Singalila - part three

Today was another easy day. We would be hiking about 7 km to Srikhola. This village is along the river.

We left at 9:00 and arrived just before 11:00. Along the mostly downhill walk, the first thing we noticed was that people were picking and making their own tea. Pasang stopped to chat with a man that had tea leaves withering outside his home. He said the family also rolls the tea by hand and dries it completely outside. We continued walking. There was a hill of baby strawberries and we picked some of the bigger ones. We heard cicadas. We saw many butterflies. We saw people growing their own tea in many places. We also saw tea plants growing in the wild. We saw beautiful vegetable gardens with potatoes, garlic, onions, and peas. We started to hear the river and then we saw it. It was running pretty well. There were many waterfalls. Pasang even pointed out a black cardamom plant to me. The seeds grow at the bottom, but harvest wouldn't be until late May.

The elevation here is more similar to Kurseong (below 2000 meters). It's hot and humid with a nice breeze. There is a gorgeous view of the hills and river valley from this village. When we arrived, I got some local tea. It was very smokey with strong tannins. But it was nice to taste the local beverage. We walked down by the river after we got our rooms.

At around 4:00 the porter came by my room with Makaibari tea. I am sure going to miss this. I went to the dinner area around 6:30 or so. There were two sisters from Sweden there. Marie worked for Greenpeace and Leena was an architect. They are both living in Germany now--one in Hamburg and one in Berlin. Apparently they travel a lot together and seem to have been all over the world. They had been to Kolkata and were planning a trip to Sikkim to see the monasteries after their trek. Pasang and I were telling them about Makaibari and the homestay program and how you can see the entire tea process. The sisters were both huge fans of darjeeling tea and are thinking about going.

It rained quite a bit this afternoon and evening. Dinner took a while as there was a school group of 25 eating here as well. But is was good as usual--garlic soup, veggy fried rice and potatoes. We had a long day tomorrow. We would leave at 8:00. The walk to Rimbick was less than 2 hours downhill along the river. Then we had a four hour drive back to Darjeeling from Rimbick. We would all share a taxi.

Again, breakfast was delayed due to the large group. As soon as we ate, at about 8:00, we were gone. We heard the rain and thunder while we were eating breakfast, and it didn't look like the rain would let up any time soon. It's too bad the walk today was almost entirely in the rain. We were walking with the river below us. The cliffs all around were so steep and green and the mist was so pretty. There were so many terraced farm lands on the hills. Pasang had already called ahead for a taxi, so hopefully it would be waiting for us in Rimbick when we arrived. We had one more border check as we exited the national park. Then we had some tea while we waited for the taxi.

When the taxi arrived the two Swedes would be in the front with the driver. One gets really bad car sickness. Then four of us were in the second row. There were 5 in the last row. Who knows how many were on top with the luggage? At least 5 or 6 to start out with. We also added a woman along the way. So that added one additional person in the front. I had never bothered to look at any of the taxis before. But the Swedes looked at the jeep before we took off and said how bald the tires looked. When I looked at the tires, I almost died. They were completely bald like I had never seen before. But in addition, the steel belts were coming apart. I hoped we would make it for 4 hours to Darjeeling. Then I hoped the driver would use some of the money to get new tires. We stopped after about two hours for a quick break. Pasang made sure I had some lunch. We only had a 10 minute stop, but I managed to get momo's. I slept on and off the entire ride. At one point there was a herd of cattle on the road and the two guys couldn't get them to move. It was too funny.

The road is so bad. Some times the potholes stretch the entire width. Then other times the road is draining from the rain and there are huge lakes in the road. There were some pretty waterfalls along the way. Sometimes we were at the bottom of the river valley and sometimes at the middle or the top. We would continuously add and drop off people from the top of the van. The signal was a tap on the roof. That meant to stop as someone wanted to get off. Then when a new person was ready and situated or all was good to go, we would hear another tap or two. We finally got to Manibhanjang. Today was Saturday and it was way more active than it was on Monday morning when we arrived. Siszi, my porter, got off at this point. He had ridden on the top the entire time. I thanked him. He was really sweet and for a young kid, was responsible and reliable.

So we continued the rest of the way to Darjeeling. It seemed to go by fast. It was hard to come back to civilization. When we got to my guesthouse Pasang said that if I come back to Kurseong, maybe I could meet his daughter. His daughter was born 8 days before we left and his son turned 8 that same day too.

At the guesthouse, I must have looked wretched. They offered me some tea and I said, yes please! I got a better room this time. Then I just hung out and drank tea. After I was sure my hot water tank had warmed up, I took a long hot shower. It felt so nice to be clean and dry again.

I was starting to get hungry. I thought I would check out Frank Ross cafe again if there wasn't a line. I sat down and got masala chai. This might have been the best one yet. I also noticed they had a south Indian section of the menu. I hadn't seen that before. I got a veggy uttapam and cholla batura. It was perfect and hit the spot. It's so funny to see Americans come in and order veggy burgers. But maybe they've been in the country a while and wanted a change of pace. I'd been here three weeks already and still can't get enough Indian food!

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