Temi to Siliguri

Kanchenjunga came out to say goodbye

19^th April 2018 

The day dawned cloudy in the distance, but the North Western mountains, the Kanchenjunga range, cleared and that lovely lady and her friends came out to say goodbye to me! I called to order breakfast for 7:30 but no, despite the website advertising 24 hour room service, I cannot have breakfast until 8!  There was a very complicated discussion about boiled eggs instead of omelette, which could potentially involve both appearing on my breakfast tray.  I am hoping that they can do less damage to boiled eggs than to omelette, but don’t hold out that much hope! My taxi arrived, as promised, and he was told I needed to visit an ATM and somewhere I could print a document – I needed to get my airline ticket printed, along with my visa and road permit for Bhutan, since I would be flying the following day.  Taxi drivers seem to be pretty good about stopping for an ATM – it could well be in their interest – it may be their fare!

 A stroke of luck – the first ATM, the one only a few kilometers down the road at Temi Bazzar, worked for me. We continued and roadworks promised to provide an extended delay so the driver turned around and found a “shortcut” – which was quite a nice drive and with less traffic, it was less hair-raising. 

Packed breakfast - or not!

We rejoined the main road and more roadworks came with a rope across the road to reduce the inclination of drivers to approach the excavator too closely.  This was a major concession to occupational health and safety that I had not seen before! I made repeated requests to the driver to slow down as we had a number of scary encounters with oncoming trucks.  As usual, such requests were observed for a few moments only. From time to time the share taxi “jeeps” would stop to let off or collect passengers – in the middle of the road, of course.  Why would you pull over to make it more convenient for others? We passed through some rather lovely areas of broadleaf forest and passed the huge commercial areas that was a pharmaceutical company – complete with high walls and armed guards on the gate. Through the forest areas, especially where there were roadworks in progress, there were often fallen trees or chopped up logs with great heaps of epiphytic orchids pulled off and discarded.  I could only think of the potential value of these back home! 

Roadworks hold up

The roads were narrow as they wound their way down the steep hillsides and as the driver edged the vehicle to the side of the road to avoid oncoming traffic I got even better views of the banks, plunging vertically to the valley far below. We came to one of the larger towns – Singtam – with its roundabout with a central pole holding the weather shade and the policemen directing traffic from it.  His rapid movements around this, as he attempted to bring some order to chaotic traffic, put a completely new perspective on pole dancing. We stopped at the boarder of Sikkim and the taxi driver requested part of the payment in advance to put petrol in the vehicle.  

Discarded orchids

Actually, I think his words were “give me 1000 rupees”.  I clarified that 1000 now, 2500 later – just to be sure that his expectations of the total amount met mine!

 




I reminded him that I needed to get printing done and we had an extended walk around the town to find a place that could print from my usb drive.  Eventually such a place was located and, mission accomplished, we returned to the vehicle – when I noticed that we were parked very close to a building advertising photo printing – therefore, I assumed, the ability to print from a USB drive.  Never mind.

I was rather glad I had not chosen this establishmen

Fruit seller

I reminded him also that I needed to complete border formalities, and he eventually located the appropriate office and I waited patiently while paperwork to enter Sikkim was completed for one person, chatted with a couple of waiting monks, before asking if I could hand in my permit and leave. We continued our hair raising journey – Indian roads are crazy and Indian drivers simply mad.  At one point he overtook 2 trucks on the approach to a blind corner and we missed the oncoming vehicle by a hair’s breadth.  In my best teacher voice I gave him a severe scolding for this ridiculously close shave and he slowed down for more than the perfunctory few moments before telling me he was a good, safe driver and speeding up again.  

An oncoming jeep proclaimed “Jesus” across the top of its windscreen and I could only concur! 

As we proceeded my feelings were that I just wanted to get out of India and never come back – these road journeys are just too horrible! 

Loading up the bus

Yes, of course he knew where the hotel was, but did need to phone and ask people on the way.  I think we drove extra distance to find it, but was not sure.  Given that it was next to the railway station, I would have thought that finding it should not be that difficult.  It was a large building, well signed, not a tiny local dive, and finally I saw the sign and pointed it out to him. 

Just another market place visitor

I am not sure whether the manager on reception gave me a room upgrade or not – it was hard to work out, but the room was clean and comfortable, with bedding and towels to meet my standards and the air conditioning worked well.  I had a large balcony with colourful views overlooking the train station and the market area below – including the “coolies rest room” – I am glad there was one!  The bathroom facilities were good and after a shower and change of clothes, I went for a short walk in the market place –it really was wonderfully colourful with the cyclos, tuktuks, wandering cows, fast food vendors, buses being loaded with all sorts of goods. 

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Not having eaten lunch, I purchased some bananas and cookies, which were particularly delicious, before returning to the comfort of the hotel and room service dinner. Dinner took a bit of effort to order as I worked my way through the menu, eliminating what they did not have.  I was faintly amused that they could not produce curries involving vegetables they did not have, even though the vegetables were available in the market only a couple of minutes from the hotel! I settled on one of my favourites, palak paneer, and it was not only a very nicely prepared dish but very plentiful – my experience had often been large quantities of rice with only a small serve of the curry I had ordered, but there was more than enough here. Despite the noise of the train station and the market, the air conditioner provided a background noise to disguise the external sounds and I slept well.