With my last post for Sri Lanka finally published, I can now begin on my backpacking travels of India. Plenty of kilometres on the clock in the amazing sub-continent so what better place to start than the present and work backward? I’m currently in the northern state of Sikkim, it’s the start of monsoon so things are beginning to get a little wet but at least things have cooled down a little. There is a sense of remoteness in Sikkim. Put it down to the travel - journeys are n

Kurseong I arrived into New Jalpaiguri after a night train from the Buddhist town of Bodhgaya; my journey was not over yet though. A shared rickshaw to the adjoining city of Siliguri and I was finally on my way, onboard a shared jeep (more on that later). I was heading into the hills in the north of West Bengal state. Ahead lay the famous hill station of Darjeeling. But first, a few days in the town of Kurseong. The jeep hit the hills and began to climb. Within an hour, we as