East India, Darjeeling - April 2026

View from the mountain heading to Darjeeling

 We took a local bus to Siliguri, the nearest city to the border, so that we could regroup.  It was nice to be on decent roads again after so long in Nepal.  We stood in the isle with lots of others until slowly some seats became available.  We stopped on night only but the hotel was good and the chicken curry even better!

The next day we we arrived at the bus station to the chaos that is special to India.  We had booked our seats online with the National bus company.  The guy in the ticket office said he would tell us when our bus was ready for boarding as they all looked just the same.  He kept his word and we followed our driver to a bus that didn't really look fit for purpose.  Hmmm. There was nowhere to store our bags and our seats were in the middle of the back row.  In the isle they went and everyone had to keep climbing over them.  As we headed our of town, into the forest and up the mountain to Darjeeling, it became apparent that this journey was not for the faint hearted.  It was pretty much straight up hill with switch backs galore.  The bus handled it like a champ and the views were to die for - literally!

Lunch stop. We are going up there.

The houses are really pretty.

Darjeeling itself is as pretty as we expected.  We came unstuck on arrival as we realised our sim card couldn't easily be topped up and it was quite a walk to our accommodation - uphill all the way.  We managed it though and were very happy with our homestay.  The guys who ran the kitchen were fantastic.

The view from our homestay

The next day we got out and about to explore the town and remedy the sim card problem.  There's always a work-around in India!

The old lady at the front is carrying 
these tourists luggage

Local square

A typical street

We found our favourite cafe where we enjoyed some of our favourite dishes - samosa chat, chole bature and dosa.

James also tried this full English at one of the more western cafes in town.  He was wildly under impressed.

We found a wonderful street market celebrating the foods and wares of the mountain people, where we also enjoyed some fabulous street food.

Our favourite was this bbq,d pork

Black turmeric!

kookery

Chhurpi, or Yak milk cheese - blurk

Chai stand

Sel roti

Achar - pickles

All manor of meats and fish were available in the town.  Considering we hadn't eaten much meat in the previous three months, we weren't sorry to see it.

We were often surprised at what the locals carried about the town, as everywhere you went involved at least one steep uphill. 

While Clare was recovering from a 'nausea' virus, James took a ride on the famous toy train.

It was really cold while we were here and the mist rolls in and out on a near hourly basis.  This did not detract at all from the enjoyment of our  stay.

We stayed five nights and when it came time to leave we got a lift to the local station and found a jeep to take us to our next destination.

Just our cup of Tea - Ilam, Apr 2026

Tea picker, Ilam

 We left Bharatpur by bus to continue our travel along the West/East Highway, stopping just for one night on the main road at Bardibas.  There is not much to do here but we like to break our journey after four or five hours on a local bus.  That really is long enough for one day.  We did manage to replenish our medicine cabinet and find a fabulous cafe for a long cool glass of iced coffee.  Job done!

Next stop off was Itahari.  A slightly longer stay here as it seemed like and interesting place.

We found the city curiously cosmopolitan

We found the local Hindu temple, Krishna Pranami Mandir, where we were welcomed with such open arms that it was insisted that we partake of a dahl baat.  The temple itself is very beautiful and we were happy to sit inside for a while to soak up the atmosphere.

Jackfruit instead of meat.  It was really good.

This guy was so happy to host us.

Back on the road, we made our way to Charali where we got off the bus to head inland to Ilam.  But not before we had enjoyed a dud chia at a local stall.

Tea Garden in the low lands

We then wandered up the road toward Ilam and found the place to get guided onto a van for the journey up the mountain.  The views were spectacular.

Tea at altitude

Halfway up the mountain we stopped for half and hour to recharge our electric vehicle.

At some random village we got unloaded from our van and transfered to a jeep.  This was a good move as the road got worse the higher we got.

Poor James was squashed into the back seat with three other people.  Clare was happily languishing in the front passenger seat with a lovely young woman nursing here sleeping brother. 

Soon enough we arrived at our homestay for the next five days.

The Tea Garden across the road

Wandering around the hillside village we were rather taken by the interesting and unique building style.

The marriage of tin and wood

New build

We noticed that most houses were adorned by
lots of pretty flower pots

Home security at its finest

Kiwi ingenuity right there

We went for a big walk up hill to a tower lookout point.

Misty view

We sat and watched the workers in a tea garden.

The supervisor is the only one in the shade of
an umbrella

This host of our homestay was so delighted to have us that we got invited to a meeting with the mayor to discuss tourism in the area.  We made the point that access to Ilam is quite difficult for the average Western tourist (which we are not!) and this is certainly not an easy fix. It is quite an intrepid journey with not much information on the Internet about it.  We also learnt from the booklet that we were given that there are red pandas in this area of Nepal.  Although one must travel someway north into the forest to hope to see one.

We were also presented with the opportunity to try the local alcoholic beverage, Tongba.  This is actually fermented millet, steeped in hot water and served in a pretty pot.  

We found it unexpectedly pleasant.

We hired a jeep to take us to the nearby tourist attraction that is Lake Maipokhari.

We had a lovely young man as a guide, we didn't need him and aren't even sure how we got him, but he was good company so we didn't really mind.

We got given some puffed rice to feed the fish

Feeding the fish

Plant nursery on site

Haha, think this refers to kiwifruit although 
we didn't find any

The manmade lake next door

The damn wall

On the road home

A house in the mountains

We had been intending to go cross country straight from Ilam to Darjeeling across Pashupatinagar Border but we found out that this border is closed to non-domestic tourists as there is no immigration post here.  It was a bit disappointing to learn that we would have to back-track all the way back down the mountain to Charali and make our way to the Indian Border from there.

When it came time to leave, our homestay owner called us a jeep and, having learned from previous experience, we booked three seats for the two of us so we wouldn't get so squashed in.  This didn't stop our driver squeezing three passengers and himself into the front seats, so much so that he was nearly hanging out his open window.

A farewell scarf and tika from our host

Farewell to the tea fields for now.

So, down the mountain we trotted, back to Charali and straight to the tea stall.  We then took a tuktuk to the border at Kakarvitta. We signed out of Nepal, gave our Sim card to a brit who was signing in and trotted off to India after three months in Nepal.  That's a wrap!