Bhutan tomorrow

Posted 8 September, 2007 by Graham in bhutan

We go to Bhutan tomorrow. Bhutan is one of the most isolated and least developed nation in the world, and the happiest non-Western country. We spend two weeks there, the whole time with a government tour guide and driver (or yak herder on the trek), so opportunities for Internet access might be limited.

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Indian beer is rubbish

Posted 8 September, 2007 by Graham in india

The most common beer here is Kingfisher. It is acceptable but has a unpleasant chemical after-taste. Cobra tastes like water with caramel flavouring. Disgusting! The Cobra in Britain is very different and much better. These beers are labelled as ‘Alcohol content below 5%’.
The best beer so far has been Thunderbolt, labelled as ‘Alcohol content between 5.25% and 8.25%’. It’s still not great.
Africa, by comparison, had very good beer. Each country had only one bottler (who also has the Coca-Cola / Fanta / Sprite concession, and controls the bottled water, one hell of a monopoly, but that’s another blog post) which made one or two beers which were very good, better than British lager.
I shouldn’t be suprised that the beer is bad – the only person I have seen drinking beer here is, well, me.
The tea, however, is very good and very varied. I guess I’m tee-total until Bhutan. We go to Bhutan tomorrow. Yey!

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In praise of sidewalks

Posted 8 September, 2007 by Graham in india

Sidewalks, pavements, whatever you call them, they’re great! I bet you take them for granted; come to India, that’ll set you right.

Apart from the honourable exception of Mumbai (which I suspect is British built), there are no sidewalks in India. This means you, the stray dogs, the cows, the beggars and hawkers, all walk right down the road. The lorries, buses, cars, motorbikes, bicycles, auto-rickshaws and cycle rickshaws all bear down on you at high speed, honking if they can. No wonder there are so many crippled beggars here. I love sidewalks.

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Darjeeling

Posted 6 September, 2007 by Graham in india

We spent four days trekking out of McLeod Ganj, went to a lecture by the Dalai Lama on Monday, then flew across the country and now we are in Darjeeling. We go to Bhutan on Sunday. It’s been raining hard for about 14 hours in Darjeeling. India is crazy. Time for breakfast.

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