Arriving in Darjeeling via the open sided Jeep in just my T-shirt and thin trousers was horribly cold, Djalma sat in the back with a tiny old Nepalese guy who smiled and laughed incessantly – a very lovely travel companion. We shouldered our backpacks and walked up through the town, we asked in all the hotels we came across, keen to try and make up for our excesses in Goa by cutting back on the expenses where ever possible. We eventually found a place with view out over the hills and Darjeeling spreading out either side of us. We ventured out, this time with fleeces, and got some chow mein and vegetable thukpa (flat noodle soup) in one of the restaurants lining the way to the main square from our hotel.
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| From Darjeeling, West Bengal, India |
After an early night we were up bright and early the next day and spent most of it exploring the hilltop city. The place was full of friendly smiling Nepalese and as our last stop before Nepal it kind of felt like we had already arrived. At some point through the maze-like streets three young school girls saw me taking pictures and decided to follow us for a bit, giggling and smiling and trying to practise the little English they knew.
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| From Darjeeling, West Bengal, India |
They eventually left us in search of some other fun and we continued to wander round the city, through markets, past pani puri vendors, all the while walking up and down the streets. Walking down one road we stopped and waited with other people and watched while groups of protesting school children walked, chanting round the bend. The elections were due to be held in the next few days and there were three different political parties delivering speeches that were to be held in the following days, the atmosphere in Darjeeling was charged because of this. On nearly every shop/road/restaurant sign was 'Gorkhaland', the town having a large Nepalese population (over 90% I think) wanted to made into a separate state along with other close towns, and not be a part of West Bengal any more.
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| From Darjeeling, West Bengal, India |
We walked round to a view point where the relatively clear air revealed the mountain ranges in the distance and we watched the sun move across the sky before deciding that it was too damn cold and windy to wait out in the elements for the sun to go to bed.
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| From Darjeeling, West Bengal, India |
Walking back to our hotel we stopped off at a tiny little restaurant and ordered some gorgeous veg thukpa (the noodle soup) and some veg momos (steamed dumplings), thinking our luck was in we decided to try something else off the menu, veg wai wai, a mistake – we were full and it was only instant noodles. We organised a taxi ride out to Tiger Hill for the following morning to watch the sun come up over the Himalayan ranges, having been caught in a downpour that afternoon, we were wondering whether the weather and the visibility would be good enough, but the sky was clear and the stars visible so we thought we would chance it for the next day.
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| From Darjeeling, West Bengal, India |
We met our taxi/tour man outside our hotel at 3.30am and waited a good half hour for two more people to join us, just after 4am an English couple joined us along with a stray puppy they had taken in for the night. We set off for the 2 hour trip up to Tiger Hill making good time because we had left well in advance of most of the other tourists. We got out from the warmth of the little car and walked out to the edge of the concrete platform to get a good place for photos, we stood in our little spot freezing our asses off on the exposed hill waiting for the sun to come up. The view out over the mountain ranges was beautiful, we even saw Everest but it was tiny little thing and not at all impressive.
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| From Darjeeling, West Bengal, India |
After a gorgeous sunrise we bundled back into the car and were driven down to one of the largest Monasteries in the North of India. We strolled up the front which was decorated with some impressive wall paintings and took our shoes off to enter a small prayer room with huge prayer wheels. We were invited to sit down by an old guy who was spinning one around and chanting a prayer, after a very tangled start I got the hang of it but not the chant he tried to teach me, after a while the room filled up with other India tourists and we said goodbye and went to the main hall. The main room was full of monks with their books out and it didn't feel appropriate to enter, besides that we weren't allowed to take pictures so after a little wander round the grounds we left the Monastery, got back into the car and headed back to Darjeeling.
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| From Darjeeling, West Bengal, India |
Djalma, the unfeeling slave driver, decided that despite our eye achingly early start, we shouldn't go back to bed not even for a nap (what a meanie) so we paid our hotel a visit for the toilet facilities only and left for breakfast. After an egg bun and a milky cup of sweet masala chai we walked down to Bhutia Busty Gompa which was a rather long walk up but mainly down paths past beautiful pot gardens and tea estate vistas.
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| From Darjeeling, West Bengal, India |
After a couple of false turns we rounded the bend of the little Gompa (Tibetan Church) to find a couple of sleepy dogs, an Italian student sketching the building and an old lady caretaker who shuffled round busily but didn't seem to do anything. After a long walk in the now very warm sunshine we sat and rested a while, we turned the prayer wheels, sat and talked to the Italian girl and then set off for the Zoo.
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| From Darjeeling, West Bengal, India |
On our way back out we bumped into the little guy who Djalma sat next to during the Jeep ride from Siliguri, who seemed even shorter than the first time we saw him. We got very lost trying to take a “short cut” to the zoo and were sweating our way up and down paths in the middle of no-where on the side of hills before deciding to retrace our footsteps and ask for some directions. At one point, dying in the heat and dying for the loo, I couldn't wait any longer and had to take a hedge ticket, I also took the opportunity to remove my 220 denier tights (ridiculously thick) and my long shorts which I was wearing under my summer trousers. Djalma held my thick shawl round me while I squatted down in relative privacy and, in a near state of bliss, relieved myself... all over my left trainer.
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| From Darjeeling, West Bengal, India |
We eventually found the right road down to the zoo and with my shoes drying out in the heat of the day we bought our tickets and went in. The zoo was divided into two sections, there were the large cats, which despite large signs asking visitors to be quiet and respectful, were taunted and shouted by Indian tourists (it seems funny that despite their veneration of some animals as gods, they treat most animals quite disrespectfully) and some birds at one end, the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in the middle and the red panda, small cats and more birds including the ancestor of the modern day chicken at the other.
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| From Darjeeling, West Bengal, India |
We walked round the big cats and the large game area first, it was quite upsetting to see the larger animals, especially the big cats, caged in such small areas and some of them were pacing and looked not to be enjoying life in captivity quite so much. We saw one tiger, who looked flabby in comparison to the wild tiger we saw in Bandhavgarh, which was sleeping in a patch of sunlight, it woke up when it heard all the tourists coming and started crying or talking in response to all the jabbering adults congregating outside its cage.
We left the felines behind and went to the HMI were I lay down on a bench and snoozed while Djalma had a look round the mini museum, I felt ridiculously tired and didn't care that I was the subject of many a photograph while I lay dozing.
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| From Darjeeling, West Bengal, India |
We started on the next section which was home to the highlight of our visit, very very cute red pandas. Its home was relatively open in comparison to the other animals and it strolled round well trodden paths in its little section past flowers and up logs. There were plenty more animals further up including little cats and big rodenty types not to mention the exotic goldfish.
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| From Darjeeling, West Bengal, India |
The aquariums weren't in a much better state than the cages and didn't take more than two minutes to visit. At the end was the father of modern chickens, the excitement was just too much for us and we sat on a bench outside the entrance and laughed with the mirth of the sleep deprived, we didn't laugh as much when it came to walking back.
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| From Darjeeling, West Bengal, India |
We straggled and struggled our way up the hill roads to the main square where, just as the rain started to come down in progressively bigger drops we flopped down inside a coffee shop and ordered some expensive (for us) chocolate sizzle dazzles (yes that was the real name) that were served up on a piping hot iron plates, chocolate sauce bubbling and sizzling away underneath a slice of chocolate brownie, crowned with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.
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| From Darjeeling, West Bengal, India |
I had a mocha, needing the extra injection of caffeine and more chocolate for the last stretch home. We didn't last much longer than that and decided to leave the following morning because the upcoming elections were commandeering all the Jeeps and if we left it any longer it would've been impossible to leave in time to get to Nepal to meet my sister.
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| From Darjeeling, West Bengal, India |
The next morning, after a good long sleep – we didn't stay awake much after 8.30pm – we said goodbye to dirty, grey, lovely Darjeeling and found a Jeep back down to Siliguri where we found a small bus to take us over the border. The ride was squished but uneventful and we crossed the open border, got our Nepali visas and changed the last of our rupees without any hassle. Goodbye India, hello Nepal!
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