Shillong to Darjeeling

So as you know we finished the run in Shillong it’s a mountain town and the capital of Meghalaya situated somewhere in the north east of India above Bangladesh, it was once one of the wettest places on earth but due to a lot of pollution (and someone said the building of a concrete factory?) the rain patterns have changed, with that said it still rained a lot while we were there and was rather cold especially after the intense heat of the plains. Its lush rolling hills reminded the British of one of their own and so it’s nicknamed “the Scotland of India”

Sunday 21^st April 2013

Our first day in Shillong we opted to do not much other than eat and mooch around the city , we weren’t really in a state to take on the sights and even an offer of a second night on the Shillong mix was enough to send me scurrying to bed.

Monday 22^nd April 2013

We figured since Shillong is listed as an “it” tourist spot we should take in some of the sights, we clearly picked the wrong one,  I’m going to put it down to our laziness in not actually researching the place we decided to go. We booked a taxi and all clambered in for the long drive to the hot springs we were counting on some beautiful thermal pools where we could soak away the last two weeks on the road. Imagine our disappointment then when we arrived, we payed the meagre entry fee and walked down the hill to be confronted with a sign we had the choice of toilets (5 r/s for the latrine 2 r/s for urine which in either case was invalid because they were locked) tourists bathrooms, local bathrooms or swimming pool. We followed each of the signs but still no hot springs we then went off the path in a search for them but alas still no hot springs since it was the only unlocked building we decided to check out what was in the male tourist bathroom, here we found the “hot springs” a pipe a knee height that pumped out a trickle of hot water. Luckily the beautiful scenery made up for the fact that we had just driven 2 hours to see a pipe of hot water. Back in Shillong we decided that the time to say goodbye was upon us so with that in mind we got in another taxi to drive us down to Guwahati. We made it there by about 8pm and bumped into another team of runners who were to become our travel companions for the next wee while.

Tuesday 23^rd April 2013

Today we had our last Indian day with Kurt before he jetted off to continue his travels in the real Scotland. We had an amazing dosa for breakfast before piling in a rickshaw to head up the hill to see a temple despite the fact that we knew better (having driven these babies ourselves) the drivers insisted we were too heavy to go in one Shaw and so split s into two. I’m not sure if it was to prove his point or because he didn’t actually know how to drive but our Rickshaw man stalled about four times and each hill start sent us rolling back about 3m I would say it had something to do with him trying to drive a steep incline in fourth gear. At the top of the hill we took in the view and watched some monkeys before heading into the temple it was a sacred affair and I left after just a few minutes as I felt I was intruding on peoples prayers. Outside there were millions of monkeys and goats eating offerings left to them presumably by the worshipers. We took a seat under a tree and monkey watched for an age before heading down the hill to the river side, on the way we met an Aussie dude named Tim who was living in Guwahati with his sister he walked with us to the river and showed us the markets and various other things along the way. Down by the river the others took a boat across to an island to see another temple whilst I opted to sit on the river bank under a tree and do some writing. Fairly soon I was approached first by a couple who had been together for seven years but were unable to get married as she is Hindu and he is Muslim and her family will disown her if they marry. Next I spoke to some young university students both were girls and wanted to know how I felt as a women travelling in India I told them about the run but I’m not sure they believed me and when they asked what I studied at uni and I said I had never been they quickly lost interest in me. I had a few more conversations along the way until I was approached by five little girls, they were sweet but after an hour of being climbed on, fingers up my nose, pulling my earrings and stroking my hair I was feeling claustrophobic so it was good timing that the others reappeared. That night we all went for a meal and then to have coffee at a real coffee bar which a few of the girls were gagging for as for me of course I had a chocolate brownie covered in ice-cream.

Wednesday 24^th April 2013

This morning we headed to the train station praying to Ganesh that we could get on a train to Siliguri we headed into the station and went up to the enquiries counter they sent us to counter 12, there we had to fill in a reservation form and take it out across the car park to another building there we were ushered in and out of some tiny office long story short we had to wait until 11.30am and then take the slip back to counter 12 where we would be issued our seats. We left the station and went and got some breakfast and picked up our bags from the hotel. Back at the station we were issued seats and had just an hour to kill before the train left. We sat on our bags in the middle of the station trying to pretend we didn’t notice we were being stared at like freaks in the circus. About 15mins before the train set off we could board we had tickets for sleeper class but as our section of the journey was only six hours and it was during the day we didn’t need to utilise the beds. I can’t quite work out the system of Indian trains as there always seems to be far more people then seats but when the ticket collector comes round everyone holds a valid ticket. There was a man in my seat so I sat in someone else’s seat and no one ever turfed me out so I stayed there for the entire journey.  Whilst we were sitting on the train a man dressed in a sari with full make-up on he approached everyone and they all handed him 10 rupee notes it was so bizarre that they so loosely handed over cash to a lady boy by steadfastly ignored the beggars. Alex and Ayla were crammed in with about a million people all jammed into the six person berth. I spent the journey writing and dozing whilst listening to music so the time past quite quickly. We arrived in Siliguri not long after 7pm and walked out of the station and straight to a jeep to drive us up to Darjeeling the journey took about two hours and was quite scary in the dark but at least the roads are really good as the driver was going so fast and overtook anything that was in his way. We got to Darjeeling about 10.30pm and went to a hotel that had been recommended to us unfortunately it was full apart from some super deluxe room for a million rupees a night our jeep driver offered to take us to his friends hotel called  “home sweet home” as we drove up the hill we weren’t sure whether it was going to be a hotel or someone’s house, it was a hotel and we checked in. we felt bad as they looked to be shutting up shop for the night but reopened the kitchen for us and made us omelette chapattis before we wrapped up warm and went to bed.

Thursday 25^th April 2013

We had a late start to the day this morning as the majority of our little party was feeling a bit under the weather. When finally we had dragged our arses out it was almost midday and so we headed straight for food, we massively overindulged with a full cooked breakfast followed by pancakes it started off a crazy few days of constant eating. We spent the afternoon wandering about Darjeeling town and sampling the tea in its many tea houses interspersed with snack stops to the many street food vendors. We had a lingering look at a bookshop and got some postcards before stopping off in a bakery, then went and had dinner before heading back to the bakery for cake we then passed out in food comas.

Friday 26^th April 2013

We were up before the sun this morning with the intention of watching it rise unfortunately it was a hugely cloudy morning so there wasn’t much to see although we could see the very tip of Everest peaking its enormous head above the clouds. Although seeing the sun rise would have been amazing the atmosphere certainly wasn’t the hillside was absolutely teeming with tourists there was litter everywhere despite the rubbish bins, it was so bad the hill below the viewing platform resembled a landfill, there was also a horrendous smell coming from the public toilets and the air was polluted with the cries of the many touts and they horrid hacking spit that seems to be an audible treat here. We rode back to the hotel and our driver took some random windy route which left me feeling hugely carsick in the nick of time we arrived and with a few gulps of mountain air I was feeling ok again. Back up in our room we all crawled back into our beds and tried to regain feeling in our numb limbs. When we were ready to face the world again we went to our new favourite breakfast haunt before heading off to see a tea plantation. We went to the Happy Valley Tea Estate which is the plantation that provides the tea for Harrods along with a few other European buyers it’s not available anywhere in Darjeeling or even in India which is a shame. We went on a tour through the factory and then walked back to town through the tea fields. We decided a caffeine fix was needed and so headed to a coffee bar where we sat watching the wrestling on an enormous TV for a while before trekking down to the Tibetan refugee centre and workshop the walk down was a steep windy path that took far longer than anticipated and so we arrived just as they were closing they kept it open long enough for us to have a quick wander through and a chat with some of the beautiful people living there. The walk back up was quite a workout and by the top we were all in need of some food it was our first Indian meal in a few days and it was amazing how much I had missed it.