After Darjeeling we headed on to Sikkim, our last state in India and the second smallest of the Indian states. Originally founded in the 17th century and ruled by a Buddhist priest-king, Sikkim only recently officially joined India in 1975 after the Indian military deposed the Sikkimese monarchy. Once we got to Gangtok, the capital of the region, I tried to find the locally made millet beer like I had on our last hike, but was repeatedly told that none…
Hi folks, this post was actually written weeks ago but we had no internet at our last stop so it had to wait until now for upload. Sorry about the wait, but these things happen… The old post: We arrived in Kadapa today to begin the volunteering portion of our journey. We’re hoping we can be useful so wish us luck. More about that next time. In the last week we have gone houseboating, explored a 600 year old trading…
Imagine the scene, we are sitting in a riverside café gazing down at the Tungabhadra River while the villagers and pilgrims gather at the banks to chat, wash themselves and their clothes and while their little boys scream and jump into the water. We are lucky to have arrived just in time for Pongal (the Harvest festival) where thousands of pilgrims congregate to make offerings to the Gods (we were told this is primarily celebrated in the South of India.)…
So…. We have arrived in India. It was a bit of a shock, landing in a giant cloud of smog. It is literally so thick that you can taste it – it makes me feel very bad for Mother Earth. I have never seen anything like it – we arrived at midnight and when you look around it looks like you are in a dense fog but it’s not fog…. indescribable and utterly horrifying really. After customs we noticed large…