Darjeeling – The Yaks are exhausted

13. + 14. April 2025

 

 

It was time for a change of location. A flight of just over 2 hours took me to Bagdogra. This is the airport from which you travel to Darjeeling or Gangtok. Everything went great – except that I had the best seat (1A), but the magnificent Himalayan mountain range was shrouded in clouds. Then everything went smoothly and I was sitting in a not terribly expensive taxi to Darjeeling. It was overcast, still a bit warm on the plains, but as the car drove up the Himalayan slopes, it got fresher and fresher. The sky was grey and we drove.

 

 

The journey would have been uneventful. If not….. There were about 70 kilometres to ride. We easily managed 62 of them in 2 hours. Absolutely fine for a winding route with traffic. But the last 8 km took us about as long again! You could almost have walked it! Unbelievable! We stood and stood and stood together with many, many cars, then we jerked forwards a bit and stood again. It’s always like that – except maybe at night. Poor traffic planning, too many vehicles, too narrow a road, too many obstacles…. It wasn’t quite nice even in earlier times – but soooo bad? That did surprise me.

 

But the car was comfortable, the driver was good and then I was finally there. Brrrrrr – cold! Nice room, but really chilly. And I could do a little something about that: An electric blanket! Oh, that’s nice! So warm and cosy!

 

From Darjeeling you have a great view of white mountain giants. Sometimes. Not this time. But anyway, I had other things to do: 1. find a laundry with a tumble dryer that would have my washing ready in 1 day. That wasn’t so easy because, among other things, I was too early. Why doesn’t anyone want to hand in their clothes before 11:00? On the way to the closed laundry, I passed the railway station. This is where the famous Toy Train starts/ends, a narrow-gauge railway from the British era, which is now used by tourists for a “stroll”. It is very slow.

 

 

Darjeeling is situated on a slope and after various trials and tribulations (the laundry I was looking for was still closed, the alternative at the top of the slope didn’t exist, a hotel I wanted to visit didn’t have any rooms available yet, the newly named laundry didn’t have an express service, which only the first one I was looking for would have) I had already walked up and down a lot, had annoying honking in my ears, a nose full of exhaust fumes and a little frustration. But then the tide turned! I arrived back at the laundry, which was now open, and met some nice staff who took care of my dirty laundry (which I received back in the evening smelling nice)

 

 

And in front of the door was a procession with dance elements and banners etc. Nepali New Year. I’m not quite sure about my interpretation yet, I’ll have to write more about that later. Darjeeling belongs to West Bengal and has a large population of Nepalese origin who are not so happy with the politics and have been demanding autonomy in the form of ‘Gorkhaland’ for decades, sometimes more, sometimes less rebelliously. The level of dissatisfaction with Darjeeling and the traffic problem in particular is also quite high. Darjeeling as the ‘Queen of Hills’ enjoys a (tourist) reputation, but does not offer much to live up to it. Too much money is drowning in corruption and too many problems are obvious. After my last visit in 2015, I was actually quite negatively surprised at how unattractive it is here.

 

 

More on this later. For now, this procession. They say that something has been organised with dancing and singing etc., which looks pretty – also for the many Indian tourists. But it seemed to me that they took the opportunity to make their dissatisfaction known. But, unfortunately, this is only a subjective impression for now, fed by the banners I couldn’t read and speeches I couldn’t understand, but which contained the word ‘traffic’. There will be an opportunity to inform myself better later. Here are a few pictures of the procession:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took more videos than pictures, but I can’t insert them here so easily and nicely. Anyway, that’s another thing I like about India: you have a higher chance of getting caught up in unforeseen festivities. In a better mood, I did a little shopping and made my way back upstairs. There is a pedestrian zone and a square called Chowrasta on the ridge. The procession had arrived, a stage had been set up and the official performances could begin. But first there was music and many traditionally beautifully dressed people danced around happily and took photos/filmed themselves.

 

 

 

 

 

Once again, I filmed more than I took photos. Then I went about my work: Looking at hotels. There were quite some complaints at Diamir that the accommodation in Darjeeling was not nice. I thought it was actually OK and particularly well located. 2 other alternatives mentioned were similar. The problem: the beds look very good, but all the rooms and communal areas could do with a bit more renovation. If you really want to stay in a nice and fancy place (like we did on the fam trip), you have to dig deep into your pockets. What was also interesting: normally, when I look at accommodation, I am ‘courted’ a bit more and offered at least one drink. Here: nothing! They seemed rather uninterested and even reluctant at one hotel, initially saying that everything was booked and there was nothing to show (but then there were still rooms available). If Darjeeling didn’t have this name and a few sights to offer, I would almost cross it off the tourist map. Incidentally, I hardly saw any western travellers, but many Indian ones due to the long weekend.

 

 

The rest of the day looked like this: my mobile phone battery was weak, I went back to my accommodation, did a few things, then my guide arrived for the trek starting tomorrow, we checked the organisation, I went to get my laundry, had dinner in a café for young people with remarkable wall decorations, packed my trekking rucksack – and that was it for now.

 

 

The next blog post will take a little longer, as I will be hiking for several days. A lot is said to have changed on the route since 1995 – and it should be quite full. I’m curious. Anyway, I’m looking forward to nature, fresh air, mountains, exercise, chatting to guide and listening to podcasts! And hopefully little rain!