NOTE: SORRY FOR THE RADIO SILENCE, FOLKS! FOR THE ENTIRE 6 WEEKS WE WERE IN CHINA WE WERE LOCKED OUT OF OUR SITE DUE TO CHINESE GOVERNMENT CENSORSHIP. WE WILL TRY TO CATCH UP BY POSTING OUR MALAYSIA AND CHINA STORIES BACK-TO-BACK OVER THE NEXT FEW WEEKS. (WE’LL DO OUR BEST!!)
wild rhino in Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary
KvZ. The Nepal trek had ended nicely, with the tour company back in Kathmandu treating us to a night out at a nice restaurant with traditional Nepalese food and dance. We had originally planned to take a bus over the long haul back to India to explore the northern Darjeeling area, but after reading in our guide book…”traveling on an overnight bus is probably the most dangerous thing you can do in Nepal…in the course of researching this book, we passed 10 fatal bus crashes in a 10-day period which between them killed 200 people” …we decided to fly. Our destination was just to get as close to the Indian border as possible, since there were no flights directly into the areas we needed to get to. This bummed us out to no extent since bus travel and border crossings in such rural areas can be hell, but we had no choice. Our premonitions were correct.
back to Kathmandu and a dinner show courtesy of Trek Nepal contact Laxman for help in arranging a Trek laxmankarki2000@yahoo.com
dance show
moving on toward the town of Biratnagar in east Nepal
The flight out from Kathmandu airport was such that when your flight was ready to leave, a man would just yell out the destination to gather up the passengers.The town we landed in (in Nepal still) was a few hours from the border so we had to hole up in a dirty hotel (nicest in town) and take a bus the next day. The hotel room itself was large and the bed was big too, so we opted for one room, put Drew in the bed with us, and took the cushions off the couch and laid them on the floor for Becca. I laid one sleeping bag over the cushions and covered her up with another.. But she moves around alot when she sleeps, and I think the sleeping bag came off the cushions..anyway, the next day she was covered with bed bug bites- the first ever this trip. To make matters worse, we didn’t really realize what they were till we’d left the hotel, and apparently they keep on biting until you take a shower. Can it get any worse? Just read on. When we got to the bus stop Tim was immediately surrounded by bus touts (a typical occurrence) and we were just kinda standing around being a part of the circus when Becca tugged my arm and said “That man just took Drew!” I saw Drew being literally dragged away, who was struggling…I then saw Drew put his feet on either side of a bus door to prevent him being stuffed into it…I also took in that this was all being done somewhat in humor because I could see other locals laughing about it, and Drew didn’t seem overly upset. It still pissed me off to no end. With no time to inform Tim what was going on, I headed towards the bus, and as I was marching up I saw the man give up on Drew and take his backpack on board instead…all these antics in a supposed attempt to get us all to ride “his” bus. I yelled into the bus “Give me the backpack!” and he ignored me. It yelled “Give it to me right now or I’m gonna KICK YOUR ASS!!” Still no response (perhaps he didn’t speak English) so I had to board the bus and grab the backpack myself. As I was getting off he gunned the engine and pretended to get going. When I grabbed Drew’s arm and headed back he sounded the horn right in our ears. I decided right then and there it was time to get out of Nepal before I killed someone. But the adventure wasn’t over…we hadn’t seen bus rides like this since Africa. They packed them in exactly the same way…people so crammed into the aisles that they were eventually leaning over the “lucky seated” passengers. Except in Nepal people ride up on TOP of the bus as well. No wonder the bus casualty rate is so high…they’re not even strapped on! And when 80 people are packed onto 1 bus in 100 degree temperatures, of course someone always throws up. This time it was the lady right next to me in the aisle. Some splashed on my arm and I just brushed it off… barely phazed me. Old hat.
along the way to the border town of Kakarbhitta
transportation safety standards are non-existent or overlooked
The border town itself was an assortment of cardboard shacks, piles of trash, and dirt roads. Tim and I joked that we should spend our next anniversary there. We had overstayed our Nepal visa by 2 days due to it taking extra days to get our Chinese visas, but our tour company told us there was a 3 day “grace” period and the fine would only be $2/day. Evidently the border police were not aware of these rules. Even when Tim called the tour company and they verified it on the Nepal government website, the police were non-plussed. Of course they had no computers. They stood determined to charge us over $100 for the error of our ways, and Tim was equally determined to not be extorted, so a battle of the wills ensued. After much chest puffing on both sides, Tim partially caved and attempted a “half payment” bribe of sorts. They started to take it- then with a sudden change of heart they brushed us off and said “Just go- tell your story to the Indian side.” We liked that idea, and the Indian officials didn’t seem to mind at all that we overstayed our visas in Nepal. Just suffice it to say we probably shouldn’t try to re-enter Nepal anytime soon, given that we never got our departure stamps!
Becca signs the Indian immigration officer’s book for re-entry into India
walking back into India
Back in India we headed straight to Siliguri where we stayed in air-conditioned and cable-TV comfort for a night to recover….but still not recovered enough to rough it even by the next day; we secured a PRIVATE jeep and sat our 4 happy asses in what normally carries 11 for the 3-hour ride up the mountain to Darjeeling..gleefully spreading out and ignoring the hard stares of the cramped passengers in all the other jeeps (didn’t they know what we’d just been through?!) Darjeeling is called the “Queen of the Hill Stations” and is known world-wide for it’s wonderful tea. Tea plantations dot the surrounding hills, and on clear days you can see the snow-capped peak of the Khangchendzonga, India’s highest peak of it’s Himalayan range, and the 3rd highest mountain in the world. Alas, the lousy luck we had with visibility in Nepal was sticking with us and we couldn’t see a thing the whole time we were there. But the scenery was still fine and we made the best of it by walking a lot around the town and enjoying the cool weather. We stayed in a Heritage-type hotel with gorgeous dark woodwork on the ceiling and floors and the old original windows…but with the added modern conveniences of flat screen TV and HEATING!! Heaven. The Darjeeling Zoo was great because it had animals we’d never seen, such as the Snow Leopard, Red Panda, and Tibetan wolf. Within the zoo was also located the fascinating “Everest Museum” where we got to read about all the attempts on the mountain, starting with of course Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay’s ascent. Tenzing lived in Darjeeling most of his life and was the director of the museum for many years. On the walk back from the zoo we ate at a tiny cafe which hung from the cliffs and offered great views of the valleys and plantations while we gulped down fresh-steamed momos. It rained a lot and we celebrated Tim’s birthday on a particularly rainy night…we’d planned to go out for a nice dinner but never made it out. I had to brave the storm to go pick up the birthday cake that Drew had reminded me to order the day before. Naturally I slipped on the wet pavement while balancing the cake in one hand, crushing the entire top. Perhaps that was for the better as they had misspelled his name as “Tin.” But it tasted great nonetheless, and Tim enjoyed his presents of Indian and Nepalese souvenirs. Happy 47th honey!
our transport up to Darjeeling, we opted to rent the whole vehicle instead of sharing it with the standard 10 passengers
47 years young, or old depending on the day
one of our favorite hotel rooms in a long time (electricity most of the time, intermittent TV cable, excellent food delivered to the room, and a clean bathroom)
Darjeeling Zoo’s red panda
name aside all they make here are Darjeeling’s best momos
calls for the area’s independence from India are still seen throughout Darjeeling http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorkhaland
The thing about Darjeeling that you would never expect is that it is terribly polluted. We went up there expecting to breathe fresh mountain air and all we got was a lung-full of carbon dioxide. The vehicles all pump out black smoke. It doesn’t help that tourists like us ply the streets in lines of endless jeeps (riding 4 in what should seat 11, for instance) which also have no emission controls. We had enough after a few days and headed to Jaldapara National Park. We are still searching for that ever-so-elusive tiger, and we also heard they had rhinos there. The lodge was definitely dated, and the dorm room facilities disgusting (even Tim wouldn’t go into the bathrooms which I don’t think had been cleaned for a decade) but I managed to upgrade us into two of the nice double rooms and we ended up enjoying our stay there very much…right on the edge of the park and very peaceful with all meals included. We got up before dawn the next morning and piled into a jeep for our safari. They took us straight into the park where we hopped on the back of an elephant (just us 4 and the mahout) and headed out into the grassland. First we had to cross through the jungle for awhile where we saw birds and deer. Off in the distance we saw the tell-tale signs of a rhino…those huge ears sticking up in full-alert status. We couldn’t help but notice the mahout gave the elephant an order upon which the elephant picked up several large rocks and handed them up to our “driver” (!) This of course is in case the rhino charges. We approached the rhino cautiously but before we knew it we were within 15′. The rhino became quite interested in us at this point and we motioned to the mahout that we were quite close enough, thank you very much. He was beautiful. When he was convinced we weren’t coming any closer, he proceeded to ignore us and continued munching on the tall grass around him. Their skin looks so much like body armor that it’s uncanny. This guy was a “Indian one-horned rhino”. We left him eventually and approached another one very shortly…behaving in the same exact manner. The safari was such a success to us that we couldn’t even get excited about the jeep safari the next day, but believe it or not we did eventually see another rhino from a distance. We went up into a watch tower for awhile…no tigers though –big surprise.
Drew re-routes Darjeeling’s famed toy train as a local girl looks on
heading to the town of Madarihat and Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary by train from Siliguri
workers picking some of the area’s well loved tea
town of Madarihat
After 3 days in the National forest it was time to beat it back to Siliguri to catch the 10-hour overnight sleeper train all the way to Kolkata. But the only tickets we could get were in 2nd class (berths with just a curtain to draw) and the berths weren’t even near each other. This means we wouldn’t have our own separate lockable compartment, which was bearable…but not having our kids nearby was not acceptable. Then we heard from another traveler who had taken this same train and had tied his shoes to his ankles while he slept so they wouldn’t get stolen, only to be woken in the night to someone tugging at them from the other side of his curtain. That sealed the deal…we flew. Unfortunately all this flying domestically is going to hurt us budget-wise in the end, but that’s another bridge for another day.
rhino as seen from atop our elephant
wild peacocks were abundant throughout the area
leaving Madarihat via train, we had to use the luggage area above the seats
