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.