K2K, Siliguri to Chitwan National Park, Across The Terai.

K2K, Siliguri to Chitwan NP, Across The Terai

19/9/18

Siliguri to Birtamode

After a good nights sleep and a filling breakfast, we said our goodbyes once again to the staff at Hotel Loft. These guys looked after us so well. Then it was onto our clean steeds and away we went down the road through a very busy market. Stall holders fill buckets with vegetable waste and feed it to the street cows. They all looked so well, with their coats very shiny. It’s not just cows that wander the streets, we spotted a couple of really big bulls just resting on the road enjoying the morning sunshine.

It was pretty hectic getting out of Siliguri as the road was busy with people starting their day with lots of buses, trucks, rickshaws and bicycles going in all directions. The traffic police are there to save the day and get you across intersections in one piece.

It was only a 30km ride to the border crossing, and the riding first thing in the morning was pretty easy. The only thing that held us up and broke our rhythm was having to stop for a train. The boom gate came down just as we approached, so stop we did. We got encouragement from a guy on the other side to go under it and cross, but we thought ‘Ahh Nope not trusting that thanks’. By the time the train came, both sides were jam packed with traffic. We were lucky as we had shade from a new bridge that was being built. The cows, goats and dogs all use the shade from this new bridge too. What a scramble it was once the boom gates went up, everyone trying to get going as fast as they can. We were able to pick a nice line on the side of the road and seemed to be in front of all the traffic.

As we approached the Border it got crazy with people and traffic everywhere. The street was lined with stalls selling just about anything you could imagine. It was now getting very hot and this place is dirty and very dusty. Just as we approached the train line, the boom gates went down again and yep we had to wait ages for the train to pass. This time, there was no shade and there were lots of people making a quick escape under the boom gate while we sat in the scorching sun, sweat dripping off us waiting forever for that train to pass.

It seemed like forever, but eventually it was clear to go. Now it was time to start looking out for the Immigration Office. There were no signs in view at all, so we had to ask a few people along the way. Eventually we were guided down the right dirt road and into the Immigration Office which sat in a back paddock. We had to explain a couple of times that we were coming from India and going to Nepal, but the officer kept trying to get us to fill in an entry form. Finally, he understood and it was sweet sailing getting our stamp to leave.

Now for the next exciting adventure, crossing the Mechi River (no mans land) and entering Nepal. The river is a wide flood plain with a small river running in two sections through it. The bridge is a very long bridge and you can just imagine what it would look like when in full flow. There were lots of hello’s and welcomes as we crossed the bridge, it was quite an exciting experience.

Next stop Nepal, awesome, but where is the Immigration Office on this side?? We asked different people as we rode along including the Police and they all pointed forward, waving their whacking sticks. Forward we went, so far forward we were in a town. Woops, time to back pedal as we were sure we had gone too far. This time the people we asked pointed us in the right direction and we found it. It was a large building, how could we have missed it? Ummm, maybe because there were no signs LOL. In we go, sweating like crazy cyclists do in the heat and tried to fill out our forms with sweat dripping down our arms. Thankfully the Immigration Officer didn’t mind wet soggy forms!!

Welcome to Nepal

With that job completed, next was money exchange and new sim cards. We got these all sorted in quick time, so it was now time for a feed. We found a nice little shop and ordered a couple of cold drinks that then turned into another couple of cold drinks with a serve of veg fried rice. With tummy’s full and nicely hydrated, we were back on our bikes for another 20km’s to our accommodation.

Here we hit the jackpot, a lovely hotel and great manager who organised our bikes to be stored in the guard’s house while he took us inside, offered us cold water and organised a lovely room for us. After nice cool showers, we went and sat down in the garden and had an early dinner. There was a function on at the hotel with lots of music, singing and laughter, it definitely sounded like lots of fun. This however did not prevent us getting a great night sleep.

20/9/18

Birtamode to Itahari

Across the Terai. We had been agonising over our route for a while now, we really want to see the mountains. But a combination of a few things, namely very heavy rain, and us finding that our climbing legs were’nt really up to the climbs on offer on the midland route. So we decided to go back to our original plan. How often does that happen?

So the route now, was to blast across the Terai, Highway 1. We will visit Chitwan National Park, then head up to Pokhara and do a week or so of hiking to get our dose of mountains. Then it will be a blast from Pokhara to Kathmandu for celebrations and a few days exploring there. There you go, new plan. How easy was that?

Meanwhile, back to today. The forecast was a bit cooler fortunately and we managed to roll out of Birtamode just before 8. Around 9, the light easterly that was forecast stepped up to help us along on our direct route West.

This was great, dead flat, tail wind, cloud cover. What could go wrong. Oh Yeah, that’s right, rain. It was ok, really. It happened so quickly that we were already sodden before we could think about rain gear, so we just rode on, it certainly wasn’t cold.

Another Bunch Ride

We stopped for a quick roadside drink and a lovely old man stopped and talked to us. He just started rambling on in Nepali, oblivious to the fact that we didn’t understand a word he was saying. We didn’t have the heart to interrupt him. He had a great face, and a newly hand carved walking stick. I didn’t even want to interrupt him by taking a photo. Unfortunately, a passing lady cottoned on to what was happening and very nicely let him know. When the penny dropped, he just laughed, said Namaste and bade us farewell. We decided to imagine that he was relating to us about the time when he was a young boy and he rode his single speed bike across Nepal fed only by the lactating nanny goat that he kept in his frame bag.

The Terai so far, is farm land, the food basket of Nepal. Lots of rice paddy, cattle, goat and pig grazing. The towns and villages are very busy, but the road in between was not. What a pleasant surprise, we had been worried. Everything is much more relaxed in Nepal so far. The few busses and trucks give us plenty of room.

There is also plenty of fun along the way with all the cyclists out riding. It is so flat, that it really lends itself to cycling, and it’s great to see that it is still used as a major form of transport here. The school kids race us, the rickshaw drivers have great conversations with us while their passengers sit in the back giggling. Everyone who turns a pedal out here is your brother, we are all equals, and it really feels that way.

We arrived into Itahari and found a nice momo place for lunch and had a great chat with the owner who had some wonderful photography on display. Very good wildlife and landscape.

It took us a while to find somewhere to stay, which was a bit dodgy, but the bikes were safe, the food was good and the mattress was doing a very good impression of a piece of plywood. Lucky we were carrying our sleeping mats.

21-09-18

Itahari to Lahan

With the Easterly wind forecast to continue, we decided to make the most of it and planned a big 107k day.

We rolled out of dusty Itahari at 7:30 and it was already feeling quite hot, but our tail breeze was already there waiting for us, and we put the spinnaker up and went for it. The country changed dramatically today, especially across the Koshi River delta, which was dry, dusty and very poor country. The people were different here too. We were just clipping the Indian border here, and it had a bit more of an Indian feeling about it.

Riding down a nice tree lined section of road, we could see a pall of very black smoke rising about a kilometre ahead. It looked like a really bad accident, and as we got closer we could see a lot of people milling around in this small village. Police were everywhere with rifles, shotguns and their long whacking sticks.

Across the Koshi Barrage

It turned out that there was a transport strike on and the drivers had blocked the road with burning tyres. The police waved us around the mob, through the acrid smoke. We just held our breath and pedalled. All the protesters called out merrily to us as usual, cries of ‘Cycle’ and ‘Namaste’. We relaxed a bit, this mob wasn’t about to string up a couple of crazy Aussies on bikes. We rode through two more of these road blocks today, it all seemed pretty friendly. However, reading the Kathmandu post the next day, we found that tear gas had been used to disperse the protesters later that day. The Bus and Truck drivers were protesting government changes to the law, making the drivers responsible for crashes. Sorry guys, I’m on the government’s side with this one. Too many crazy drivers who went to the Xbox Fast and Furious school of driving out there.

We crossed the massive Koshi Barrage which was quite a sight with lots of gates open allowing the big water to flow on down to the Ganges.

After this we had to turn North for about ten ks which had us pushing into the wind for a while, much to our displeasure. We knew we had to go through a village called Kanchanrup which had been declared for an outbreak of swine flu, several had died in recent days. We were worried, but luckily at that point we would turn west again and the wind would be with us. We rode through quickly, having decided not to stop obviously. We were wary of the kids who wanted to ride with us though, they were all out as the schools were closed to try and stop the spread. Interestingly, we noticed that there were a lot of pigs out grazing here. Much more than we had seen anywhere else.

Highway One Traffic

The afternoon was uneventful, we just finished off the distance shortly after 2pm and hit the shower in a hopefully better room than last night. Time for some dinner, the food in the Terai is just as good as India, loving it.

22, 23-09-18

Lahan to Mithili to Nigadjh

Just crankin out the k’s at the moment. The Terai is actually really interesting, but a bit lacking in photo opportunity. We are loving seeing how the world operates here. We are shocked, we are awed, disappointed and intrigued, all at the same time.

Bemused Onlooker

The shocking:

·       Ponies hobbled so tightly that they have to hop across the road to find a blade of grass in the market, dodging the trucks and buses as they go.

·       The abject poverty of some of the villages that we pass through.

The Awe Inspiring:

·       The never ending welcoming spirit of the Nepali people. There is a lot of love here.

·       The kids who see us ride through their villages and promptly jump on their bikes and ride with us down the road, sometimes quietly, sometimes wanting a chat, it’s all cool and we love it. Kids on bikes are awesome.

The Dissapointing:

·       The recklessness of the local bus drivers. They have the most precious of cargos, and the greatest lack of respect for their safety you can imagine.

·       We see a lot of people really caring for their fine looking farm animals. Cows, Goats and Pigs. Occasionally however, we are seeing some really tragic cases of animal suffering and abuse.

The Intriguing:

Nigadjh Sunset, Noice

·       The guys who ride around on their bikes with a frame bag made out of a feed bag, and have a goat riding in side. WTF (still trying to get a photo)

·       The guy outside our hotel in Mithili who cooks Masala Omelettes from 7am to 10pm every day, he must sell thousands.

We arrived in Nigadjh and found the most amazing little café bakery right across the road from our dodgy little hotel. Is that Crema I can see on that Espresso?

24-09-18

Nigadjh to Hetauda

The sun rose through a thick dusty haze over the Terai. You could just tell it was going to be hot.

We had a quick but strange brekky at the café across the road, then rolled on west. The going was easy for the first twenty five k’s, the traffic did seem to be getting heavier though, especially the trucks.

Arriving at the intersection for the turn Northwards, we stopped at a little shop for a cold drink. There were a stack of kids hanging around there, and we enjoyed their antics as they checked out our bikes. Everyone needs to squeeze the big fat tyres and pump the hydraulic disc brake levers. High technology for a bike here.

Once we turned North towards Hetauda, the climbing and the swearing started. The grade was actually pretty easy, but the traffic combined with the road conditions made it horrendous. We were really struggling again and it was a real mental game. The combination of belching truck fumes, the road made of large round rocks, the heat, and the crazy drivers made for slow going. Luckily, we only had twenty five k’s to go.

Nearing the top of the pass, the road turned to new concrete and widened out, solving all the problems.

We cleared the pass and began the descent into Hetauda.  Finally, we had a bit of breeze across our sweat soaked bodies. There were still a few hair raising moments, usually caused by a lapse in concentration. Mary’s mountain bike skills, and Priscilla’s knack of keeping the rubber side down saved the day more than once. We caught a glimpse of a snow capped peak in the distance during the descent, we’re not sure which one it was, but promises of things to come we hope.

Hetauda is a fairly large town, nestled in quite a dramatic valley and was a little cooler than down on the Terai, despite only being at about four hundred metres.

We went out for our usual evening walk, past the butcher shop at the entrance to our hotel. We just did a lap of about two ks, which was nice. The people were so friendly and the town is very tidy and clean. Nearly back to the main road we heard a voice call out to us from behind. It was an old lady who we had greeted about a kilometre back and who had decided to chase after us, more specifically, Mary. This lovely lady had her knitting clutched in one hand and had a hand knitted purse in the other that she was trying to give to Mary. She was talking away in Nepali, she knew we didn’t understand, but she was just so grateful that we had acknowledged her we think. She needed to offer Mary this wonderful little gift. It is a bit awkward, we feel that we should be the ones to offer something in return, but we knew that this was not her intention. Namaste beautiful friend.

On the way back past the butcher shop there was one less goat tied up out the front.

25-09-18

Hetauda to Chitwan National Park.

We are finding that most of the hotels here are offering breakfast quite early which is helping us a lot. Heading West again and back down to the Terai, we were on our way to Chitwan. The traffic and road surface was still pretty bad getting out of Hetauda, but improved into a gently rolling ride alongside a nice looking river with a bit of cool forest at times. We were enjoying this.

We also had the prospect of getting off the main road a little later which we were looking forward to. First, we had to do some ks though, which meant a quick stop for a cool drink. Mary spotted a place and called a stop. We had a drink handed to us, sat down, turned and saw that we were sitting right next to the chicken chop chop hut. Oh No. Drink fast and move on again.

The Bus of Love

Finally, we turned off the main road onto a very narrow little lane with a rocky surface that had us questioning the navigation. It all looked good though and we pressed on. The route took us through some very basic villages perched precariously on raised ridges between the rice paddies. These huts were often split bamboo with cow dung or mud render plastered over it. The people we passed were happy to see us and very welcoming. The traffic now consisted of an occasional bike and a few Buffalo, much more our style.

We meandered through these villages for quite a while, chilling out and becoming a little less destination driven.

As we entered the Chitwan village area we saw our first tourist Elephant. More on that subject later.

Village Life

We had booked a really nice hotel here to give our bodies a break after nine days straight, and we weren’t disappointed when we arrived.

Two Days Off In Chitwan.

We found the tourist elephant ride thing a bit disconcerting when we went to watch the goings on a bit later in the evening. The economy is very dependant on it at the moment, we understand this, but despite the espousing of cruelty free methods and the banning of hook usage by the Mahouts, what we saw certainly contradicted this.

We wanted to see the park however, and needed to do our research as to the best way. A canoe ride down the river seemed a good idea, but the official way was to end with a visit to the Elephant breeding centre. This is not a breed and release programme, they are purely breeding for supply to the tourist ride industry. We did not want to visit a depressing elephant prison where it’s inmates are chained up most of the time. So we booked our river ride, but to end early without going to the breeding centre.

Dugout Canoes

The next morning our guide confirmed with us that we wanted just the canoe trip and mentioned that most western tourists prefer this option. We believe that we should still come here and spend our money as ethically as possible, this is the only way to get the message across in a nice way that there are other ways to promote tourism in a National Park. After all, we don’t offer kangaroo rides as part of National Park visits in Australia. But then again, there is Koala Hugging for moron tourists.

Endangered Ghariel

We hopped into our amazing dug out canoe and set off down the quite quickly flowing river. Almost immediately we saw crocodiles including the critically endangered Ghariel as well as the more common and disturbingly named Marsh Mugger.

There was quite a bit of bird life, mostly aquatic species, herons, waders, and some awesome white throated kingfishers.

This was a nice, chilled out way to see the park and the river wound through open grass flats and heavy forested areas as well. Quite a few people take this trip and it’s concerning to see the boatmen taking their canoes back upstream and having to get into the water with the crocodiles to push up through the fast flowing sections.

We had a nervous laugh when our guide nearly jumped out of his skin when a large fish splashed directly in front of the canoe. We’re not quite sure what that was about.

The boat pulled up a little short of the end, and we disembarked on a Rhinocerous scrape. This is where they access the river. We walked on across the river flat from here hoping to see a Rhino, but no such luck. We did see Fishing Cat prints in the mud and lots of sign of Rhino activity, so they are around. Luckily our guide had a stick, to save us from any rampaging beasts.

Chilling out, walking and soaking up village atmosphere was the plan for the rest of the day. Of course, we ate well and stayed cool in the heat of the afternoon.

White Throated Kingfisher

We weren’t done though. We needed to see more of the park. So we booked a jeep tour for sunrise the next morning. We had the same guide, Robbie. Somehow I don’t think that this is his real name, haha. We thoroughly enjoyed this ride in a classic open backed four wheel drive with the park and it’s inhabitants on display all around us. We had a great time and saw four different types of deer, a wild boar, peacocks, monkeys, and finally a wild Rhino, lazing in the water on the opposite side of the river. So, I suppose we only saw half of him.

Robbie pointed out some figures moving through tall grass on the opposite side of the river. This is really tall grass and we could just see these three guys floating above it. They were mounted on elephants that we couldn’t see at all. This was an Army Patrol. They use elephants very successfully for poacher control, with shoot on sight orders. There are over fifty government check posts throughout the park with Elephant based patrols. It was awesome to see them, if only from a distance.

Chitwan Sunrise

It’s now time to re-fuel our climbing legs as tomorrow we start a three day ride to Pokhara where we plan to do a short mountain trek. At this stage we plan to do the Madi Himal Base Camp Trek which will take about a week, and hopefully some amazing mountain views in the Annapurna region.

Elephant Patrol

K2K, Siliguri to Siliguri, Into The Himalaya

K2K, Siliguri to Siliguri, Into The Himalaya

We had two nights in Siliguri, which felt like three. We found an awesome hotel “The Loft” which was five star and really good value, with great food. On our arrival day we didn’t really go anywhere, we showered, slept and ate. No beer though.

After sleeping the day away, we couldn’t believe how well we slept over night again. Following breakfast, we decided to go out for a walk. We needed a few minor supplies including another light pair of long pants for Mary. She was finding it difficult to wear her dress Apres Velo as she prefers.

The streets of Siliguri are pretty bad. A lot of rubbish, smelly open sewers and a lot of street dogs who were all a bit cranky with each other. We had noticed a couple of pretty badly beaten up ones on the ride in, and Mary wanted to go past again to see if she could see them.

Street Dog Ops

What we found was not a pretty sight. One dog, had a huge open wound on it’s head and neck. It was seriously awful. Luckily Mary had searched and  found that there is an animal rescue group in Siliguri and she got in contact with them. Later that day Mary met the Lady who runs it and her helpers to show them where the dog was. They coaxed the poor fella out from his shady spot under a car and began the treatment, which included picking maggots out, antibiotic treatment and some temporary bandaging. They did an amazing job really. We hope he recovers, life is tough on the streets here.

We found what we needed, and getting back to the hotel, found that one of the young guys had a hose out washing the hotel car. Hmm, time to get the cowshit off the bikes.

8/09/18

Siliguri to Mirik

As we wanted to get an early start on our first big climbing day, the hotel had organised a packed breakfast for us which was so awesome, we had trouble finding somewhere to fit it on the bikes, but of course, we managed. There is a statue of Tenzing Norgay, Edmund Hillary’s climbing partner, on the way through town, so we had decided to have breakfast with him and maybe absorb a little of his toughness, we were sure going to need it.

The Rifle Range Bridge, Finally Some Prayer Flags

Riding on, it was a nice morning out. We rode through the big army base on the way out of town and it was really quiet and pleasant. We were already noticing a change. We were starting to see tea estates, large acres of the squat green camelia, all looking healthy with new shoots. As we continued, we noticed lots of very friendly Nepalese women in the back of trucks, presumably heading out to pick tea.

Coming through small villages the atmosphere felt different. There were lots of friendly hellos, and genuine interest in where we were going. We convinced ourselves that they were saying, ‘see you later on, you won’t make it up that big hill.’ I have to tell you, we weren’t so sure either.

Lunch Spot With Sound Effects

We crossed a river and saw that the army was set up on the banks, it looked like a training exercise and then we realised that it was their rifle range. It wasn’t long after this that there was a little wall that we could sit on and have the rest of our breakfast. Then we nearly had a heart attack as the shooting started. It reverberated all around the valley. It was only target practice of course.

Here we were at the twenty six kilometre mark of our fifty kilometre day, but this is where the climbing really started. We were only at about 250 metres above sea level here, heading to Mirik, which is at 1600metres. This was the big test for us. At home we regard Willunga hill as our test of strength, this climb would be like eight Willunga Hills strung together. Naturally, on a loaded bike, the answer is to get a low gear and rest often. Take photos, have drinks, stop for a cuppa.

Still Climbing

It was clear that we mustn’t focus on the top, just get to the next corner, there was lots of encouragement along the way. But we had changed from the land of ‘selfie sir?’ to a very different culture. We sat in a tiny tin shed tea shop, perched on the edge of a big drop and had lemonade and tea, made by a lovely lady who really wanted to talk with us. Her teenage son was in the shop, rolling out the day’s momo wrappers while interpreting the conversation between us and his Mum. It’s a shame the momos weren’t ready, they looked delicious and they were very skilfully putting them together. We topped up our water and said our farewells, Namaste.

Sherpa Loads

This road follows very close to the Nepal border, and lots of Nepalese people live here as a result of being brought in to work in the tea estates during times of the British Raj. Obviously, they stayed and now dominate the culture of this region. While everyone in West Bengal had been very friendly, women seemed to keep their distance from us. Men seemed to run most of the shops, hotels and restaurants. Here, the women are more prominent, perhaps confident is the better word, and actively sought contact with us.

Meanwhile, back to the pedalling. The grade was getting steeper, we occasionally had an unrideable pitch and used the excuse to flex our walking/pushing muscles. It started to rain lightly, but this kept us cooler, it was quite nice.

A little later the rain became quite a lot heavier. We spotted a little bus shelter and decided to have a rest under cover and see if the rain eased. A guy got out of a taxi and stood under the shelter. He explained that he was waiting for his mum to bring him an umbrella from his nearby home. There were raised eyebrows all around as this little lady emerged from the downpour under an umbrella, carrying a second. Just as he was about to leave, he invited us to his place for tea. We accepted his kind offer, the rain didn’t look like clearing any time soon.

He introduced himself as Diwas and explained that this was his parent’s home and he and his family were visiting from Kolkata. We had a great conversation and really enjoyed the tea. The rain had cleared so we threw ourselves back at the climb, grateful of another tea break.

As we climbed through about twelve hundred metres the vegetation changed from cypress forest to tea garden and back again. The little villages we went through were very well kept with nice flowery gardens and smiley people offering us words of encouragement,,, or was it ridicule?

Into The Mist

Then the mist rolled in. It enveloped everything and it felt like we were pedalling through thick soup. We had to put our lights on as we could barely see each other, let alone hope the jeeps would see us in time.

The rest of the climb just happened, rolling through fog, mist, sunshine and pouring rain. We were pretty tired, and our quads were burning, but we felt very proud of ourselves as we rolled down the gentle slope into Mirik and found our little hotel/guesthouse, the Hotel Ratnagiri, quite famous amongst the few cyclists to venture up this climb.

We lashed out and got the loft room, (an extra 200 rupees) which was a nice timber room with views of the lake.

Don't Touch My Friend's Bike

Our minds turned to showers, clean clothes and recovery fuel, in that order. Milan, the friendly hotel owner recommended a little Nepali restaurant a few doors up. While quite basic, we a had a great meal and then crashed into bed, our muscles letting us know they had done their job today.

9/9/18

Rest day in Mirik

We decided that we shouldn’t over push our climbing legs, we hadn’t done much lately. So we decided to give them a recovery day and climb again tomorrow, this would become a big mistake. What were we thinking booking a room with a view. We forgot there would be stairs, and thirty three steps up every time we went out made our poor legs scream.

This morning after a late breakfast we walked up a hill (ok that hurt a tad too) and headed to the Bokar Monastery. Set on top of the hill stood a large modern looking Gompa with a commanding view over the rather untidy town of Mirik.

This is an operating monastery, and as a result, visitors can only wander the grounds and the ornate entrance to the main temple. This was very beautifully decorated with vibrant art work and an amazing Mandala of the wheel of life. The large doors were locked and in front of the closed doors hung heavy curtains. Looking behind the curtains were large decorative cast brass door handles and locks which Mary was intrigued by.

This was a Sunday, so school lessons weren’t happening. The young monks were busy washing and drying clothes and bedding today, hanging it out in the feeble sunshine.

We ventured down to the lake and touristy area, through all the food and nick knack stalls where we found some appropriate nice fresh fruit. We crossed the bridge over the lake and walked amongst the forest of cypress trees. This would have been a really special place but unfortunately the tourists just throw all of their empty food packets and drink bottles on the ground. Even though there are small bins placed around the park nobody seems to be bothered using them. We were quite distraught when we saw an operating horse riding company whose horses were in really bad condition. Some of them were just so skinny it broke our hearts. One was grazing on the side of the lake and he was very lame with an awful foot abscess. We left the lake area feeling quite upset, this whole area has such great potential but is being seriously let down by a few ignorant people.

The Wheel Of Life

It started to rain as we headed back to the hotel, it had the feeling of setting in about it.

We had another great dinner at a different hotel tonight and managed to find a beer for the first time in a few days.

On our way back the rain was really coming down, and stupidly we made jokes about what it would be like if it was still this heavy in the morning. Honestly, bad karma.

Prayer Wheels

10/09/18

Mirik to Darjeeling

We wanted to attack the climb early again today, we had even ordered an early breakfast which had been kindly offered by Milan’s wife.

Darjeeling's Precarious Location

The problem is that it had been pouring down all night and the visibility was extremely low. We really didn’t want to stay another day here, as we felt the need to keep moving forward. So, our options were ride/climb in the pouring rain or see if we could get a ride. We asked Milan what the ride options were and he assured us that we would be able fit our bikes on a jeep roof rack and he pointed us in the right direction to find one. Getting a ride doesn’t sit well with us, but sometimes you just have to make the call.

Well, We Are In Darjeeling, HaHa

We worked out a private hire with the jeep company, it turns out the shared taxis were all on strike today anyway. So they sent a car up to our hotel to load up and fifteen minutes later we were on our way with Larry and Priscilla precariously strapped to the roof racks. The driver and his sidekick were having a great time as all their friends who we passed had to stop and get explanations about the strange fat tyred bikes on the roof.

Look At Those Foreigners

We settled in to the hair raising drive with Nepali music booming out of the jeep speakers. The crew soon got sick of this and plugged in some Guns and Roses. Appropriate titles such as , Knock Knock Knockin on Heavens Door, Sweet Child of Mine, Not to mention Taylor Swift’s Blank Space. Hilarious.

As we were coming into Darjeeling, the rain now a bit lighter, the guys refused to allow me to navigate to our hotel with google maps and had to ask every second random person on the street for directions. Finally they relented and we found it, perched high on the hill, with a commanding view of the fog. The bikes looked all good, and after posing for photos, the guys were off to look for a fare back to Mirik.

This hotel was a bit ‘Old English’ and was very welcoming and comfortable. We made a great choice as it was quite close to things to experience. It was only lunch time, so we went out for a walk with our rain gear on to get our bearings and find some lunch.

Darjeeling is what the Indians call a ‘Hill Station’.  It was established by the British as the summer base for the colonial administration out of Calcutta. The city is strung out along a ridge top at an elevation of 2200 metres, much cooler and mosquito free.

My Fave Spice Lady

We got glimpses of views as we explored, but nothing distant. We hope to get a glimpse of the Kanchenjunga range, but right at the moment we are only hopeful. The weather forecast for the next few days does not look good. Nevertheless, the rolling mists created some interesting photo opportunities and Darjeeling was giving us a great feeling. We like it here.

A couple of recommendations to visit Glenary’s restaurant saw us venturing in there for some welcome Western food, and we even found a coffee, well, sort of.

11/9/18 – 13/9/18

Hanging in Darjeeling

Love The Royal Enfield

Despite the forecast, the very heavy rain did not eventuate, at least not in Darjeeling. Apparently it was smashing down over much of the lower Himalaya, remnants of the monsoon. A reminder to plan based on what’s in front of us. Regardless, Darjeeling had some cool things to explore so we planned to do a couple of days of that.

Meanwhile, I was developing a nasty cold and was a bit concerned about it as this can sometimes trigger my asthma, something that hadn’t happened for a few years. We went exploring anyway.

The main trafficless square called Chowrasta had a lot of cool Tibetan knick knack shops, we bought some prayer flags for the bikes. There was a nice market and a very cool spice shop where the colours were just amazing.

We made our way up to the Mahakal Mandir, a Hindu temple with a sacred cave for Shiva. This was a surreal experience with the mist swirling through the masses of prayer flags. Despite being quite cool and damp, it was a shoes off experience. A troop of monkeys behave rather badly at times and steal shoes, so it is best to pay a small donation to have your shoes guarded.

They Don't Look Very Scared

The entrance is an arch with several bells suspended from it that you ring gently as you pass underneath. Circling the main chorten, there are prayer wheels, a little room with hundreds of butter candles and baby monkeys traversing the prayer flags precariously. There are smaller shrines for other deities, but you leave this area and go down the hill a little way to the cave temple of Shiva.

This was a tiny little cave that the monk on duty invited us to enter. The cave was full of incense and butter candles making it very difficult to breathe. The tiny statue of Shiva at the bottom was lit by butter candles, there was definitely only room for one person to visit at a time. We couldn’t spend long here because of the smoke, and the monk blessed us on our way out, marking our foreheads and tying a little tinsel bracelet onto our wrists.

Butter Candles

The Elephant's Eye?

Prayer Flags In The Mist

Market Colour

Off we went to find some lunch, the food options here are amazing.

Late in the day, we walked up towards the Japanese Peace Pagoda. The Buddhist temple next to it, starts prayers around 5pm, with a lot of bass drumming. This was again, an incredible experience, to walk through the beautiful garden with the swirling mists and the drum beats and chanting. We were the only ones there, and the Peace Pagoda itself is very nice, with Bhudda represented in four poses as well as lots of detailed frescoes that are really worth seeing.

The Peace Pagoda Darjeeling

Above The Tea Estate

The next day, my cold was definitely turning into a chest infection, so it was time to dive into the meds bag and find some appropriate antibiotics. We travel with most bases covered in this respect, so we chose to extend our stay by a day and see if I could get over it. One of the interesting things about Asia so far, is that if you use any of your meds from home, you can just walk into a chemist shop with the packet to identify what you need and buy them over the counter. So we always replace what we use as we go. Usually, this is not required, as we are quite fit from all the exercise we are doing and usually stay quite healthy. But today, I blame that sneezing kid in that hotel lift in Siliguri.

Precarious

We really wanted to visit the Himalayan Mountaineering institute while we were here. It was a nice walk out through the market to the far end of the main ridge. We knew that it was next door to the zoo, but as we got there we realised that the entrance was the same and the ticket allows you to visit both. Worse, we had to walk through the zoo to get to the good bit. We don’t do zoos. We love seeing animals in the wild, and just can’t handle seeing any wild animal being held in captivity.

We sucked it up and walked through as quickly as we could, arriving at the institute just in time to see the first adventure movie screening of the day, so we did that. It was a cool video about a pair of Indian guys who climb ice water falls. At 10:20am, the room started to shake. Wow, that’s petty cool effects, not. It was an earthquake. It turned out that it was centred in Assam, but the Hill Towns all got a little shake to go with it.

The main museum was pretty cool. There were lots of expedition memorabilia and stories told. The institute also actively runs mountaineering training courses and organises expeditions as well as encouraging young Indians into the sport. It was all set up by Tenzing Norgay, and was so much of his passion that the external courtyard is his final resting place. What an amazing man.

Tenzing Norgay

Despite not riding for a few days, we were getting plenty of exercise walking, and we were really enjoying it. Mary loves the street dogs and I am sure that she will one day write a photo book about them, they are incredible characters if you just stand back and watch their antics. There was an old lady who spotted Mary watching them one day, who came over to speak with her. She spoke no English, but the gist of the conversation was that we think she picks up scraps from hotels etc, and looks after them. She looked like a beggar but she wasn’t begging, she had nothing, just carried an old bag and wore a funny old hat. She had the most beautiful happy smile radiating from her tiny physique. She could tell that Mary also had a strong connection to dogs. We spotted this dear lady a few times on our walks and she would always stop and pat all the dogs. The last day we saw her she waved, smiled and blew Mary a kiss.

13/09/18

Darjeeling to Gangtok

We were looking forward to todays ride, we had a really long downhill. But first, we had to get out of Darjeeling. Just getting down to Hill Cart Road was a challenge on the steep twisty and busy side streets. The road system in Darjeeling is a random collection of steep ramps. We knew Hill Cart Road would be busy, and luckily it was. This meant that the traffic was moving no faster than us as we now climbed up towards the turn off to the Teesta River Bridge. It was quite a climb just getting the 5ks up to that turn.

From here, most of the traffic goes straight down Hill Cart Road to Siliguri, so the traffic was very light on our road, let the descending begin. It was quite cool at 2300 metres and drizzling, so it was jackets on and lights on for the 25km descent. It started off gently, along a ridgeline for the first three kilometres. Then we plunged down the wet road through the swirling mist, we couldn’t really let it rip as the road looked slippery. The other thing they do here on the bitumen roads is when they top coat the bitumen, they hammer sharp stones into it for traction. They are fairly widely spaced, but they give excellent incentive to stay rubber side down, going for a slide on those would completely shred you.

After about fifteen ks, the road just got steeper and steeper, we were so hard on the brakes we had to stop every now and then to give our hands a rest, despite having top quality hydraulic disc brakes on our bikes. Due to my respiratory infection, my ears wouldn’t pop causing me a bit of pain and I couldn’t hear a damn thing.

Finally, we came out onto the Teesta River and it was raging following the heavy rains. You have to loop around a bit and climb up to the level of the bridge through the Teesta Bazar. The bridge looked fairly new and was high above water level.

Despite the descending and then having about 30 k’s following the river upstream to Rangpo, we never allowed that to fool us. Roads that follow wild rivers are always up and down and we actually did another five hundred metres of climbing getting to the border crossing into Sikkim.

There is a checkpoint at the gate and we were directed to the “Foreigners Registration Office” to apply for our inner line permit. Foreigners are not allowed into Sikkim without this permit, which is a fairly simple and free process. Sikkim is a tiny Himalayan state locked between  Bhutan, Nepal and what we prefer to call Tibet. There are border
tensions and a large army presence here, but I think a lot of their work is in helping with the constant repairs to roads after the regular landslides.

Strap Em On Tight

While waiting in the FRO, we discussed our options. We had planned to stay in Rangpo tonight but it looked pretty Dungy. The one decent looking place was on the bank of the swollen Teesta, and looked risky. The headwaters of this river are right up north on the Tibet border at Gurudongmar lake, a huge catchment with lots of rain over the last few days. We thought better of it. Also, my lungs weren’t up to climbing back up to 1600 metres in a short afternoon.

Luckily there were lots of jeeps looking for a fare, so we did a deal for 700 rupees, about 14 bucks to take us the 30ks to Gangtok.

We decided we better have a few days here to allow me to get better, and we booked a nice hotel while in the Jeep.

The Jeep was not allowed to go all the way to the hotel because of weird traffic restrictions, so we had to reload the bikes in the taxi stand and plummet down the hill to our hotel. Oh my god, we didn’t pick that one very well, nice place but it’s going to get nasty when we leave.

Some Time in Gangtok

 The weather closed in and so did David’s chest infection. So we laid low for a few days, ate well, found some coffee, which helped. We bought more meds in the market and continue to be blown away by how low the price of these things are here. And how available, you just walk into a pharmacy and tell them what you want and it comes back across the counter at you, no problem sir.

On the third day the sun actually came out and as I was feeling a fair bit better, we decided to get a trip over to the Rumtek Monastery. It’s about 25ks away, but it turned out to be quite a journey in the tiny little Suzuki taxi cab up some very muddy winding roads that most of us Aussies would hesitate at in a decent four wheel drive. The little taxi chugged through it all and back again, without a problem for 1200 rupees, which included an hour waiting.

The Rumtek monastery is the oldest monastery in Sikkim and was a bit unusual. There are armed Indian Army soldiers guarding the place. It’s quite a story, but it turns out that when Bhuddist Monks disagree over who should be the head guy, violence is still the answer. The main

Yay, Real Coffee

temple was pretty impressive though, and it was fully open, so you could have a really good look around. There was a festival on the next day, so the shrine was being loaded with baskets of food offerings and the mood around the place was pretty upbeat. No photos allowed inside however.

You can go to an upper shrine which has a smallish golden stupa in it, purported to be solid. We found this a little unimpressive compared to the main one. One of the things we liked a lot is that the monks are really tackling the environmental message head on, trying to educate people who visit. Sikkim has great environmental policies, some of them aren’t working, but it’s great to see

them take it on.

Gangtok From MG Marg

The other thing that had been going on the meantime is, that even if we had wanted to leave Gangtok, we couldn’t. It turned out that after we came through on our bikes the road had collapsed into the river, and there were two other landslides that blocked the road to Siliguri, our way out. So we had been keeping an eye on the situation, trying to find out what was going on. By this time, there were people stranded all over Sikkim, with the army flying in shelter and supplies to several stranded tourists, especially in the North.

Rumtek Monastery

So, plan we can, but until we get the all clear about the road, we’re not going anywhere.

17/09/18

Gangtok to Rangpo

Gangtok From Our Hotel Terrace

We found out that the road had been opened during the night and we enacted plan A, ride to Rangpo, stay in dodgy place, get out early the next morning and get to Siliguri before something silly, like rain, happened again. Of course, it was all down hill, so off we went.

Switchbacks

Coffee, when we could find it, was really helping my Asthma. I had noticed a coffee shop on the way into town a few days before, so we had decided that if it was open, we would stop and have one, purely for therapeutic reasons. We found that shop and had a great coffee and chilled out while the morning peak eased.

The ride down to Rangpo was awesome, a really nice flowing 25k descent. There are so many waterfalls, rivers and dark green vegetation on the way down. There were a few rough patches but with heavy trees keeping the road mostly shaded and cool, we weren’t complaining.

Kevin Enjoying Some Sunshine At Last

The road flattened out a bit for the last few ks into Rangpo and just before we got to where our dodgy hotel was, we found another coffee shop, owned by the same guy as up the hill this morning, so we had lunch. While there, Mary was desperately trying to find a better place to stay. Something popped up on her search that hadn’t appeared last night, so we went and checked it out, only about half a k away down a little dirt lane. Weirdly, this place was like a full on resort, why it hadn’t shown up before we had no idea. Two pools, awesome landscaped gardens and a nice restaurant, this would do us, and the price was reasonable. So, we had a great night, ready for a big day tomorrow.

18/09/18

Rangpo to Siliguri

Teesta River Bridge

Our intentions for early starts just aren’t working out for us this trip. Despite the sun coming up at 5am at the moment and setting again at 5:30, it’s impossible to get breakfast before 8am, even though these guys promised 7:30. Never mind, we were on the road and thoroughly enjoying the ride. As the road followed the river Teesta, it was generally down and it felt a lot easier than when we had ridden this stretch on the way up.

Once across the Teesta Bridge however, things changed dramatically. We had quite a lot of climbing, and once we were lower, the sun just beat down  into the valley and it was extremely hot. This was now the area where all the landslides had cut the road, and now we were facing big traffic jams on the narrow road as crews were still attempting to repair the road. There was really only one lane open and often that was closed. Trucks, buses, cars and motorbikes all just inch towards each other until both directions are blocked.

Yes Ma'am, You Can Drive A Bus Through There

Fat bikes however, just cruise on past all this nonsense, smash through all the mud while bus pilots look on in awe, and their lady passengers in their brightly coloured Saris wish they had a fat bike.

The valley finally opened up at the 55k mark and we were desperate for food and swung into the first place we saw and got two plates of great veg momos. We tried not to look at the bikes, they were a mess and hadn’t seen mud like that for a while.

Clearing A Landslide

The run into Siliguri was pretty cool, all the traffic was still stuck up in the valley. We stayed at The Loft Hotel again and as we pulled up the staff all rushed out to help us unload. The young guy who had washed the bikes for us last time was very excited to hear about our mountain adventures and kindly asked, “Sir/Ma’am, may I wash your bikes for you?”

Mary and I just looked at each other and said “Yeah mate, you can wash our bikes.” We made sure he was well rewarded.

Tomorrow, Nepal.