I came to Darjeeling expecting it to be a bit of a change from the rest of India. Although I haven't seen much of India yet, there are plenty of other travellers here who inform me I was right. And it's a nice bustling little place. Being stuck in a little corner of West Bengal sandwiched between Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, Assam and Bangladesh, it is a gateway for travellers heading in all kinds of interesting directions. The feel of British colonialism is still her...

This is the second of four important sites in the life of Buddha, the first one being Lumbini in Nepal. This is the site where Siddhartha Gautama acheived his enlightenment beneath a Bodhi tree, and was thus transformed into the Buddha. Mahabodhi Temple is the site where this happened, so needless to say many Buddhists visit this; and a sea of dipping maroon and saffron coloured monks can be seen every morning around the temple as they worship. As at Lumbini, the...

I found myself scurrying through narrow towering alleys filled with people, bikes, cows, colourful Hindu shrines, but too narrow for cars (after all this is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world). The ancient buildings were high, so I was struggling to work out which way the shadows were falling so that I could work my way in the direction I wanted. My train had been nearly 3 hours late, and I had jumped off a station early because it look...

This is the birthplace of Buddha, and only a few miles from the Indian border. It was a little disappointing at first as much of it is a construction site. Many countries have been building temples here since the 1970's, but many are still incomplete and are not open. However, there is still enough to pass an interesting day here, seeing all the different styles of temple together. Having moved down to the plains of Terai, it's hotter and more humid now, so I hav...

"Mountains are not Stadiums where I satisfy my ambition to achieve, they are the cathedrals where I practice my religion" - Antoli Nickolivich Boukreev, famed mountain guide who lived to tell the tale of the 1996 disaster on Everest featured in the film Into Thin Air, but perished in an avalanche on Annapurna, Christmas Day 1997. Annapurna Sanctuary is a magnificent natural amphitheatre with huge snow-capped peaks on all sides. At dawn it is like watching an e...