Day 7 Darjeeling 5th July 2009

0330hrs, Some one was knocking on our room door. I was thinking, who the hell is it?
Opened the door slowly, defense up and ready for anything, Suddenly…… it was an Indian boy standing in the darkness mumbling ……….
tiger hill 0400hrs go down. Hahahah suspense I forgot we were suppose to go catch sunrise at tiger hill today. Hahahaha….
Got ready and went downstairs. It was raining. Actually it was raining the whole night last night. Hopefully can get to see a good sunrise la. Got up the transport and headed to Tiger Hill.

Reached there, it looks like it’s gonna be a very slim chance the clouds will clear. But I expected it already so didn’t feel too upset about it. The place was filled with Indians from various parts that are also on holiday. Everyone gathered at the point to see sunrise .. We were there at about 0450hrs… the sky already bright but no sign of any yellow or orange … we walked around for a while to soak in the coldness… Wahhhh so cold la Cindy is wearing her marmot sweats sponsored by our dearest Izar and Irma and inside another long sleeve and her pashmina and she still screaming cold… her legs shivering… wahahahahha …. Took some pics and short video of the Microwave station at Tiger Hill and decided to head back to the jeep as we don’t think that the sky will clear anytime… another time for a great sunrise…


Sunrise? But its damn cold!!


See the man behind me with scarf around his head.

Next stop was Santen Choling Buddhist Ghoom Monastery … saw 3 young monks in their red robes getting ready for the day… other that that Indian tourists…. Cindy had to go pee and saw whole load of shit in the toilet cubicles lying in the toilet bowls in the individual cubicles…. Seems there isn’t water available for flushing …. Yuckkie!!! So she surveyed and went into the
“cleanest” of them all….


Dog sleeping at the monastery


Raining and lock out.. hehehe

After exiting the Monastery we saw a make shift hawker selling samosa and some fried vegetarian jumput2 got some before we hopped on the jeep to our next destination. Not to mention the samosa and jumput2 was tasty and costs only Rp15 … But one thing for sure that we found out, they really like salty food….

Last stop is Gorkha War Memorial, as the driver only gave us 10mins for this excursion and having to pay Rp5 we just decided we will just stand around and wait as the visibility is like 10m … foggy and misty and cloudy you name it… After that we headed back to our lodge and awaited for the next excursion at 0930hrs… So what else after arrival… Zzzzzzzzzzzzz….

0915hrs knocking on the door again and as expected it is the young Indian boy with the driver reminding us of our excursion… okay okay we come down shortly… No problem the driver replied….

1st & 2nd Stop – Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park & Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI) .. We struggled our way up the “treacherous” up hill slope to the entrance…Wow we both already panting, how la to go trekking like that…kekekek …


View from the treacherous hill


Luckily have my lafuma wind and rain coat..



had to pay the entrance fee stated Rp30/pax… But than the ticketing officer ask for Rp100/pax, hmmm so Ramli asked isn’t it Rp30/pax and pointed to the sign above the counter…and he pointed to his left… Tourist Rp100/pax… oh ok than…. This fee entitles entry to both places so I guess is not so expensive…
First animal that greeted was the Himalayan black bear… alone and prancing up and down its open enclosure… kesian dia…. When it saw us he looked at us and let out “klirk klirk klirk” ….


The Himalayan black bear

Hmmmm move on an carry on to the other inhabitants for the zoo, we saw bucking deer, leopards, tigers, Himalayan wolfs, clouded leopards, some parrots and that’s about all… but we are just curious why they construct the caged enclosures so high that it is so difficult for visitors to see the animals…. And all the way is up and down hill…

HMI museum showed personal belongings of what the first summiteers used when they ascended Mount Everest back in 1953, Mr Edmund Hillary accompanied by Sherpa Tenzing Norgey’s . The main museum has a model of the Himalayas showing the peaks from the highest to the lowest… and mostly are other mountaineering stories of the many other summiteers…

We walked our way back to the jeep and found that our driver and his jeep wasn’t there…didn’t panick… walked pass one green jeep and was asked by the driver if our jeep was 4399 and informed that it has change to his jeep… ok than we just wait and ordered some black tea to await the other 3 Indian man whom was with us for this excursion…. There in the jeep sat a little girl so adorable…. Myself and Ramli attempted to make funny faces at her to make her laugh.. but after 10mins or so we gave up… she didn’t react to anything …

Met a friendly Indian man namely Mr Dhrubajoyti Gogil from Assam awaiting his son and wife whom was at the Zoo and HMI… He was too lazy to follow thus sat at the make shift tea hut to wait… had a chat with him and knew that during his son school holidays they were suppose to make a trip to the smallest country in Asia : Singapore… But due to the H1N1 situation the son of 9 yrs didn’t want to go so they change their trip to Darjeeling and Gantok instead…. We exchange our contact details and he invited us to visit Assam and told us not to worry about anything… we just need to get there .. and we told him to visit Singapore in 2010 when the casinos will be ready… and hopefully the H1N1 situation will ease off by than…. Hopefully we will meet again … took a pic with them for memory…. Nice people..


Mr Dhrubajoyti and family


While waiting for the 3 indians.

Tea garden was next, the view if the tea garden was wow… but would be much more fantastic if the fog could ease… But still we ventured to the tea garden and attempted to take some photos… climbed back up to savour some Darjeeling black tea and malmos (vegetable dumpling like gyoza) Tasty!! I finish my share of 3 before Ramli could eat 1… kekekek the tea was nice and different but too bad they don’t come in tea bags so we couldn’t bring it with us on our journey….


Tea Garden view


Ramli looking far...


My turn lo...


Finally a pic of us.


Vege Momo again with Darjeeling black tea


Yummy right..


Vege Momo and Black tea

HMI rock climbing training ground… Nothing much as its raining so most of the places are closed.. just a small rock named Tenzin Rock for Ramli to try and climb up for a price of Rp20 only.. maybe about 3 storey high… he climbed up so fast and make it look so easy… I didn’t try
cause I’m afraid to fall and scratch my face… wahahahah


on the way


His conquest

After was a drive uphill to Tibetan Refugee Self-Help Centre, but was closed as they are preparing for the celebration of Dalai Lama’s birthday… Then visit to a Japanese Temple with a peace pagoda at the same area.. And than to a art gallery of a late Mrs Ava Devi … Nothing significant happened, only manage to talk to the little girl in the jeep whom was the drivers daughter. Her name is Doh Doh, 3 years old … took a pic with her and than headed back to lodge…


Misty... the peace pagoda.


tall tress...


spider web collecting rain drops


Doh Doh ... Cute...

Wanted to cook Maggie for lunch but as usual no power… haiyo… again… Last night already cut off for about 45mins… So decided to finish logging in our “adventures”for the day and solat before heading out to look for late lunch….

Spent about 2 hrs at the internet café to update our blogs and some of the pictures which took up so much time as blogspot can allow uploading of 5 pics each time only and than we have to sort it out etc… When we finish it was about 2000hrs and when we walked out to the cold night, most of the shops has closed. Walked towards the city centre and try and get some snacks before we headed back to cook some more Masala Maggie.. We tried the taco noodle roll Rp15 (made up name by Cindy) and Ramli had the fried noodles Rp 15 serve in the plate made by leaves (paper Marché) and the burger looking bun with the same noodle and salads Rp10… One bite into the Taco noodle roll!! Yum yum… And the burger tasted very yummy too.. With freshly shredded vegetables with tomato sauce and self concocted chilli sauce… Finger Licking good and cheap cheap cheap!! Wahahahah

Tomorrow we will be heading to Gangtok the capital of Sikkim by taxi jeep which is about 100km+ away from Darjeeling.. Another squeezy and bumpy ride to our next destination.. Hopefully the weather will be slightly better…

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!!

Day 5 Somewhere in West Bengal 3rd July 2009

2^nd day on the train.. I had quite a good sleep last night except Ramli, He had stomachache at 0400hrs in the morning and had to “go” .. He tapped me on my shoulders and I woke up in shock when I saw his face and let out “HUH” with like a shiver and shrugging my shoulders hahahahha .. I woke up to look after the bags and prepare for Subuh prayers. Went back to sleep and got up and 0800hrs to the sound of hawkers walking thru the cabins shouting out the name of their goods.. Chai Tea, Coffee, Chai Tea, Coffee, Mango lassi, Nastar Egg omelette etc… So many types of things they can sell … Shortly later Ramli woke me up and told me he had to go again. Kesian should be having diarrhoea. Gave him Po Chai pills and hopefully he will recover soon..

We are now at Kharagpur somewhere near Calcutta.. Should arrive at NJP by late night..

0942hrs a funny character came by our carriage. Red Saree, tightly tied up hair.. Clapping hands aloud and shouting “Shiva, Shiva, Homo, Homo” hmmm is my ears playing with me, by “homo” does shim means Homosexual??? And this person with the red saree walk towards our beds, approach me and ask me for money. I refuse by waving my hands than I realize he is a transvestite. He tried to touch my head I “siam” and he walked over to the young guys who were next to our beds. He kept harassing one of the young boy in purple tee. Poking his butt with his finger, touching him and his crotch. Hahaha what a sight!! Kept telling he is “homo” and pointed to his own crotch and just flash his left boob… I didn’t see anything.. Phew!! And then he gestured an action which seems like he wanted to masturbate for the young boy.. kekekkeke … After much harassment he gave up and walked off.

Forgot to mention, I managed to take a bath and wash my hair!!! Yahoo!! What an accomplishment for me!

Time 1220hrs- Ramli still not recovered yet, gone to dump 4 times so far. What a time to have diarrhea. But I think I’m feeling better.Took another dose of Po Chai…

The time spent on the train opened our eyes to so many things. Hawkers selling their wares, rain coats, toys, pens, clothes, bed sheets, food, “cheong” Kingston thumb-drive 40GB hmmm?? That’s the first … All sorts of things you can think of they are selling it… But not forgetting the beggars which came in all shapes and sizes. We have the multiple transvestite party, “Sliders” (children on their hands and knees sweeping the floors with rags or make shift brooms) asking for payment for their services rendered. Than we have the performers : singing, acrobatic acts, musicians, percussions and acoustic acapella.. and the rests are either handicaps or aged folks… But I must the treansvestites party willleave a lasting impression… kekekeke

Since Ramli was still having diarrhea, we didn’t eat much of the India “cuisine” that was to offer on the train.. We just munch on cookies to keep our “over our stomach”( In malay- Alas perut)

Already fall down, got squashed by a ladder somemore ( Sudah jatuh ditimpa tangga in malay….. relak relaks its only a malay proverb translated word for word)

Ramli’s Diarrhea getting worst, the train has ran out of water.!!! No choice, have to tahan the pain and endure till the train stop at the next station to fill up empty bottles with water. (Incase you guys are wondering, why don’t just buy water from the sellers right, I’m trying to save whatever we can so we accumulate more each day so we will have more to spend the next day)

Finally after what felt like an eternity, the train finally pulled into a station. So first order of business, get water!! Next, go and chope the favourite cubicle to “ease” my tension between my chest and my private area…. Hahahaha.

The train started to move, while I was still in the toilet. Cindy was panicky, thinking did Ramli get into the train already??? What happen if he did not… How how how…

I can see the look of relief on her face when I finally walked back to our bunk. Hehehe kesian.

The conductor came to check our tickets so we asked him what time we will reach NJP, our stop for this train ride. He said its schedule to arrive at 2155hrs. Yeay!! Few hours to go. So after a few more times dumping, attempted reading sessions, snoozing and more, we finally reached NJP (New Jaipailaguri) at around 2230hrs. At last….. After almost 48hrs on the train.

Next train ride was at 0900hrs so we decided to rest our aching bodies from lying, sitting on the hard bunks at a nearby lodging. Before we even make it out of the station, a swarm of touters already “attacked” us with their offers of taxi and lodgings. So as per normal, I just ignored them and carried on walking. But this one guy is very persistent. Kept on following us so I tot why not , lets hear what he has got offer.

Oh yes I have to say while walking around, I noticed how dirty the place was. Not looking down on the country or anything but just that it was worst then I could imagine. There was cow poo everywhere. Anyway we agreed on the persistent guy’s offer and stayed at a place just 5 minutes walk from the station. It was 500Rp per night but we were just to tired to look around and it was getting late

.

This is how the room looks like.

Another view.

After 2 days of Train toilet, this one was like heaven.....

And on top of that my stomache is still giving me problems. So anything la………..

Day 4 Chennai 2nd July 2009

Day 1...

Sunlight came and I had to try out the toilet… hmmm what can I say? smells real bad, looks real bad …. But I’m amazed that I was able to do my biz ….But of course with my nose pinched tight and minimal breathing. Water wasn’t in abundance. Just dripping from the tap… my god… Since I already prepared for the worst it was quite easy for me to adjust.

Toilet cum shower.....

After freshening up with the minimal water we had breakfast… Plain bread with fried potato balls (called nastar). Hmm plain bread… boring, and remembered my mum’s home cooked “he bee hiam”(fried sambal dried shrimp) !! yummy taste just perfect and made me miss home… we were just lepaking the whole time in the train, trying to read book but felt sleepy instead.. ahahha guess we aren’t the reading sort..

Just a view in the train

Afternoon came and was sweating with no shower since the night before, and I had to attempt to take shower in that “stinky” toilet.. I was amazed with myself as I manage to take a shower with 1.5 litre of water.. Mind you with shower foam!! Wow amazing.. but Ramli did better later, manage to wash his hair but of course with more water patiently waiting for the mineral water bottle to fill up… This is something we never did before and never thought we could as the typical “pampered” Singaporeans..

The journey showed us the situation in rural India, slums everywhere. Rubbish in abundance even left over food from the train in their aluminium containers are thrown out of the window adding to the filth.. We see open fields, people working, buffalos, cows and goats grazing… But some things just shocked us more.. Men squatting and shitting in obvious corners .. hmmm Ramli was thinking where do women do the “biz”? as we seen none so far.

Most interesting sight today, would be seeing 2 young girls flashing their naked butts while shaking it so hard at our passing train Wahahahaahaha.. What the Heck ??? the first day of the train ride was alright but before the day ends I has having a throbbing headache and Ramli stomachache and later headache too.. Ate panadol and tried to rest, hopefully gets better.. Maybe too much Indian food for 2 days.. Time now 2225hrs, people are retiring for the night and awaiting for the arrival morning light..

Day 3 Bangalore 1st July 2009

Another day in Bangalore. Woke up to another sunny day and decided to try cooking Maggie mee for breakfast by using the electric cooker kindly sponsored by Mr Rizal. It Worked perfectly and we also use it to boil water for tea. Thanks Buddy!!
We packed up everything and headed downstairs to check our as it was already 1200hrs. But we were shocked when we asked the counter guy, what time is check out and he said it depends on what time we check in. Alhamdulillah, cause we were thinking of leaving our backpacks at the hotel lobby and come back to pick up later cause our train was scheduled at 2340hrs. So we headed back to our rooms and dumped our bags before going exploring more of what Bangalore has to offer with piece of mind. (Knowing the bags are safe in the room)
While walking around, learnt something about this place their man would pee wherever the want. It seems disgusting but I guess its quite common or normal here. For example…while working to Cubbon Park our first destination, by a busy street bustling with vehicles and commuters everywhere, this guy was peeing right there and there in the open when no one seems to care hahaha what a SHOCKER…
Anyway we reached Cubbon Park after 30 mins, while looking for a spot to “lepak”, Ramli happen to see this old man “FONDLING” another guys “ONE EYED SNAKE!!!”.
WTF !! !! !! Freaking disgusting. Right than I was thinking shit man is this like a gay park or something.. But luckily I just turned my head and saw this couple sitting nearby (couple meaning a guy and a girl) Phew!! … that was a relief. Quickly made our exit from this place to another part of the park.
While walking to our next chair and area to “lepak” we saw the charcoal burnt corn seller. Decided to get some and try it out. As you can imagine the surface are mostly burnt black. Have salt and some green chilli concoction rubbed on it. Only costs Rp15/each and the old lady was real friendly. Spoke to Cindy in her native tongue which we don’t understand a single word but “made out” that she did not have money to write when she was “small” (hand action) and that is why she felt sleepy(again with facial expression and hand action).. Wahahahahaha, well that was what we thought she was trying to say. Walked on and came to a nice shady area sat down and ate our corn, tasted nice and spicy even though corn was dry and a bit hard. A lot of chewing is required… While eating, a cracker passed by we got a packet of peanut chippies and chilli crackers.. tasty!!


Tasty Samosa
Then a samosa seller came by, again bought some and tried the Indian samosa for the first time… wow Tasty!! With the green chilli concoction, spicy!..


Yummy and Finger licking goooood

“Lepak” for a while more, finish our snacking and move on to explore some other parts of the park.. Then we walked our way to M.G Road in search of internet café to try check on our train info, took us about 30 mins and when we arrived the electricity was cut off as usual so we headed to Macs for a late lunch … 2 Filet O fish meal costs Rp264, most expensive meal of the trip so far.. They do not serve any pork or beef, all chicken, veg and fish only… Chicken not halal except nuggets hmmm …. But was out of stock “due to over whelming response” as the chart stated which was placed at the take away counter.. Hmmmm after about 30 mins got to the internet café and check somethings and left some messages on FB then headed back to hotel to “lepak” and wait for our long awaited train ride.
Checked out, had dinner at a vegetarian restaurant that costs Rp114 for one southern meal and one mix veg fried rice and 2 mango drinks… Cheap!!

Cindy's Mix Vege Fried Rice


Ramli's mini Southern Meal

Headed to the train station and arrived at 2200hrs.. way too early.. saw some mad dog barking when a train pulls up…. SEOW!!!


Waited in the cold night for the train…
Finally it came, as anxious as Cindy could be to find out exactly how was the sleeper cabin and most important how bad the toilet was!! Up we went searching for our beds in darkness… passed the toilet and as expected smelt and look real bad!!! Told Ramli I will be in “trouble”…. Settle down asap on our beds awaiting the morning light to see more of the train and the toilet!!