Darjeeling Road

After a brief interlude, back to the updates of the long-post-dated Rickshaw Run.

The final 70 miles of the Rickshaw Run, from Siliguri to Darjeeling, both in West Bengal, took us about 5 hours. That's slow for a rickshaw, but actually not terribly slow. It was a climb of about 3,000 meters, if I remember correctly, and we found it necessary to stop for tea, cigarettes, and breathtaking views literally around every curve. This is the panorama, with the road snaking up through the hills. Notice that it's not some sort of barren mountain pass. There were lots of little villages to pass through.



It did, at points, look a bit like the Great Wall of China...



One of the most immediately noticeable changes, going up to Darjeeling, is the simple fact of how people look. They are gurkas, or people of tribal Nepalese descent, and they look nothing like Bengalis or any other Indians. "Did you notice," said Rickshaw Run cameraman Rich after we had reached the top, "how incredibly fit the girls were on the way up here?". And he was right. They are a beautiful people -- high cheekbones, wide, curious-looking eyes, bright clothing.

Something about this woman hauling her marketables up the hill seemed pretty picturesque:



The railroad tracks of the famous Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (or Wes Anderson's "Darjeeling Limited") run right beside the road...



We saw the train twice, waiting for it to zigzag across the street, and rode it later, once we got to D-Town.





A man, lounging...



Houses, hanging off of the cliffs into the abyss, which was filled with fog and blurry vision...



And it was here, along the road to Darjeeling, that we got our warmest welcome to date. The locals waving to us, stepping out from doorways, shouting, smiling... It would continue for our whole stay in the Northeast, but it was quite pleasant, especially on the way in...