1983 India: Kaziranga Forest (11/28-29/1983)

Monday, November 28, 1983

Currency exchange receipt from Park Hotel

Flew from Calcutta to Jorhat. Then it was a taxi (?) the 96 km/60 miles to Kaziranga Forest.
A special permit was required to enter Assam, and there were cautions against going there because of political problems. But I wanted to see the Indian rhinos that are protected in the Kaziranga Forest.

View from the Kaziranga Forest Lodge

Kaziranga Forest Lodge room

Kaziranga Forest Lodge

Kaziranga Forest Lodge driveway

Coffee plant

Ficus elastica/Indian Rubber Tree scored to collect sap

Rubber tree plantation

Trees in neat rows

Rubber tree collection point

Elephant Temple with a feast below 

Farm

Farm fields

Rubber smokehouse with sheets drying

Tea plantation

Assam is a major tea growing region, and has its own native tea species: Camellia sinensis var. assamica.

Assam tea bushes

Bougainvillea

Musa sp/Banana tree

Girl sweeping the dirt road

Euphorbia pulcherrima/Poinsettia

Tuesday, November 29, 1983

Currency exchange receipt from Kaziranga Forest Lodge

An early morning excursion, on the backs of elephants to be safe from the dangerous Rhinoceros unicornis/Indian Rhino. It was very foggy.

Rhinoceros unicornis/Indian Rhino

Bubalus arnee/Asiatic Wild Water Buffalo

Family unit?

The best and safest way to travel through
the marshy area of tall grasses and see wildlife

Cattle egrets on a rhino

Rucervus duvaucelii/Swamp deer, locally called Barasingha

Swamp deer

Swamp deer in the swamp

Elephant and driver

The flight from Jorhat to Calcutta was so late that I had to sit in the airport all day and missed being able to see anything in Calcutta. Styaed at the Hotel Airport Ashoka in Calcutta.

Next: New Delhi 1.

1983 India: Darjeeling (11/26-27/1983)

Saturday, November 26, 1983

View from plane coming into Bagdogra

Flew from New Delhi to Bagdogra, then a bus the 68 km/42 miles to Darjeeling.

Entering the lesser Himalayas

Looking back into the lowlands

Tea plantations

Darjeeling is known for tea, and it is from Camellia sinensis var. sinensis. The seeds were brought here and planted by the British in the 1840s.

Passing the train (its rear)

Passing the train's steam locomotive

Waterfall

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway

Currency exchange at Windamere Hotel 

Windamere Hotel room

Temple banners

Mahakal Temple on Observatory Hill

Buddhist stupa

Clay figures on the stupa 

Kanchenjunga

Kanchenjunga is the third highest mountain in the world at 8,586 m/28,169'. Three of its five peaks are on the border between Nepal and Sikkim, India, and the other two are in Nepal.

Looking down from Observatory Hill

Women laborers

Hillside goats

Windamere Hotel

Sunday, November 27, 1983
Up very early to go to Tiger Hill for the sunrise.

5:15 am

5:55 am

Sun peek

Sunrise

Sun reaching Kanchenjunga

Panorama view from Tiger Hill of Himalayas

Flew to Calcutta, staying at the Park Hotel.

Next: Kaziranga Forest.