Long way around to Sikkim

Above: Leaving Darjeeling, I waited for 1h30 before the 4WD shared taxi had a full load and could depart. The first of four wait-and- rides.

I had about 10 hours sleep last night to compensate for the early wake-up yesterday (which was preceded by bad sleep).  I woke after 0700 and got packed up first as it was too early to order breakfast.

Some bad news in the form of my tummy having played up after a good day yesterday.  It was probably only good because of the pill that I had taken.   But because it had remained OK for more than 24 hours without a pill, I gathered it couldn’t have been to bad.  So I took another pill and was fairly confident I’d be OK for the long day ahead.

I set off at 0830 and took a shared 4WD taxi to town where I paid for a seat to Melli.  I didn’t realise there were three counters or operators, so I didn’t check who had the most imminent departure (most number of seats filled) and faced a frustrating 1h30 wait.  Fortunately I hadn’t rushed too much in the morning to get to the station.

It was a very windy ride.  We stopped for a break about 1h outside of Darjeeling in a really tidy village before continuing another hour to Melli.  I was dropped around 1230 at a three-way junction where I waited for my next ride to Jorthang.  This detour added about an hour to the journey and was necessitated due to Jorthang checkpoint not being open to foreigners.

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While waiting for the vehicle to fill, I was asked to walk across the nearby bridge into Sikkim to have my permit and passport stamped.  I returned and waited until we filled up and departed around 1330.

It was only a 1h ride to Jorthang.  The scenery was still lush but the roads were very dusty.  In parts, they were unsealed and I expected my backpack on the roof to be completely coated in dust upon arrival, but it wasn’t.

It was around 1345 and I couldn’t get a shared taxi to Pelling.  I was offered a service to Geyzing and changing, or to try find a bus to Pelling.  I tried the latter briefly before returning to the station for the former.

In the 4WD waiting was Mark from UK whom I had met this morning at Darjeeling station.  His car left about 30 minutes before mine.  He had been waiting in this taxi for about an hour already.  I was lucky to have to wait only 30 minutes here in Jorthang before we set off for Geyzing at 1515.

The scenery was beautiful along the way as we climbed on the rocky hillsides.  We looked down into gushing rivers, temples and dried up rice fields.  With some road works we got to Geyzing around 1730.

As it was dark, a local told us that we’d probably have to get a private taxi.  She was headed the same direction and managed to find probably the last shared taxi (a car rather than 4WD) for a change.  This dropped me off at the Garuda Hotel just before 1800.

It had been a long day but not too arduous.  Because it was all broken up, nothing felt like it was going on forever (well, perhaps the first waiting at Darjeeling).  Nevertheless, it was an example of how things don’t go according to research, information, disinformation, misinformation etc.  And then, there are additional hiccups when you actually set off.

It should have been a 4h journey of two rides but a detour is required for foreigners, so that we entered the state through a specific checkpoint.

Since I had skipped lunch, I wanted to eat promptly.  I ordered a momo which wasn’t sufficient.  Mark had turned up to stay in the dorm here as it was the only dorm available in town.  We had a tenthuk together and headed out to find out about tours.

Mark had wanted to go to Yuksom today  but it was too late.  He could go tomorrow afternoon but we considered some tours.  There was a half day tour and a full day tour.  The half day one could drop him off in Yuksom for a surcharge while the full day one could do likewise at no surcharge.  I was happy with either and we agreed on an 0900 start.