- It seems a lot dirtier and rundown here .
- Seems different to Sikkim immediately. Possibly that's due to the difficult political situation here.
| Tue - good Himalayan views
Himalayan view from Darjeeling on one of the clear mornings
- writing - move to Olde Bellevue - (great location, but it has seen better days) - 5 hours of internet
| Wed - cloudy- 7 hour walk
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- Followed by friendly dog (locals stone them) to Observation Hill nothing to see except another boring temple.
- Next walked to zoo ..past
"Hot Stimulating Café "- hippy so not a morning place 35Rp for a chapati sized potato pancake... Disappointing
- Zoo - irritating foreigner price of 100Rp, but not a rip off
- Himalayan Mountaineering Museum gift shop has 25Rp hats and outside they are 20Rp ! A bargain
| Wed - Walkl
- continue to walk North come broken Singla Bazaar ropeway -
keep walking to views of tea plantations
- passing under Tibetan refugee Centre
- to Lebong town
- Investigating old abandoned British houses into Military base, it must be huge -
past hospital to another tea plantation
- back via
Tibetan refugee Centre - should have bought wool socks
| Thu - cloudy - walk to Botanical Gardens |
- a bit boring - find another abandoned ropeway which comes from the valley bottom right into the main market.
- At least they have food I can eat
- everyday I would go to the Tibetan Shop and buy taifu - almost the same as the steamed buns you can buy in China called Mantou or Pau
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run down and garbage strewn. Is this a Nepali Cultural thing ?
- Darjeeling seems like a bit of a shithole ; run down and garbage strewn. Is this a Nepali Cultural thing or a result of a turbulent political situation ?
- another view from the hotel window ..see what i mean about rundown
- It's all the more noticeable, cos without the garbage, and with better town planning and a lick of new paint it could be really beautiful. I can see a lot of potential in al these old heritage buildings which haven't been well maintained.
| Industrial Heritage
- Unbelievably there is no history museum at all, but there seems to be so much industrial heritage there could be an Industrial Museum. As well as the abandoned tourist ropeway to Sing Bangla I found another going right into the main market The Chowk Bazaar it is marked British Ropeway London.
| Fri- Change Hotel
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- I ran down to the Bustia Bahia Tibetan Monastery, nothing to see.
- I'd done my 3 nights couch-surfing so I decided to make way for other guests.
- Unfortunately the backpacker place was full so I took the offer of an old man to go his guesthouse. I worked all day and came back to the guesthouse at 8.30pm. Owner's wife was unfriendly as they were just going to bed.
| Sat- big walk to Ghoom
-There was a view in the morning
- I sat in the guesthouse, but zero atmosphere there were no other guests and the owner's wife was not very friendly. So I set off on a morning walk which became 5 hours. The thing was since we were already on the ridgeline it was logical to walk south away from town for better views. Soon I passed "A Tibetan Refugee camp at the back of St Paul's school, then a phonemast, then next I'm at an old church inside a military base. The only way to get out of the base was to walk all the way through it which rook ages. Bearing left I eventually came out on a track which runs on the East side of the ridge between Darjeeling's main square and Ghoom passing Alubari Monastery. So I walked the 1Km into Ghoom.
- It's weird cos the trainline runs on the side of the narrow mainroad which winds through town. I walked to the end of town where the road splits in 3 East to Kalimpong south to Siliguri and with a lane winding upwards to Tiger Hill between them.
- I walked back to the station in the middle of town, but it and the museum were shut cos of a long running bandh against government offces by the Gorka Independence party... Actually this strike is supposed to end on Monday.
- Is this a Nepali cultural way of bringing about change i.e you completely rundown the place you live in first ?
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Sat- CS meetup
- Through the Couch Surfing forums I met up with a Canadian called Austin and 2 Canadian girls .. They said as soon as they log onto CS in City 1 men notice this (through the homepage display "surfers in your area") and email them saying "I see you are in City1, my city is 500Km away I invite you to stay with me" ... they say they get 4-5 invites each city ... More on Opinion 455
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Sun - internet stuff|
- Went to Natural History museum, but of course it was closed cos the strike.
- One good thing is you can buy Taifu - Huge hot steamed dumplings with meat inside beef I think.
| Mon - |
- strike over - both tourist offices are open, but they are both flaming useless .
- Went to Natural History museum - not great - not bad.
- I' had enough of cold and grey Darjeeling and I found out I can travel East to Assam and Megalaya without going to Kolkotta first to get permits, so I decided to go back down out of the hills to the plains and travel East. Rajashi was calling me to visit his city Jolpailguri 50Km east of Siliguri, so I decided Tuesday to go there, first to stop off at Kurseong and then go to Siliguri.
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