Sunrise and permit chaos

With a pickup at 0430, I didn’t sleep well.  I had retired around 2100 and had woken around 2330, 0130 before finally waking up before the alarm around 0330. I decided to head down to the roadside a little earlier.  Somehow I had expected it, and the front gate was locked.  Fortunately I was able to climb over the balcony/fence relatively easily to get down to the road.

It was a 30 minute drive to get to Tiger Hill.  A short walk near the summit took us to a large crowd, some of which had climbed up on to the scaffolding of the new viewing platform being constructed.

We looked out to the east to see a very faint stripe of orange amidst the black night sky.  Slowly, that stripe grew brighter.  Around 0545, a small orange ball emerged slowly, showing only its top at first but rising completely to a full circle shortly after.

With the sun up, my attention turned to the mountain range with Kangchendzonga and its cohorts.  From Tiger Hill, we had a spectacular 250km stretch of Himalayan horizon, including Everest (8848m), Lhotse (8501m), Makalu (8475m) to the far west.  That’s what the guidebook said but it was only marginally  better than the view from my accommodation.  And it’s hard to work out which is which unless you buy a postcard guide.

We hopped back into the 4WD at 0615 to head back to town.  Two other sites were included in the tour, namely Batasia Loop and Dali monastery.  I sat out the first and walked back to my accommodation when we stopped at the second.

When I returned at 0715, the front gate to the homestay wasn’t open yet.  But I went in through the back gate and went upstairs and then back down to my level.  Perhaps I could have done that at 0415 this morning instead of risk breaking my neck.

For breakfast, I opted for aloo prata, hoping that it would be something the host could do well.  And she didn’t disappoint.  It came with some mango pickle which I always say “a little goes a long way” since it is very sour.

It took a bit of motivation to head out at 0930.  Including a change of transport in town, I was at the zoo at 1000.  It was a surprising good zoo with a good collection of big cats, semi-big cats, mountain goats, yaks etc.  I particularly loved the Himalayan Tahr, Bengal tiger, leopard, panther and snow leopard.

The zoo entry includes the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute.  For someone with no interest in the subject, I found it mildly interesting.  I have a lot of admiration for these explorers because they do what I’d never do!

It was an uphill walk to the upperside of Darjeeling where I returned to Glenary’s for a light snack.  In view of my tummy (seemed OK, but let’s be careful), I had some tea and muesli.

My next priority was to withdraw or change some money.  The State Bank of India’s ATM worked like a charm and didn’t charge me a local fee unlike the one at Delhi airport.

Next I thought I should check on my Sikkim permit.  Firstly, it had listed various place names that I was allowed to be in, but those places excluded Sikkim. Secondly, the allowed entry points specified were Rangpo (on the way to Gangtok) and Nayabazar (on the way to Pelling).  I wanted to check that Nayabazar was the same as nearby Jorethang (which I had planned on travelling through).

At the permit application place, the man told me that I was OK for Pelling but I can’t go through Nayabazar/Jorethang.  I would need to travel through Melli instead, which is completely against what was specified on the permit.

Dissatisfied, I thought I’d go for a long walk to the courthouse to check with the man who issued the permit.  He said, I was OK for Pelling, but I’d need to travel through Rangpo which would be an even bigger detour than Melli.  Aaarrrggghhh!

Again, it wasn’t consistent with the permit!  That’s because the permit was issued by West Bengal but Sikkim does what it likes!  But shouldn’t Sikkim be issuing the permit instead? Maybe they do at other places (Siliguri station and Rangpo border checkpoint) and they make it easier there!

I was going to head back and do various scenarios of the detours involved, and maybe take a chance and go through Jorethang/Nayabazar regardless of what I’ve been told.  But since I was going through the taxi station, I asked at the counter.  They were pretty clued up here, more so than the permit issuing office actually.  They said foreigners definitely cannot enter through Jorethang/Nayabzar and I’d have to do a detour through Melli (despite not being mentioned on the permit). There’s no need to do a bigger detour through Rangpo.  Sorted!  Well, until I actually do it tomorrow.

I returned for a rest and a snack.  There was no way I could last till dinner.  I had tried organising dinner for 1800 but the earliest they could handle was 1900.  Then I wanted a repeat of last night’s Mixed Vege and roti, but they couldn’t do it.  Perhaps they thought I didn’t like it when I had left part of it behind due to my upset tummy.  They offered stir-fried ladies finger and roti instead which was far too light.  Ah well, lose weight  🙂

I was looking forward to tomorrow as I’d be leaving Darjeeling!  I didn’t like it at all.  My bad accommodation had put a dampener on my stay.  But I wonder if it could have been much better because the town centre is a chaotic mish-mash of rundown buildings.  The traffic noise and pollution was bad.  The dampness is bad and many buildings don’t get much natural light due to their orientation or due to obstruction by their neighbours.