The Travel Independently Blog

Input from other travelers is helpful. And for me, the Fodors forum is especially helpful. I’ve been posting there for years, as have many others. And many of us have met each other at get-togethers all over the world. So I have a cadre of fellow travelers whose opinions I respect.

It was from my request for input that I was referred to the blog post of a fellow Fodorite about her experience on the Darjeeling Toy Train. That, combined with other research convinced me that the Toy Train might be fun, but I shouldn’t count on it as reliable transport. Another Fodorite suggested I consider Darjeeling and Sikkim. Sikkim has been on my list of places I’d like to visit since I was a child. I’d looked at it briefly, but it appeared to be too cold in November-December for what I’m looking for.

Still, it was something to put on the list for future consideration. Another poster noted that Assam is less-touristed than Darjeeling, which is what I’d concluded. So I received a variety of responses to my request. Some of the info provided confirmed my sense of the places, some dis-confirmed, and some raised more possibilities. I did a bit of further research on all of the salient points raised by others.

I had timed all of this data-gathering to be done when we left for our annual trip to Kauai. This was a time to think and talk about the options and come to a conclusion without the tasks and pressures of day-to-day life. I took my Lonely Planet Guide and we had a laptop and free wi-fi, so we were set to work out a plan.

I’m the travel planner, but my partner and I are true travel partners, so we make our travel decisions together. I presented Cheryl with the info I’d gathered and the Lonely Planet and she took some time to digest it. Then we talked together about our thoughts and feelings about the destinations.

Cheryl’s reaction to Assam was that it would be interesting, but not exciting. Darjeeling and Sikkim sounded exciting to Cheryl. Darjeeling, and especially Sikkim sounded exciting to me, but the weather was a concern. The Tibetan Buddhist influence is something we are both interested in. So it was time for more research.

The internet is a wonderful thing, but we can all be deceived by assuming the info is correct. I went back to my favorite weather site, then went on to several other weather sites to check the weather in Gangtok and Pelling. One problem with the data was that some sites only gave an average temperature for each month. At high altitudes, especially, that isn’t very helpful. If the average temp is 50 does that mean it varies between 40 and 60 or 25 and 75? We also discovered at least one weather site that had the centigrade temperatures listed as Fahrenheit – that makes a big difference.

After lots of research on weather and local news sites, and some posts from people who were in Sikkim or had been there in November through January, it began to look like the weather in Sikkim would be pretty good. Yes, it would be cold at night, but day times should be very pleasant, 65 – 70, and rain is scarce at that time of the year.

So now we had a first choice destination. Can we make the logistics work?

Technorati Tags: assam, darjeeling, Fodors travel forum, Lonely Planet, NE India travel planning, Sikkim

In the process of researching Assam, I kept my eyes open for other options. One that immediately popped up was Darjeeling.

A couple of years ago, I’d done some research on train trips in India. I was actually looking at a trip that went to various Buddhist sites, but I found lots of other trips as well. When I’m browsing travel options and I find something that looks interesting, I bookmark it. I may never do that specific trip, but it may have applicability to other trips I might take. Good trip planning has dead ends and detours. Notice them – they may be useful in future trip planning. So I went back to that India Rail website and took a look at their tours.

The Darjeeling Toy train looks like a fun little trip. It seems like a great way to see the scenery. Hmmm…. I notice the trip from New Jalplagri to Darjeeling is seven and a half hours! That’s a long time to cover not very much ground. I start to look for other travelers’ comments on the train. Accounts that I read indicate that many people take just a small segment of the trip. And a friend’s blog indicates that the train is not reliable it may or may not run. It looks like the toy train is one of those things that sounds great but may not be so great in reality. So if I want to ride it, I think I’ll take one of the short loops.

Darjeeling itself gets somewhat mixed reviews. Some people love Darjeeling, some people say it has been ruined by too many visitors. It has some great places to stay, and it looks like it would have views, shopping, and some Buddhist sites. It also has a separatist movement that periodically calls a bandh – a strike – that stops all transport. When I turn up something like this, I try to read as much as I can about it so I know what the issues are. While it may not help me predict if and when a bandh will happen, but it will help me understand the issues involved and the history of how they have gone – do they last for weeks, days or hours?

So, if we went to Darjeeling, where would we stay? The two places that appeal to me most are The Elgin and the Windamere.

Next, I asked my fellow travelers for their thoughts on Fodors, and got some interesting input. It’s all more “grist for the mill.”

Technorati Tags: assam, Buddhist sites in India, darjeeling, Darjeeling Toy Train, India Buddhist sites

What did we do before the Internet? Honestly, I can barely remember. For popular travel spots, guidebooks were adequate. But more off the tourist track places it was hard to find information. Now there is so much information at our fingertips – literally!

So, if we go to Assam, how do we get there? Bangkok is our usual gateway to Asia. It has great connections to most Asian cities. And we love Bangkok, so we always plan to spend some time there. As I looked at flights, the logical routing was from Bangkok to Kolkata then to Guwahati. Air was going to be easy.

After reading about Assam, and figuring out transport, I wanted to see what kinds of accommodations I could find. Here’s where Google and Bing really shine. Now, both search engines turn up a lot of garbage as well as useful information. And often you have to be willing to go a few pages into the search results to find what you are looking for.

One of the websites I found was one I’d known about in its periodical form, back before the web is Sawdays. Now this is the kind of website that has done some pre-screening for you. While I always want to sort through the searches myself as well, in case they’ve left out some real gems, these kinds of websites can be very helpful. So I did a search on Sawdays for all of the properties in Assam and came up with an interesting assortment.

Next, I read everything I could on each of the properties that sounded interesting. That meant checking the Lonely Planet, searching the travel sites like Fodors and Thorntree, and even the dreaded Tripadvisor.

I am not a fan of TripAdvisor. Why not? First off, I find the incredible proliferation of advertising so distracting that all I want to do is get away from it. Second, they do silly things like naming the #1 rated hotel in each place (as well as all the other numbers). They have no system to sort the various accommodations. So you have 5-star resorts and the barest-bone hostels on the same list. It’s like rank ordering apples, oranges and rocks. Third, there are often rave reviews of places on the site before the hotel even opens. Now how do you think that happens? So I view all of what is written on that site with a critical eye. Sometimes I find some useful information. More often, I rummage through some posts and decide that there is nothing very useful there.

So, at this point, I have the following places that look like good options to me:
Thengal Manor and Diphlu River Lodge.

I’d love to do a short cruise on the Brahmaputra.

So I now have some puzzle pieces to put together. It looks possible to do, and the combination of Assam with a few days in Kolkata seems like a great combination.

So now I’ve done my research, it’s time to book – right? Well, no.

Technorati Tags: assam, darjeeling, independent travel planning, india travel planning

I consider this part of trip planning to be a real luxury. To simply think about the many options available… I bought an atlas many years ago that billed itself as a list of options.

Sometimes the question of where to next answers itself before I get home from the last trip. I’ve always had a long list of places I wanted to see. Some are written down, some are in my head.

This year, I went back to several lists and looked at ideas. One idea that has been with me for a long time has been Machu Picchu. I’d planned to take that trip a decade ago. But before the trip was planned I was in an auto accident. While I wasn’t badly hurt, my back was injured enough that long walking was clearly not in my near future. My plan for Machu Picchu had been to walk the Inca trail and enter through the Gate of the Sun. That plan had to be put on hold. As the years have gone by, my back is better, but I don’t think I’ll ever hike the Incan Trail. An easier Machu Picchu option is likely in my future. But Machu Picchu hasn’t struck me as being the right trip for this year. And there are mudslides blocking the railway.

So back to my lists. India has long been on my list. But it’s so huge and varied – what to tackle first? One of my lists had Assam on it. So I started doing some research.

I started by doing some reading on my favorite travel boards and buying a guidebook. The guide I could find with the best info (and still, it didn’t have a lot) was the Lonely Planet Guide to Northeastern India.

Assam sounded good to me for a number of reasons. Our last trip was to Burma, and Assam shares a border with Burma. The there are shared history and customs among the people on the two sides of the border. It seemed like a natural extension of our time in Burma. Assam offers the opportunity for a variety of interesting activities. National parks offer wildlife viewing. There are tea plantation, temples and markets. And my favorite weather site, weatherbase.com confirms that it will be a pleasantly warm break from November‘s rain and cold in Seattle.

Technorati Tags: independent travel itinerary, independent travel planning