Head for the hills

Due to a late night last night, I woke up relatively late at 0730. I rang to get the hot water turned on and after 20 minutes it was just warm enough to have a splash before breakfast.  I popped out to the nearby Sikkim Nationalised Transport terminal to check if the Tourist Information Centre was open so I could do my Sikkim permit. I got there around 0930 and stayed till 1015 hoping that it would be, but being Sunday, it wasn’t my luck.

I returned to my room to pack and head for the hills … specifically, Darjeeling.  I got into the front seat of a shared 4WD at 1045.  As it was nearly full and we set off soon after at 1100, with me squashed between the driver and a lady passenger. The gear knob was under my thigh for part of the time depending on which gear the car was in.

The journey was flat initially then we started climbing. The windy road took us past a few towns that look like concrete houses scattered on the hillside. We got to Darjeeling around 1430. I had on Google Maps where my homestay, the Pahari Soul was. It wasn’t evident when we got there so I left for it a few seconds before I asked the driver to stop. He wouldn’t and continued, thinking that I was mistaken about where the proper drop-off was. But then I explained more carefully that my hotel was around here, he did stop.

I had to backtrack a little before seeing my homestay. It was a 3-storey block of perhaps 9 rooms. I was shown to my room without any formalities or paperwork. It wasn’t as nice as the places I’ve hd this trip. It felt damp. There was no top sheet so I’d be sleeping under a blanket used by many before me. When I checked the pillows under the pillowcases, they were badly mildewed.

It was rather strange that this place was highly rated on Tripadvisor. Perhaps it was because Darjeeling is very expensive being highly touristed; and this place was quite reasonable but a little out-of-town.

After a little rest, I tried walking to town. A cop told me it would be 20 minutes but I thought it would be more like 50 from the map. After a short while, a 4WD came along and I hopped on for INR10. It was quite a distance.

Darjeeling itself was a chaotic mish-mash of streets on different levels. Nothing was straight. It was rundown and dirty like any other Indian city. I expected a little better being such a mecca for tourists in the country. Even Murree (another hill station) in Pakistan was in better shape.

After a wander, I needed some lunch and resorted to KFC. I had a one-piece plus yellow rice. It was in the location where the Sikkim Tourist Information Centre should have been, so I could do my permit. But there was no sign of the office. I had this horrible thought that it might have closed down and I’d have to backtrack or detour. I later found that it was in a government building nearby and will go tomorrow.

I returned to my guesthouse and pre-ordered a vege thukpa for 1900. As evening fell, the clouds seemed to fall in the distance. The snowy peaks of the mountain ranges in the distance poked through the clouds and gave a slight shimmer in the evening light.

With a miserable accommodation, it would have been nice to have internet as distraction. But it wasn’t meant to be. I found the switch to the electric blanket and turned them on in the hope of drying everything out a little. I could have done with a heater too.

Darjeeling is a rather damp place and this was the dry season. It must be miserable in the wet season but perhaps it may be warmer and feel less damp.