Day 6 Darjeeling 4th July 2009

Another day in Paradise?? We’ll see how this day goes.

Morning came, stomach still hay wiring. Haiya enough about my stomach. Cleaned up, checked out and proceeded to the train station for a 9 hours train ride up to Darjeeling.

The crappy room we put up at for the night

The toilet that ramli first visited when we check in..

the good old toy train. Wohooo!!!

But when we arrived at the train station we checked with the station ticket office and got to know that the toy train has been cancelled due to the minor landslide situation at Darjeeling... Hmmm we asked if we could get a refund for the tickets as we have made payment thru internet booking and also asked if there is any other way we could get to Darjeeling as there is only 1 train to Darjeeling per day.. He advised we could take the bus or taxi.. then he directed us to go upstairs to some office... went and saw a sign outside saying that they do not entertain E-ticket refund... Haiyo... So we just decided to go to the Food plaza to have some breakfast first than decide what we to do.. I had Aloo Prata, not like the typical prata we have back home.. But still tasty for me.. Ramli had butter masala dosa which wasn't as tasty as what he had back in Bangalore...

Finished our breakfast and headed back outside to see how much is the transport up to Darjeeling... As per normal we were approached by many people asking taxi? Bus ? Darjeeling? We asked how much it costs for a taxi ride .. Rp1500.. Wahh so expensive... than a loud guy from somewhere asked , Darjeeling?? Rp150/pax.... since its cheap we just follow him and saw that we are taking a shared jeep... That was alright as long there is transport there... So got up the jeep and waited...and waited.... and waited... Hmm how long la need to wait? Seems that he is trying to really maximise the 9 seater jeep with at least 12 pax.. Wah lau so we still short of 4 ppl... we waited almost 1 hr 30 mins in the hot morning ...

While waiting we see many beggars around the train station... mostly are young women with their naked babies or toddlers walking around begging for money... It's a real sad sight to see that at this time of the millennium there are still such bad situations happening which seems to be of no concern to their government parties... Haizzz How we wish we could help but there are so many of them ... sigh... Cows loitering around the car park full of honking jeeps ... pooing anywhere as they please... and people stepping on it with not much of a reaction...

Finally the driver gave up shouting for Darjeeling !!! and got ready to move off.... yup finally after the long wait.. We moved off but stopped at the main road just 5 mins from the station... Hmm what now ? More passengers? Then came along another jeep, the driver asked us to get down and transfer to the other jeep... Which was driven by either a Nepali or Bhutanese driver... We guess that the other driver is just his sales man... So finally we set off to Darjeeling.. Got to know from one of the fellow passengers it will take 3 hrs for 88km.... Hmmm that seems short enough compared to the toy train which takes 9 hrs... Moving on with similar sights and sounds .... honk honk honk and more honking... busy roads with cows and goats crossing and resting where ever they want to .... no obligations for them I guess....even resting in the middle of the road.

The jeep was driving thru very highlands. Nice sceneries but too bad it was too bumpy to for me to be able to take any proper pictures. We keep going uphill all the way. Bumping and bouncing, at times being too tall is a curse as I hit my head onto the ceiling of the jeep a few times whenever the vehicle bounces out of some pot hole or humps on the road. The higher we went the more cloudy it became. Its like being in Cameron highlands but without the Gazillions of flies flying around.

Its so cold ... Misty misty

Vegetarian Momos anyone? Like gyoza

How about cheese sandwich? and black tea

After about 3 hours ride, we finally reached our destination. Very cooling, nice weather Darjeeling…. Ahhhh…..

First impression, this area is seems quite free from beggars, touters etc… Yeay!! We stopped somewhere there were a lot of shops and lots of people walking around. So we decided to just try our luck at finding lodging nearby. First place we saw is called Teesta Hotel… Hmmm looks good from outside but decided to look for more cheaper alternative as that hotel looks too clean for our budget… Hehehe or so we thought.

Further down the road, saw this hotel called Sima Lodging. Place looks rundown, dodgy and dirty from outside. YES just what we wanted . Hahaha..( No Choice budget conscious )

Eating my biscuits on the streets of Darjeeling

Busy "bus" station.. and is cold..

We walked up the dark staircase and was greeted by an Indian guy. First impression, I tot haiya sure kenna conned or charged high but fingers crossed we just went too view the room. First room was a double , double bed room. It was at 450Rp per night. Hmm ok not too bad room was quite clean actually despite the outlook. But again kept to the strict budget asked for a cheaper room. So he brought us to another room upstairs. This time he opened to a smaller room, Price was 350 Rp , It was a double single bed room. Asked if there were any cheaper room he said no immediately. Okokok I get the hint. Just trying my luck. Ok lah set lah on ah!!

Went down with him to settle paperworks and payment. Paid 770RP for 2 nights. Yes there was a 10 % tax. Oklah cannot complain liao. Quite reasonable oredi. While I was settling all those, Cindy already recee what TV channels we have. Surrrrprriisee …Surprizzeee. Ladies and gentlemen we have CABLE!! Wohoo!! HBO, Starmovies, Discovery Channel sports channel the works ! Alhamdullillah . Rezki….. First order of business, wash the clothes that we wore for 3 days while on the train. Oh yeah I forget to mention we didn’t change clothes when we were on the train hahahah. Eeeeeuuuuuuuuuuuu right. What to do no choice.

Anyway Cindy washed the clothes using the detergent that was kindly donated by Mr Izar and Ms Irma . Thanks guys. It was really a life saver. The water was ice cold man. I was like, shit how to shower later. No hot water some more. Anyway washed the clothes hanged and then wondered will it dry in time. See how lah …

Before going exploring, did our prayers and setup the room ready for sleep later.

The vege chowmien on leaf plate

Yummy?

Some soccer fans was singing on the bus?

Walked along streets, bought some food, drinks, and bought biscuits from this bakery shop. Its either we are hungry or “jakun’ but everything in the shop looks tasty. He had a large variety of bread and biscuits. We asked the guy can just order 1 of each or maybe 300grams of mixture of stuff. He said ok Paid 30Rp and walked out excited to try it out.

It was delicious!! I kid you not… Anyway to cut story short, we went to internet café, bought some food and went back to hotel. It was getting colder anyway.

Eating on the bed? heheheh

me enjoying my Tokm

Power cut, luckily we finish cooking liao..

Went back to hotel, cooked some porridge and with our precious He Bee Hiam ( Sambal dried Shrimps) I must say it was quite a good meal. Simple but tasty. At least a break from our now routine curry diet..

Oh yeah of course with Tea “O” Siew Tai. or commonly known as TOKM {Teh O kurang manis)

Time for shower, Cindy decided to go for a wipe down because the water is damn cold. But I decided to shower. First scoop of water, I almost wanted to pengsan from instant hypothermia. Hahaha but really it was bloody cold. Can you imagine I can see steam emitting off my body. And suddenly I can see vapors when I breathe as the tiny toilet got colder from the splashes of that few scoops of icy cold water. What an experience!!