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.