3 Comments »

The reason the Dalgaoan-Birpara Railway Station does not appear on my map of the town is because, until my final week, I had not had any reason to go there, so it did not exist. Not many trains stop there, anyway, only two daily coaches bound for Calcutta via Siliguri Junction, where we would change lines. But that bright Sunday morning (which was also Lakshmi Puja celebrating the God of Wealth and Prosperity), the station was new to us. How amazing, I thought, after two months, to be able to continue our discovery of Birpara until the very moment of our departure.
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The Moldy Backpack Blues…

October 18th, 2005 | By Joshua | 1 Comment »

From my freshly trimmed mustache
To the bottom of my walkin’ shoes…

Tranquilo Traveler Rule #1: When your backpack has been sitting in the corner for so long that its leather shoulder straps cultivate fuzzy gray blotches of vegetation, when there are spider webs clinging to its frame, then, my friends, it is time to move on.
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Viswakarma: God of Broadband, DSL, and Ethernet

October 17th, 2005 | By Joshua | 16 Comments »

The mustachioed, elephant-riding, dainty-looking deity on the right is Viswakarma: God of Technology, Machines, Iron-work, Masonry, Carpentry, and all Trades and Handicraft. His Puja was celebrated on September 17, when we were in Kalimpong, but I have waited until this moment to pay my respects. As I prepare to leave Birpara, thus losing my daily dose of fast, reliable Internet (when there are no blackouts or telephone ministry strikes, that is), I humbly bow my head and give thanks.
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Durga Puja Part 2: Oh Boya—It’s Bijoya!

October 15th, 2005 | By Joshua | No Comments »

Sorry, I couldn’t resist. It’s just that I’ve been listening to “Shubho Bijoya!” all day, as Birparians wish each other a happy final phase of Durga Puja. (Incidentally, I published some new photos in the introductory Durga Puja post, check ‘em out or click over for a Durga refresher course).
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