, Teesta, West Bengal
Doing the alternate route down from Darjeeling...it's steep...very very steep...so steep in fact that we dropped 1000m in less than a hour, and then Tuk Tuk On Fire lost their brakes...quite a bit of panic ensued, Tex was screaming 'Put it in the wall! Put it in the wall!'... but some good driving from Baz saved the day...discussion now is centreing around who would jump out first and would Baz be prepared to go down with the Tuk if required...Taj just gave a local kid a pen and some paper and had a small written chat with him...all this whilst we wait for the brakes to cool...still 10km to go before we're down...hmmm@
West Bengal, India
Big talk today whilst sat around a pot of tea...how cold it is in the mountains...26degrees...brrr. Other news, Taj tried to kill himself last night by ingesting a cocktail of drugs before bedtime...Bio tablets, antibiotics, anti-malaria pill, a dram of whiskey and a beer...resulting in a 2:30am bathroom evacuation. Poor fella is not in great shape today but struggled out of bed at 4am to come with the rest of us to Tiger Hill to witness a sunrise over the Himalayas, Mt Everest and several of the other highest peaks in the world covered in a glorious orange/white glow...not a bad way to start the day! Off for a explore of the city shortly...Taj unfortunately remains in bed for now...
West Bengal, India
So we didn't make it by midday, not even surprised. We were at the bottom of the road up to Darjeeling by 10am, on target for destination at 12, it took us another 5 hours to make it to the top. We had to deal with pot holed roads, running repairs to the tuk tuk's and we even helped move boulders off the road as a team of locals worked to clear the way after a rockslide 3 months ago! Even after the delays, today was still a day to remember, the people are possibly the friendliest we have met yet. As we drove up every person sitting outside their store or house or walking waved and smiled at us. People yelled 'Namaste' 'Hello' at us as we went past, and all the school children stopped in groups to cheer us. Truly amazing. The view...wow...we drove through the clouds up to 2100m where we finally made it to the mountain city of Darjeeling...Mt Everest awaits us in the morning...
West Bengal, India
After the dusty offroad experience of yesterday, today is proving a breeze. We were all up early to head to Darjeeling, plan is to get there by lunch (we always say that, but this time it could actually happen) and then spend two nights in the mountain station that is famous for it's tea plantations and breathtaking scenery. A welcome and well deserved break before the final two day push to Shillong. Early discussion on what we might do whilst in Darjeeling has included a sunrise visit to Tiger Hill to catch Mt Everest and several more of the highest peaks in the world at dawn...have to say we're all looking forward to a day off the road.@
Bihar, India
Alive and safe in Purnia...amazing day. Tomorrow a mere 200km to Darjeeling for a well earned day off the road. Plan is to spend 2 nights there so we can actually see something more than petrol stations at places we stop.
Bihar, India
(cont) Raj started a futile discussion about the extra weight slowing us down and the urgent need to stay in contact with our compatriots, slowly it dawned upon the local that we weren't prepared to take them all the way to Dharbanga (50km) and he hoped out...we all waved goodbye and headed off into the dust...@
Bihar, India
(cont) him at the front. 'Dharbanga?' He asked...Raj looked at Taj...they both shrugged again, 'Sure thing'. Tuk Tuk on Fire pulled up what was now Korma Chameleon rickshaw runners moonlighting as a local autorickshaw with their two extra passengers. A look of bemusement that said 'what the **** is going on over there?!' Shot across Bob's face. one thing to note, the performance of Leroy dropped greatly, top speed of 55 disappeared and the bumps became even more dangerous, Tuk Tuk on Fire disappeared into the distance. It quickly became clear that we needed to ditch the passengers...this proved a little bit of a challenge. As we pulled up to the next town we both tried to clearly explain why we had to push them out...slowly it dawned on them, Taj being a little more forceful, simply sliding across to the left and apologising as he did it.
Bihar, India
Pretty eventful morning, drove across the largest bridge in continental Asia, Mahatma Gandhi Seti, a 7.5km bridge leading north out of Patna to Muzaffarpur, crossing the Ganges. Then once across we set to confirming the route ahead with some locals, we pulled over and asked a guy who looked like he might speak english; 'Which way to Dharbanga?' 'Straight, straight' came the answer. We were sat at an intersection that veered to the right and left...'Err this way?' Pointed Taj to the left...'Yes yes' came the response. We duly thanked him, but before we could leave, the kind local asked...'Now you help me?' And proceeded to jump into Leroy to join Raj on the back seat. Taj looked at Raj, they both shrugged...why not? One of the canny bystanders seeing what was happening quickly jumped in on the drivers seat with Taj, pushing Taj (100kg of him) across to join
Bihar, India
It also has to be noted that Patna is the first place where we noticed a little less humour in some of the people. Patna has a reputation for being unsafe after 8pm, it's also home to several army regiments...to be fair the mood change also coincided with the day where we all seemed to hit the wall of endurance. We've got up at 5am each day and driven for between 10-12hours in intense heat. Yesterday Taj and I managed to only have a piece of chewing gum each for breakfast and lunch, not eating anything til about 5pm when we had finally checked into our hotel...we also had water issues as one of the few places we had time to stop at on the way that sold water seemed to have made an effort to coat each bottle in dirt/filth...which we subsequently decided not to drink...we're making an effort today to ensure we don't have the same problems.
Bihar, India
If we thought the horn was overly used before we got to Patna, we found somewhere that uses it more than we could have imagined. Dude behind us was constantly beeping at us as we sat boxed in, unable to move whilst waiting for the lights to change, Taj eventually leant out the side and looking at the driver, put his finger to his lips and shushed the driver....who subsequently sat on his horn in one long tone for about 30seconds...Taj and I discussed deliberately stalling the shaw and sitting on the kerb pretending that we had broken down, a combined shrug of the shoulders being our passive protest...instead Taj swung a boot out and gave the car a 'gentle' tap with his foot as it went around the corner. After a long and tiring drive it's fair to say our patience was gone...
