Darjeeling

Sunday June 29^th – Tuesday July 1^st

With nothing planned for our last day at the farmstay, we decided that we wanted to go into Darjeeling for the day. Talking to Navin, we found that this involves an 8 km walk uphill to the town of Lebong, then a shared taxi ride another 8 km into Darjeeling. We decided we would do it rain or shine so we got up early and headed out.

The pleasant walk quickly turned into an grueling uphill battle as we walked along the same steep road we had driven down two days before. It drizzled on and off but the rain was refreshing as we worked our way up to the top of the ridge. As we hiked up we came across many other people walking between their houses and other farms and villages. They seemed happy and not the least bit winded by the steep uphill. If I had to walk hills like that every day I guess I would be in good shape too. Taking that walk was another way to experience the daily life of the people who live in these hills. We gained about 3000 feet over those 8 km and it took us about 2.5 hours.

Taking in the view on the hike up. Photo Cred: Sagar Batchu

When we got to Lebong, we quickly got a shared jeep into Darjeeling (18 ruppees a head and crammed in with about 8 other people). Navin had given us the name of a place that served breakfast so that was where we headed first. The place was called Keventer's and it sat at the top of a two-story building at one of the higher points of the city. Having breakfast up there was like eating at the top of a steep precipice. Navin had told us that meat was very delicious in these parts so we got as much as we could. We collectively ordered sausage, bacon, ham and salami, along with eggs and toast and of course, tea. We stuffed ourselves after our long hike and then decided to look around the town.

Darjeeling is a town of 200,000 people but it feels much smaller in the city center. The roads are narrow and very steep and there was a lot of shopping which seemed to cater to the tourists. Eventually, we decided to grab a shared jeep into a smaller town called Ghoom because it had some Buddhist monasteries to check out. We got to go inside two different temples and enjoy the colorful paintings, statues, and offerings that were placed everywhere.

                                      

We headed back to Darjeeling and enjoyed an excellent lunch of Tibetan food with dumplings and noodles and then started our long journey back to Navin's place. We took a shared Jeep back to Lebong and 8km walk back down the hillside. When we got back we all showered and relaxed. I got to play some board games with Navin's family. We played a game that is really similar to Sorry! And Navin's son (who is about 11) got really competitive and was hilarious to play with. That little boy mentality of always wanting to win seems to transcend cultural boundaries. He ended up winning so he was very happy. We also played snakes and ladders. We had a late dinner and enjoyed our last night in our delux tent.

One of Navin's many dogs

Saying goodbye to Navin on the morning of our departure

The next morning we packed up early and paid Navin. He gave us complementary packages of his hand-rolled tea and got us a ride back into Darjeeling. We were intent on getting train tickets for the following day so we got dropped off at the train station to start the laborious process of finding a ride. Making a long story short, we could not get tickets for any time until Friday (5 days later) so we decided to book a flight for Wednesday July 2^nd to Delhi instead. It is much more expensive but it is much quicker and saves us the hassle. We got lunch and a hotel and spent the rest of the day shopping and resting, still sore from the hike the day before.

A lot of the shops in Darjeeling have a bunch of knock-off american mountaineering brands. There were whole shops that sold North Face and Columbia gear that was obviously fake because it was so inexpensive. They were surprisingly good knockoffs though, and it was sometimes difficult to tell what was and wasn't real.

That evening I walked with Sagar to a temple that he had found. It was getting dark as we walked up through the main square of the town. There was live music playing so we stopped and listened to a popular Bollywood song. 

Live music in Darjeeling

We walked up a winding path to the temple that was at the top. Even though the temple was Hindu, there were thousands of Tibetan prayer flags (which are associated with Buddhism) strung around it. As we walked in a bunch of monkeys scattered, using the flags to climb around. There was some chanting going on at the shrine of Shiva so we decided to check it out. We stood watching for a while but then one of the men beckoned us over and put and orange tilak on each of our foreheads and gave us a small treat to eat. We walked around and found a few other shrines and Sagar explained to me a little about each Hindu deity. We passed by a book store on the way back and I picked up a copy of the Mahabharata, which is a holy book in Hinduism that contains many stories relating to the gods.

The prayer flags outside the temple. Photo Cred: Sagar Batchu

The Hindu-Buddhist temple. Photo Cred: Sagar Batchu

The following day (Tuesday) was really rainy. We took a wet walk back to Keventer's for another hot breakfast of meat and eggs. We spent most the of the day inside trying to find accommodation for the next part of our trip and catching up with communication back home. Tonight we are planning on going out for some beers and then waking up early to get a shared jeep back down the hillside to catch our flight to Delhi!

Panorama from a bakery in Darjeeling. Photo Cred: Sagar Batchu

Old, abandoned house behind our hotel. Looks more European than the rest of the architecture here.

View from the top of our hotel when the fog finally let up

Things I learned:

1) The children from near where Navin lives have to walk to school and back once each week. They walk the full 16km into Darjeeling and back.

2) In Darjeeling, Tatkal is not first come first served. The order in which you are served depends on the order of your name on a slip of paper posted by some random person in the middle of the night. You can be number one on that list if you supply the paper and then guard your slip all night so no one else can replace it.

3) In India, roads are paved by melting a bunch of pitch in a barrel and then mixing it with some rocks by hand. They don't close the roads to lay it down, either, so everyone walking by breaths in a lot of burning tar. I know this because they have been paving the roads between our hotel and city center.