I recommend this a place to stay in Darjeeling. It is close to where the jeeps arrive and right in the centre. 450 INR (about 8 euros) per night for double room with attached bathroom. Bedroom was very nice and bed very comfortable. Very clean.

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I was warned that it would be rainning a lot in Darjeeling.  But with the intense heat of the plains, I needed to be somewhere cool and simply bearable for existence.  But no one told me that Darjeeling sits in the clouds.

It was so misty and foggy that the place had an eerie feel to it when I first arrived.  It was days before I could see the rest of the town sprawled out over the hills from my guesthouse up ontop of the ridge.  From my guesthouse's restuarant, I could only see the tv antenna across the street, and even then it managed to disappear at times.

Another thing no one warned me about Darjeeling: if your stuff gets wet, it doesn't dry.  With all the clouds and mist, the city is in a constant state of moist.  I was unlucky enough to have my backpack on the roof of my share jeep on the long, windy ride up though the valley to Darjeeling.  It rained, and the tarp covering all the luggage up on the roof was apparantly just for show.  My backpack got drenched along with several of the items inside.  After airing my clothes out on a line strung up in my room, my clothes are now just damp as opposed to soaked, but it's been days now!  I'll be lucky if they manage to dry before I leave this town.

Still, I can't complain.  This town is so calm and peaceful tucked away in a valley covered in tea bushes.  I really just don't care anymore about my clothes.  The rain here is the perfect excuse to spend an afternoon at a tea shop reading a book or chatting with new friends about what local teas to sample next or which teas to buy for home.  Really, I'm just going to toss out some of those mucky, old clothes in order to make room for the tea I'll be bringing back home.  Now all I've got to do is figure out how to keep them dry for the long jeep ride back.

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This morning was supposed to be a sunrise viewing of the mountains from Tiger Hill. But the man who arranges these things at the hotel said to not bother going too early, as we most likely wouldn’t be able to see anything anyway. Sigh.

So we left for Tiger Hill at 9am, fully expecting to get a face full of fog once again. After seven days of searching, we thought we would never see the snow-capped peaks surrounding us. As we were driving out of Darjeeling, Steve commented on the slivers of blue sky visible (but we’ve been fooled by that before) and then…. Oooo! Way off it the distance, a huge mountain was visible! It looked like no more than sharp clouds in all its snow-covered, jagged, majestic glory. We screamed for the driver to stop and I fumbled for my camera. Steve, who had jumped out of the car, lifted the camera to take the shot… but it was gone, covered again by clouds. So he climbed back in the car without the photo. We were completely giddy with excitement. Finally! The mountain we had seen was indeed Mt. Kanchenjuga, third highest peak in the world. Whoo-hoo!

We kept craning our necks out the window, and when the mountain popped into view AGAIN, I got some shots from the car. It’s been captured! What excitement. What an amazing view! We talked about how truly spectacular this area would have been if that had been visible during our visit. Oh, if only.  

We arrived at Tiger Hill only to find it shrouded in fog. Of course. We hopefully stared into the white blanket for quite some time, but it seemed our visit with the mountain was over. At least we got to see it once though. What a treat.

From Tiger Hill, our nice driver accommodated our request for some hiking. We first made a “mini hike,” over some bright green hills and a grassy, boggy area. Very pretty, but wet. Then he dropped us off on a narrow, quiet road that lead us through some lightly populated areas -- obviously not a common tourist route. There were lots of local people out doing laundry and just hanging out, and I got the sense we were just strolling right through their lives. Many people gave us friendly greetings and smiles. Especially the old guys -- they seemed to really get a kick out of the whole thing.

Occasionally our driver would pull up in the car -- are you ready for a ride? It kind of eliminated any sense of adventure, but it sure was convenient to have him nearby! We ended up walking all the way back to Darjeeling (about one hour and 15 minutes), and then he said we needed to get in the car because the traffic would soon get very heavy.

He dropped us off at the hotel for lunch, then we met back up at 2pm for a trip to the Tibetan Refugee Self Help Center. I didn’t really know what to expect here, but it was a really cool visit. The center was established in 1959, two years after the start of China’s occupation of Tibet. It has a number of buildings, a clinic, many workshops and some showroom/shops. The main draw here is the handicrafts : they make wool rugs here, starting with a sheep as their raw ingredient. We watched raw wool being spun into thread (I think the youngest lady doing this must have been about 80!), and then we saw rugs being loomed with hand-dyed thread. One of the ladies sold me a raffle ticket for about 25 cents. There were anti-China posters everywhere.

They had a photo exhibit and a small museum that really outlined everything that’s been going on in Tibet since 1957. The imprisonments, the destruction of over 6,000 monasteries, the rampant deforestation... I left that exhibit with a black cloud over my head.

On the way home, we drove through town where most of the shops were closed due to a strike by the Ghorkas … these are the people who want to form a new state in this area. Near the bus terminal, there were many people milling about, and a lots of men standing around with scowls on their faces. A policeman rapped loudly on my window. When I opened it he said, “You must leave tonight. All tourist must leave Darjeeling!” He was not messing around either, so we skedaddled back to the hotel tout de suite.

When we arrived, a man from the hotel ran up to the car before it had even stopped. “Sir,” he said, “we have a bad situation! You need to leave now!” Ok, this is getting pretty exciting. Maybe more excitement than we had bargained for, in fact. It turns out that during yesterday’s protest, some anti-Ghorkas had thrown stones, causing injuries. The police broke things up with tear gas, and bad feelings were present on both sides. In response, the town of Darjeeling has declared itself in an “indefinite strike” --  effective tonight! So all tourists must leave, lest they be trapped without a ride.

We already are booked on a flight out tomorrow afternoon. We were planning to make the 3.5 hour drive to the airport tomorrow, but looks like we will go tonight instead. Our hotel assured us they would find us a room near the airport. Time to pack and get the hell outta Dodge!

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The adventure du jour was a trip to Mirik Lake. We met our driver (another Nepalese guy with good English and good sense of humor) at 9am and off we went. I had my nose in a book for the first 30 minutes or so, but put it down when I saw we were driving through more pine forests and tea gardens. Beautiful.  

We were driving along the Nepal border, and the driver pointed out some houses that actually straddled the border. He joked that the inhabitants “eat dinner in Nepal and go to the bathroom in India.” Both Steve and I laughed a little too loud at that. There was concrete pillar that marked the border, and I wanted a photo. So we jumped out, and Steve and I tiptoed through the cow manure into Nepal! We didn’t stay long, but it was a nice enough visit.

We also stopped at a scenic viewpoint or two, and then we came to the main event, Mirik Lake. There were dozens of other jeeps and taxis there, and vendors crowded the main parking area. I somehow ended buying a packet of fried chip-like snacks that I didn’t want (Steve ate them later), because the man just kind of put them in my hand and took my money, smiling all the while.   

We decided to walk around the lake. The path was muddy in spots, and one really had to watch out for the frequent patches of cow, horse, goat, and dog poop. There was an abundance of trash on the shore, which didn’t stop the kids from swimming in the water. Ugh. Sometimes we were walking in front of squalid shacks, sometimes small shops, and sometimes through old pine forest. It was just a really weird lake setting.

On the way home, we ran into another of those “We want Gorkhaland” demonstrations. Finally, we got an explanation from our driver. He said the government, located in the state capital of Calcutta, does nothing for the area in terms of municipal services or infrastructure. For example,  many of the roads haven’t been changed since they were built by the British. So the Gorkhaland people want to separate from West Bengal and become a separate state, called Gorkhaland (“Gorkha” refers to the people in the area who speak Nepalese). That way their tax dollars will be spent in their area, instead of in Calcutta. Our driver was obviously a smart guy, well educated, so it was a very interesting conversation.  

When we got back to the hotel, I headed off to the Cyber Café for blog updates. I spent three hours there, then Steve and I went to town for dinner again. We ate pizza and French fries (both pretty bad) at Frank Ross Café. Steve said the pizza “wasn’t that bad” which shows me just how much his Pizza Standards have fallen in the past two months!

Tomorrow is our last full day in the area. I can’t say I am sad to be leaving. In fact, I am thrilled we are finally going to be moving on.

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We departed Nor-Khill hotel in Gangtok at 8am for the reportedly 5-hour drive to Darjeeling (I guess we made good time because it really took us just under 4 hours).

On this drive we passed over some familiar roads we have already covered these past few days, but then we split off and things started to look a little different. For example, there were tea plantations. I have never seen tea growing before and was surprised to see it grows in small bushes. The tea fields were so green, like little green topiaries rolling along the sides of the mountains. It was really beautiful.

We climbed, then descended, then climbed again. And so on. The skies were very clear and bright at the lower altitudes, and I would let myself get hopeful again about seeing some snow-covered Himalayan mountains in the distance. But the upper altitudes were still foggy and cloudy. Foiled again. 

Darjeeling is literally built into the side of a mountain and makes for an impressive first view. We drove through the whole town to get to our hotel, The Elgin. Along the way my opinion of the town ran the gamut from, “oh, how nice!” to “oh, that’s disgusting.” Alongside the road right in town, there were huge piles of trash! I don’t mean bagged trash waiting for pickup, I mean like a dumping ground for garbage. People just walked around it, some of them holding handkerchiefs to their noses and mouths. OK, so we all agree: trash is bad. Why not just PICK IT UP?

The people I saw on the street did not look like Indians. My book said the population is primarily Nepalese in this area, having emigrated centuries ago. I also noticed a few Western tourists, pretty easy to pick out in the crowds. We have really been off the beaten path this past week, and it’s been a long time since we’ve seen any fellow foreigners.  

Our hotel has a beautiful gated entrance, leading into the nice garden area in front of the hotel. The building itself is also very pretty, with a gazebo in front, and a view of the town on the mountain. It’s the prettiest of the four Elgin hotels we have stayed at so far. The interior had the same Victorian look as the others, but with a different layout.

I was directly greeted, by name, at the front desk. This is new…they usually look around me and say, “welcome, sir” to Steve.  And they seemed perfectly happy to conduct the check-in with me, so that was a positive first impression. Steve sat by the fireplace and read a paper. He is quite happy to be left out of the administrative details.

Our room is on the third floor, up some creaky stairs. It smells like old man, and it seems he has concentrated himself mainly in our pillows. We have two twin beds (they are not big on king sized beds here), and my feet hang off the edge, so you can imagine how comfortable it is for Steve, who’s half a foot taller than I! On the plus side, the bathroom is marble and much nicer than the last place. As a real classy touch, they have supplied small packets of brand name shampoo, Head & Shoulders. (This is the most we’ve gotten so far from the Elgin chain. They are not big on amenities, either.)

Their Internet was down (and has been down for days) so Steve went off to an Internet Café while I sat in the gazebo for tea and to work on my computer offline. I was starving, but lunch wasn’t going to be served until 1:30! That is way too late for me. I get a little cranky when I am hungry. Still, I couldn’t help but feel very happy in that gazebo, with my hair-raisingly strong tea (Darjeeling, of course). The air was cool and pleasant, and the smell of wood smoke wafted by every so often. Sun shined on the mountain in my view, and even though it wasn’t one of those really tall ones, it was a beautiful sight nonetheless.

Unfortunately, lunch was absolutely horrifying. We went through a series of small, cute rooms to find the restaurant, which seemed nice enough at first glance. Upon further inspection, the tablecloths were discovered to be gray and filthy, and my napkin was damp and looked exactly like the rags I keep in the cleaning closet at home. Our glasses were covered in greasy fingerprints. All this amidst their fancy engraved silver table service! These Elgin hotels are not cheap dives, by the way…they are expensive and bill themselves as “four-star resorts!”  What the hell. Not in my book.

I know I keep bitching about the food, but it has been consistently good (though repetitive and tending to be greasy like Indian food in general) this past week, but The Elgin broke that good streak. Steve’s first bite of some mysterious brown lump literally made him gag. His eyes teared up as he sat there choking on whatever it was.  Bad sign! The two dishes I choose were floating in oil and completely disgusting. We finally just ordered grilled cheese sandwiches, which were also too greasy but they really hit the spot. We were also served tomato soup (they start every meal with soup), and that was very good.

Then I headed off to the Cyber Café Steve had found just next door, while he worked in the room. The café was small and crowded, and the connection was slow. I was foiled in just about every task I attempted. The flights I had booked yesterday on Orbitz didn’t go through, so I had to start at square one with that. My email program just wouldn’t load on any of their browsers. KingFisher Air only takes Amex, which I didn’t have with me. Gulf Air said my card didn’t work after I spent 30 minutes filling out their lengthy reservation form. Nothing was working out! After three hours I left, barely any further along than where I had started. (Back in the room, Steve had rigged up an Internet connection using his blackberry connected to his computer, and I was able to finish off pretty much EVERYTHING on my To Do list!)

Although dinner is included in the room rate, we just couldn’t face another bad hotel meal, so we went into town. What a treat that we are in actual walking distance of stores and people! All this time we have been holed up in either our hotel or a car. We both agreed that we felt like we were really traveling again as we walked up the pedestrian mall lined with vendors. The air was cool and pleasant, the shops old fashioned, colonial looking. There was no trash on the street in that area. What more could one ask for!?

We had dinner at Glenary’s, which became jam packed very soon after we sat down. They had a varied menu that included some Western and Chinese dishes, so I order sweet and sour vegetables and a green salad (silly me, I hoped that meant that it would be lettuce, which I haven’t seen since Bangkok. No such luck…it was the same salad they serve at the hotel every night: under-ripe tomatoes, onions and cucumbers).  Steve had a chicken kebab. We so enjoyed being out in a crowd and away from the hotel that we didn’t much mind that our meal was just mediocre.

We got caught in the rain again, and ran back to the hotel, where we discovered that the power was out. We walked up the creaky dark stairway, and it just seemed like a fun adventure to me. We were about to light the candle in our room when the lights went back on. Too bad. With the lights out, it would have been easier to overlook the grayish grungy sheets on my bed.  

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Darjeeling (2 nights)

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I like Darjeeling. A lot. It's everything I hoped it would be. The place perches perilously on the mountainside, and is wonderfully picturesque. The views are magnificent - or would be if the fine mist would lift. They're still gorgeous viewed 'in real life', but the camera can't cope, and so just picks up a grey blur. The lower part of town is as chaotic and noisy as any part of India, but further up, there's a chilled and relaxed feel.

When I was planning this trip, there were lots of things I planned to do in this area. But if ever a place was designed to make you think 'nah...can't really be bothered' it's Darjeeling. It's a place for wandering and mooching about. Yesterday afternoon I explored. Yesterday eveing I wandered. This morning I mooched. I ended up sitting on the terrace of the 'Hot Stimulating Cafe'.. a little wooden shack overlooking the valley, drinking tea, eating momos (Tibetan dumplings stuffed with veg), talking to the owner, and playing with kittens (it's OK, I've had my rabies jabs). Then I checked out the shared jeep stand, prior to having to brave it in a couple of days for my Sikkim trip (it was madness down there) and picked up my Sikkim permit...very impressive it is, with important looking stamps on.

Then in a fit of activity, I took the Toy Train to Ghoom. The train is an ancient steam driven relic of the Raj. Most of the time, people walking alongside it are travelling faster! But it was fun, and the views, though still misty, were great.

Got back and sat outside a cafe on Chowrastra, the main square, and had iced coffee and a brownie. I'm eating like a horse. Given that every road is a steep hill, all this wandering and mooching has actually been very energetic.

Disconcertingly, there's stuff going on here that could threaten the next bit of my trip. All day, jeeps have been coming through, full of cheering people and carrying Tibetan flags. They're apparently heading for the Sikkim border where a huge demonstration is planned tomorrow - around 10,000 people anticipated. While part of me thinks 'good luck to them', I wouldn't be at all surprised if the border is closed for a while. It's only just re-opened after the general strike, and given the volatility of this area at the moment... Also, overnight, many of the shops have put up Tibetan flags, and some have closed unexpectedly, so another strike could be on its way. We'll see - but it may be that I have to find a plan C. If Darjeeling could just stay open, I'd be fine - there are treks I can do from here, and I reckon I could enjoy myself if need be. But who knows. Whatever, it'll be an adventure. It's not as if the situation's dangerous - just possibly frustrating.

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Gorkhaland... Gorkhaland" is ringing in my ears.

It's been an odd day. I was planning to be all touristy and go to the Himalayan Zoo and the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute - both apparently really good. When I set off, Darjeeling seemed oddly quiet. And oddly 'shut'. The half hour walk to the zoo was lovely - but when I got there, it was closed. Bother. Why don't the guidebooks tell you useful stuff - like the zoo's shut on Thursdays? Never mind - I took the opportunity to walk on, and discover Darjeeling's outer areas. And it was good. I even came upon another Raj era cemetary, and then ended up enjoying the buzz of the jeep stand, while failing to find a prebooking booth for Siliguri tomorrow. Odddly though - the bazaar was shut too.

Walking back up, I may have discovered the reason. A massive demonstration. The procession took fifteen minutes to pass me, and the whole of Darjeeling appeared to be there. Though it doesn't make the news in the UK, this area has a large separatist movement. It's very evident here in the painted slogans etc around town. The region wants to be separated from West Bengal and known as Gorkhaland. There seems to be litttle dissent locally. The procession included every culture, race and religion... many with their own banners. Nepalis, Tibetans, Muslims...Darjeeling is a hotch potch of peoples - and they all chanted with one voice "Gorkhaland, Gorkhaland, we want Gorkhaland"  I followed them to their assembly point in Chowrasta, where I then got a bird' eye view from my room. Interesting.

The rest of the day passed without anything of interest for you people. Did some gift shopping and went to the laundry, where yesterday I had dropped off four white tee shirts. Today I picked up four grey ones. To the extent of being almost unwearable. I needed them too... Had a huge vegetarian thali at the Hasty Tasty restaurant (90p), struck a deal with a micro bus driver to take me to the station tomorrow at a time when I want to go, rather than when the shared jeeps go - and other boring domestic stuff. Mooched in between and still had an enjoyable day. Darjeeling's that sort of a place.

Since I've not much to say, have a few more road safety signs:

'It is not rally - enjoy the valley'

'Be heartful about the right of way'

'Drive to care, not to dare. Drive with care, life has no spare'

'Drive like hell and you will be there'

'Fast won't last'

'Be gentle on my curves'

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Two shared jeep journeys today - five hours in all - and both really good. I left Pelling at 7:30 for Jorethang. We snaked our way down the mountain for an hour and a half, to spectacular viws. Arriving in the valley, we followed the Teesta river- with it's crystal clear water and white water rapids, for another hour. Later, at Jorethang, I caught another jeep for Darjeeling. I'm quite liking the jeep thing. It's quite a good way to meet the locals and visiting Bengalis - and they're always friendly and curious about me

After passing through the check point, we made our way back up the mountain again - passing through mile upon mile upon mile of tea plantations. These tea gardens really add something wonderful to already spectacular scenery - the wonderful greens, the manicured bushes each slightly seperated and almost making a pattern on the hillside. The various communities built around the plantations were interesting in themselves, and watching the women carrying their baskets of tea, when we had a refreshment stop, was really good. It was a bit of a bum numbing journey though, along potholed and unmade roads - all the less comfortable because the driver picked up a friend along the way - so there were three of us squashed on to two seats again!

After struggling up to the top of Darjeeling from the jeep stand, I managed to find myself somewhere to stay with such luxuries as towels and loo roll - and even a huge wood burning stove in the lounge. I can have a room with a stove tomorrow if I'd like. Lovely! It's a 30s place art deco style place, and I have a big window overlooking Chowrastra, the main square, and a big window seat with cushions to watch the world going by.

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says the graffiti outside my guesthouse. It's Pop Idol time in India, and they're down to the final two. It seems to be a very serious business. There are advertising hoardings everywhere, exhorting people to vote for one or the other. If Darjeeling's anything to go by, Prashant is winning the advertising war.

After breakfast at my favourite hole in the wall type cafe, I set off down the alleyway which has fruit and veg stalls lining it, watched a dog cock its leg over a sack of potatoes, and headed for the jeep stand. I wanted  to see if I could book my seat in advance, rather than have to face the melee at 7am tomorrow. Luckily I was able to - and I treated myself to paying double so that I could have 'two seats for one person'. Given that 13 of us occupied the last jeep, which had seats for eight or nine, hopefully that will mean that I get one whole seat to myself. Four hours is a long time. The last trip was two and a half, and though my Indian physics lecturer meighbour was very pleasant, I'd rather not have been squashed up to him quite so intimately for the duration.

Then I wandered throught the noisy hectic bit of town before setting off to visit a temple - down a very steep and winding hill. All the time being only too aware that I was going to have to come back up it again. I thought I might die on the walk back up. But I'm still here.

Depite the starry night giving me hope, the mist remains - but Matilda, the kind owner of my guesthouse has promised to get me up early if it's clear tomorrow, so I can see the sunrise over the mountains. But I'm not holding my breath. I love this town, even without the mountain backdrop so I'm really not as disappointed as I should be.

The rest of the day was spent moseying around as usual. I wish I had more exciting things to report, but there you are.

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I made it to the hill town of Darjeeling after a near-vomit-inducing ride crammed in a Jeep with about 10 others, over a bumpy, winding, narrow road, climbing up to about 2100 meters.  My timing in getting here was both good and bad.  The strikes ended the day I arrived, but I also arrived with a cold and have found nothing but bad weather.  I have yet to see the Himalayas! I see pictures all over town of the great view, but alas, I see nothing but clouds and rain.  Did I mention how cold it is?  My hotel room is a constant 49 degrees.  I sleep with a hat and gloves on.  I don't know if they've heard of central heating here.  I have to get a bucket of hot water to bathe.

Aside from all that, I love this place!  I feel like I left India, though, as faces have changed and so has the pace of life.  It is so peaceful here with no hassles. I can walk along the street with no one shouting at me, asking if I want a rickshaw or want to check out their shop. I've been "hit up" by a few beggars (literally hit by one kid when I wouldn't give him anything), but I feel anonymous again. 

Darjeeling is nestled on the side of a hill and home to many tea plantations. I've spent a great deal of my time reading and drinking tea between bouts of blowing my nose.  That cold medicine I've been carrying for 9 mos. is finally coming in handy.  I could easily stay here for a while, and I must given the weather.  I refuse to leave until I see the mountain view, or my visa runs out, whichever arrives first.  Let's hope the former.  Apparently you can see an amazing Himalayan horizon, including Everest, from a spot called Tiger Hill outside of town here.  Most go at sunrise, requiring a 4 a.m. rise, so I guess given my cold it's a good thing I've been unable to enjoy it yet. 

One thing I have been able to enjoy is my hotel's kick ass library.  They don't swap or sell them, but they loan them out.  Any book you've ever wanted to read is in this library.  So my days are spent sipping tea (so much I fear I may float away), reading good books, eating good food and looking outside, waiting for the clouds to clear.  Not a bad life.

I have done a few touristy things.  I checked out the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI).  Darjeeling was home to Tenzing Norgay, the sherpa who first summited Everest with Hillary in 1953.  Following this great feat, they opened up the HMI.  They run mountaineering classes out of here, but they also have a couple of museums, including one about Everest.  Even before my Kilimanjaro climb, I've been obsessed about Everest, although not actually thinking I'd attempt it myself.  I was excited to check out the museum.  It was small but it houses some of the gear used by Tenzing back in 1953.  You wonder how they ever made it given what they had back then compared to all the equipment and synthetic materials we have today.  There were news articles and desciptions of others who've attempted the climb and a model showing all the various routes. 

I also walked down below town to check out a tea plantation.  Again, timing is a little off as not much going on in the fields and they were rebuilding the factory, so no tour was possible.  But I sipped tea with two others among the familes who work the fields and bought some tea.   I then walked back up to the main part of town, thinking I might just die along the way...so many steps.  At least I finally warmed up.  Speaking of warm, one thing I have to stop myself from buying here is warm gear!  I've bought a few items out of necessity, and let me tell you, this stuff is cheap. I bought this great wool hat with fleece lining for about $1.50 when you'd pay at least $20-40 back home for it.  Being from Minnesota, I'll always be able to use this stuff, but I don't want the hassle of carrying it or sending it home, so I must resist buying one for each of my family members. 

I've also woken every morning to find that I can see my breath, something I haven't been able to do in ages.

I decided to move up a little further north, however, into Sikkim, which requires a permit.  I secured one today and will set off with a couple of lads from the Czech Republic in the morning.  It promises more great views (so I'm told), more peace and quiet, and importantly, more warmth (it's not as high up apparently).  Hopefully on the way back down through Darjeeling, I'll get to see that view from Tiger Hill. 

Until then I will drink more tea to stay warm and pray for the clouds to part. 

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Having arrived from Kathmandu by bus at the Nepali - Indian border I was greeted by a rather icy Indian border official, though I know that Indian border officials have the tact of the Wehrmacht but this one was definitely applying for the Gestapo, who gestured me to put my backpack outside his office to keep his office "clean" of all unwanted elements (read people that disturb him). He then started to ask me what I wanted, which was a bit obvious to me standing at the Indian border post with my Indian visa in my hand. After a ridiculous and meticulous long investigation of my passport he reluctantly lifted his stamper and gave me another of his sighs before he put the entry stamp in my passport and I finally entered India.

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5/21/07

New Video - There is a new video of the crazy traffic in foggy Darjeeling down at the bottom of the screen in the photos section.

Well after the excitement of the earthquake last night, we went to bed and woke up refreshed after the first night’s sleep in a real bed in over a week. We had breakfast and met Thupten and the guy who was going to drive us to Darjeeling and headed out from Yuksom.

Since it was raining when we first came into Sikkim and couldn’t visit the Tashiding Monastery from Ravangla, we decided to stop en-route to Darjeeling and see the sights. There was a festival going on at Tashiding and lots of locals hanging out praying and chanting. The car couldn’t make it up the steep, dirt road to the monastery so the three of us ended up walking while the driver snoozed in the Jeep. After a steep and somewhat arduous hike up, we stopped by the large monastery, filled with people doing Pujas and saw all of the ornately decorated statues and butter carvings. Upstairs were some really nicely painted walls (sorry no pics) that were unfortunately damaged last night in the quake.

Outside of the main temple was a small building where the monk in the picture was lighting thousands of butter lamps. Wandering around the grounds, we looked at a courtyard full of Chorten and Prayer Stones, many of them colorfully painted. I particularly like the painted rocks. Around the back of the prayer stones were a weirdly shaped rock with an impression in it that was filled with a bit of rain water and a few coins. Thupten told me that it was a special rock that you could rest your knees in and have them healed. I of course obliged and we shall see how my creaky joints work in the future… After walking around the monastery, we sat and had a cup of Salt Tea with the locals before hiking back down to our jeep and sleeping driver.

Now it was time to head off to Darjeeling which involved about a billion turns on windy, rock and dirt roads until we eventually made it down towards Silguri, where it was hot and dusty. We had a really marginal lunch at a grotty place there after passing through Sikkimese immigration. After lunch, Thupten disappeared for a few minutes, then came back with a bag filled with lots of large, Sikkimese beers for his sister’s husband (not the one in Tsokha but another in Darjeeling - it seems he has a large family!) We started up the hill on some of the narrowest, steepest, sharpest hairpin turn roads that we have been on. As we inched up the mountains, the temperature started dropping back down to a comfortable level and we zigged and zagged through tea plantation after tea plantation. Along the way were tiny little villages where all of the plantation workers lived - we did end up picking up an older man and giving him a ride for a bit, our driver surprisingly declining the man’s offer of money (since we had probably already made his day!). He was actually a really nice, cautious and safe driver. We finally started heading down a hill into Darjeeling, right during the middle of rush hour with unbelievable traffic, noise and pollution. Oh boy! I had read that Darjeeling was a bit crazy but Cindy hadn’t and was somewhat surprised. She took a small video of the insanity of jeeps, buses, cars, people, cows, etc. all fighting for the same tiny piece of asphalt but it is to big to upload from here at these slow speeds - perhaps later….

Fog and light rain, sometimes only mist, covered Darjeeling as we inched are way through the older, lower part of the town, finally making it to the upper town where our new digs, the Alice Villas were located. We checked in via an uninterested and lackluster Indian man and I could tell that Cindy was less than thrilled. The quirky place ended up growing on us after a couple of days (even if it was a bit grimy) and you can see from the picture it was indeed a two-story “villa” of sorts complete with fireplace.

Having been out of touch so long, we figured we would try checking email and perhaps updating this blog a bit but managed to choose a really, slow Internet café where I got so frustrated after a bit that I just left. The streets, especially the main street leading down into town and most of the restaurants was very, very crowded as this is the time of year that all of the locals are on vacation and trying to get away from the heat of the plains. Even some of the local vacationers that we met at Alice Villas were complaining about the crowds and changing plans to visit somewhere besides crowded Darjeeling.

We walked down to the Dekling Hotel where Karin and Carl are supposed to be staying and the nice enough front desk guy was confused as they weren’t there and he only had reservations under travel agent names, not foreigners. Perhaps we have it wrong but we thought they got in today. Downstairs, is the well known Devekas Restaurant where we had a Tibetan dinner of Momos (Tibetan Dumplings) and noodles with tea. There is no availability at Alice Villas after tomorrow night so we need to figure out either where to go or where to stay in Darjeeling till we figure it out. Nepal is still high on the list but we are going to check into Cochin and Kerala as well as finding out if it would be prohibitively expensive to fly to the islands in Southern Thailand since we never made it there last summer.

5/22/07
Well the bed was comfortable and we had a good night’s sleep before ordering room service breakfast and dealing with the Laundry man. We dumped off all of our ripe and dirty trekking stuff to have it done by professionals and headed out for a day of sightseeing in and around Darjeeling with Thupten (who seems eager to get the hell out of crowded Darjeeling and back to the peace and tranquility of Sikkim).

Our first stop was at an old Tibetan Self Help Center where about 500-600 displaced Tibetan’s and now their kids and grand-kids live. The place is divided up into different areas like wood carving, carpet making, textiles, painting etc. and everybody seems to do something handy, making them a bit of money and keeping them busy. We wandered around the various areas, watching the mostly older people working, chatting and generally seeming pretty happy. Thupten’s sister lives here and he delivered the beers purchased yesterday. There were tons of “Free Tibet” posters and notices about the Panchan Lama who is the second highest figure next to the Dalai Lama and was abducted along with his family about seven or eight years back. He is now a teenager and his whereabouts are unknown. Those who care are trying to leverage the upcoming Olympics in Bejing to get him released. All in all, the whole Tibet situation is a sad thing and the Chinese are imperialist assholes for what they have done to the country. The best part of our visit here was seeing the little kids in school. We met the head teacher and she walked us around through the various level class rooms and the little kids were cute and hysterical.

Next stop was the the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute which is both a training center for mountaineers as well as museum detailing the ascent of the Mt. Everest by Tenzing Sherpa & Sir Edmund Hillary and numerous other expeditions. There were lots of cool displays, especially if you like the mountains including lots of the original clothes and equipment that the various expeditions have used. If you look at the gear today compared to what they used on the first successful ascent, it is truly unbelievable that they made it.

After the institute, it was off to the Himalayan Zoo which actually seemed reasonably nice for a zoo and had some cool displays including snow leopards, several big tigers, some beautiful birds and of course the sly Red Panda that we never got to see on the trek. We were pleasantly surprised that it seemed to be in good condition and the animals weren’t crammed into tiny little pens or cages.

After that, we decided to stop at one of the local tea plantations, the Happy Valley Tea Company and see how tea is processed and packaged. Our new driver, a young kid who seemed cocky and bored, decided that the dirt and rock road down to the tea plantation was not for him, so Thupten, Cindy and I walked about twenty minutes down to the plantation. Of course it ended up that it had recently changed hands and was “closed for renovations”. So much for a tea tour. We hiked back up the hill and found our teenage driver and clambered off to visit the Ghoom Monastery not far out of Darjeeling. Along the way, we passed the narrow and tiny tracks for the famous Darjeeling Toy Train and after a bit, it actually went steaming by us. It was built in the late 1800’s and, at the time, was quite the marvel of engineering, chugging and puffing its way up the mountain to Darjeeling. We snapped the picture of the engine from the car (luckily as we later found out from Carl who hopped out of their car to photograph the train and ended up covered in ashes and soot). We may rally and try to take the train but it is supposed to be kind of touristy these days and we aren’t exactly railroad buffs….

We got to Ghoom Monastery where it ends up that one of Thupten’s brothers is a senior monk. We ended up meeting him and several of his compatriots and had a really tasty vegetarian lunch with him. He apologized for the fact that it was vegetarian, but they are in the middle of a ten or so day Puja and can only eat vegetarian. Interestingly, he said that during the Puja, they can’t eat onions or garlic too for some reason. Luckily, chilies were OK. His brother is a really nice guy and, when we told him we had been to Bhutan, wanted to see pictures. We watched a mini-slideshow on my camera (and of course one of the first pictures that “popped up” was the fertility one from Punakha with the huge, squirting phallus… Wonderful.

He gave us a great tour of the Monastery and, for once, we were actually able to take some pictures inside. A few are included here. The colorful “sculpture” things in the one with the Red Lotus flower are actually special for the Puja and are made from flour and butter and are pretty amazing. The detailed shot of the guy in the blue shows how intricate they are (and is vaguely reminiscent of Mr. Bill of Saturday Night Live fame from the 70’s). The shot in the temple gives you and idea of the opulence and intricacy of the typical monastery temple in Sikkim.

We finished our tourism day by heading back through the fog and traffic to Darjeeling where Thupten helped us find new digs. We stopped by the old part of the infamous Bellvue Hotel and it was bordering on horrific so we decided to take a look at the newer building. The manager was a nice guy and they do have a room for several days, actually a suite of sorts at the end of the building complete with a sitting room and pot belly stove and claw foot bathtub. Cindy said it would work so at least we now have a place to relax while we figure out where to go. We ended up having a Tibetan dinner at Kunga’s which is right next door to our Tibetan dinner place from last night. The momo’s were fried and good and we ended up talking with the two European guys (one Czech and one Finish) and a tall, French girl that I met the day before we went up to Goeche La as well as two really young American girls on some kind of college program. The big topic of discussion is now “where to go next”. All things considered, it is not too stressful J

5/23/07
Well we woke up early and decided to try one of the well known local places, Glenarys, for Breakfast. They had croissants which was a nice treat but instant coffee as usual. They do have a tasty looking pastry shop which we will try later as well as reasonably good internet. We emailed Karin and Carl to let them know that we were in town and moving to the posh Bellvue Hotel and then spent some time trying to update the blog and download some photos. We packed all of our crap up including our freshly laundered (thank god…) clothes, and walked the five minutes to the Bellevue. Our room is actually pretty nice, clean and overlooking the central square from one window (and the smelly horse stables from another) and we think we should be comfy here.

After we checked in, we went to the local travel agent to find out about flight options to Cochin and Kathmandu. We had found out at the internet café that Thailand was probably too far and too pricey. Cochin sort of fell of the list because of distance, Monsoon, etc. and we ended up heavily leaning towards overlanding to the border of Nepal and then flying from Bhadrapur to Kathmandu which is about $130 instead of a 17 hour bus ride from the border. Call us wimps but 17 hour buses are for people half our age….

We went to a local Thali restaurant called “Hasty Tasty” which deserves an award just for the ingenuity of the name. Thalis are Northern and Southern Indian meals comprised of half a dozen or more vegetarian dishes, pickles, rice, pappadums and desert. They are really inexpensive and very tasty and we really liked the place (and were the only foreigners there). We headed back to Glenarys to research Nepalese hotels, etc. and ended up running into Carl and Karin who had arrived last night. The next thing you know, we were downstairs in the bar of Glenarys drinking beers and smoking a giant hookah. As you can see from the picture, Carl and Karin were both enjoying themselves too. We went out for dinner with them at The Park Restaurant which was fun and we talked about the trek, California and everything else under the sun. They are here another day or two and then head down to the Jaldhapara Wildlife Park that we drove through on the way from Bhutan to Sikkim before heading home.

5/24/07
This morning we went to another local place called Keventner’s for breakfast - at least they had some kind of real coffee as the food was just ok. We are still waffling around what to do next but are leaning heavily towards Nepal. Cindy is no longer freezing and perhaps the allure of a beach resort is fading J . We ended up looking at one of the well stocked local bookstores and they do stock the Lonely Planet Nepal book, so I would say chances are high that we decide to continue our Himalayan journey in Kathmandu. We did email a few places in Kathmandu about accommodations too.

We did manage to talk to Raju, a taxi guy that Thupten recommended and he said he can take us to the border for about $50 which sounds a lot easier than changing share taxis and buses three or four times. He is in Gangtok, Sikkim right now and said he will be back tomorrow and call us - guess we will see. Last night we made plans to have lunch with Karin and Carl, but since we had been drinking beer all afternoon and evening, we weren’t exactly sure (OK, I wasn’t exactly sure…) what the plans were. We walked down to the Devling Hotel to meet them and were a bit early. I walked over to see the clock tower and looked down onto the teeming street below when I saw Carl and Karin and yelled for them. Carl looked around, not sure where his name was beckoning from and eventually saw me on the steps above. We ended up going Barfi shopping with them. Barfi is type of Indian sweet that is really good and they were buying a bunch of different types to take home for a dinner party that we will unfortunately miss as we will still be bouncing around this part of the world.

We ended up having a nice lunch at the Loma Hotel which was packed with local tourists, none of them Caucasian, and had really good food. Afterwards, we went tea tasting at Nathmulls, one of the local distributors of fine, Darjeeling tea. All in all, too subtle for me, at least the incredibly expensive “white tea” at 900 rupees for 100 grams (about $100/pound) but it was fun and we learned a lot about first flush and second flush tea, etc.

Afterwards, we all decided it was time to head to the Internet for some brief email checks and to see if anyone from the few Nepalese hotels we emailed, responded. The internet was molasses slow, so we opted for a cold beer downstairs before eventually heading back to Hasty Tasty for Thali dinners with Carl and Karin who are off for their safari stuff tomorrow. After dinner, we said goodbye and wished them well on the remainder of their trip. We are sure to see them again in the US, wherever they end up moving to.

5/25/07
After a nutritious breakfast of Momos and tea, we wandered around the streets a bit and finally sucked it up and paid the $30 (ok you losers who think I am just cheap that’s 1200 Rupees!) for the Lonely Planet Nepal book. Guess it is definite. Afterwards, we booked the flight and went out to buy some road munchies for the long drive to the border tomorrow (about 4-6 hours, you never know..)

We did hear from Raju and he said no problem, he would take us to the border at Kharkhabita tomorrow at 6:00am so we are all set for Nepal and ready for a new adventure. We stopped by to check email and see about the hotels, but apparently there is a strike at the local ISP today and thus, no email. Hmmm. We wanted to check out one of the local watering holes that we had read about in our travel book called Joey’s which was a nice enough, comfy, English style pub. We were the only customers and ended up having beer and fries for lunch. We were sitting there reading the local, English language newspaper and stumbled across the bizarre article about a man trying to cure himself of anemia in a twisted, but novel way. The weird thing, for those of you who believe in urban myths, is that the article actually mentions the whole Richard Gere thing…read it for yourself if you dare…

Afterwards, we took a nice walk from the main square where the Bellvue Hotel is out towards the zoo and sat in a little park getting stared at while we ate some pretty crappy confectionary stuff that we bought at Glenarys Restaurant. Every time we ate there or used the internet, the bakery stuff looked good but it was all smoke and mirrors and nothing to write home about.

After a bit of a rest and packing up to head off to Nepal (safely making sure that there are no liquids or gels in our carry on bags as I am sure that Buddha Air in Bhadrapur is well aware of the FAA rules…) we thought we would go upscale and try Glenarys for dinner. It was really good and we had some tasty skewered and grilled chicken and Paneer Butter Tikka Masala for dinner (along with a few “Black Label” beers of course. We are excited to head off tomorrow on our next portion of the trip and looking forward to Nepal.

5/26/07
Neither one of us slept particularly well - not sure if it was the excitement of heading to Kathmandu, the horse stables below us or our hard bed but we both awoke early, well before the 5:00am alarms. Our driver Raju showed up right on time at 6:00am and we hopped in his car and headed off. There was a ton of traffic that he attributed to the locals going to watch sunrise over the mountains from Tiger Hill. This was originally in our itinerary but we neglected to do it after Thupten said that there would be 5-600 cars filled with locals up there and the view was nothing compared to what we saw in Dzongri and Goeche La.

He ended up taking us on a very windy shortcut that bypassed the returning tourist traffic where we managed to catch the Toy Train once more before heading down another crazy, sometimes one-way road. I wasn’t feeling to peachy (and I have an iron stomach) and was worried about Cindy but she said she was OK and eventually, we made it down the mountain and came out into a wide open place with tea growing everywhere. The dried apricots, cashews and Barfi that we were munching did the trick.We paused by the side of the road where we wandered into one of the tea plantations and chatted with the local ladies picking tea (not much of a chat really as they didn’t speak English and our Hindi is less than stellar…)

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trekked from Sandakphu to Rimbik via Gurdun and Sirikhola

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