Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Back to Darjeeling


Robin was going to continue to hike through the area, eventually reaching back Pelling, my original destination and then back to Darjeeling. Kenichi's permit for Sikkim was running out and I was ready to move on to someplace new. So Kenichi and I headed back for Darjeeling the morning after our hike to Yuksam.

The ride down from Yuksam, back to the town of Jorethang, was somewhat nauseating. In part it was because we were in the very back of the jeep and the swaying was a bit much. But it was also just unsettling to my stomach for some other reason, although I don't know what it was. So on the second leg of the trip back to Darjeeling, we muscled out way into window seats facing forward. And we felt much better.





Once back in Darjeeling, we wandered around for a while trying to find a cheap place to stay. Kenichi is very good at that. Where I just give in after a while and settle, often for a higher priced place, Kenichi led us around in the back of the populated area and we ended up finding a place for less than a third of what I had paid the week before when I had arrived in Darjeeling the first time. I have to learn to give it a bit more effort. India really is a cheap place to stay and move around in. I just have to be a bit more persistent.

Once settled, we headed out for a bite to eat. Kenichi has the Lonely Planet guidebook and, though I have come to look down on it to some extent because so many people use it that many of the places listed in there have become overrun, there are times when it does have really good information. For instance, there was listed in the book a pizza place in Darjeeling that was supposed to be quite good. We decided to give it a shot and went there for a late lunch. And it was really, really good pizza. I haven't had good pizza for quite some time. So I had to take a photo of it.

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