Day 129. Lahan - Darjeeling

Our final day in Nepal, much of the same really, not too hot. The roads were good but very busy with a lot of built up areas. Very pleasant countryside though. There was some rice being harvested and also the farmers were harvesting the long reeds. It is used for a variety of things such as baskets, mats, and rope. 

We passed over the Koshi river. It’s massive and the bridge is just one long spillway, controlling the flow of water right on the border with India. There is a lot of rice grown  here so irrigation is very important. 

We continued on and arrived at the border, there was no obvious signs of where to go so we just carried on, over a bridge which I thought was odd and sure enough we arrived in India before we left Nepal. Whoops. 

So back we went and tracked down immigration and customs.

Once more over the bridge to India, where our details were noted in a ledger and our bags searched. Asked where customs was and a lazy point down the road, finally found it, the man assigned to us told us he’d never filled in a carnet before so I would need to help him, not the sharpest knife in the drawer but we got there. 

As we mounted the bike they all came out of their offices to see us go, turns out while I was helping customs man, the big chief wandered out and began chatting to Robyn and of course he had to ask what was her age. I think they all wanted to watch the old lady get her leg over. 

Then another office hunt to find immigration which was conveniently situated down a long driveway and even more convenient it was lunchtime! 

Hurry up and wait. Robyn was first and I think her photo jammed the machine because it was all frozen by the time it was my turn. 

Hurry up and wait for Mr. IT man to do his thing and finally we were free. 

This was one crazy border, we could easily have skipped all the formalities, the onus was on us to find the right offices. We are too experienced now to even think about not getting the paperwork right, the consequences at the exit borders can be extreme. 

So let India part 2 begin. 

Our first destination is Darjeeling and it’s only 70km away, but what a ride. The first 20km were all on good road, we could see the hills ahead where we were going and it looks wet. 

 Sure enough we began to climb and the heavens  opened, once again we stopped to stow the electronics and debated about putting on our wet weather gear. It was still warm so we decided against it and it was only 50km to go. This was a mistake

We climbed and climbed variable road quality and very narrow. It got colder and colder, many many trucks, the 50km took over 2 hours and at over 2000 metres it got bloody cold. The roads were running with water and as usual the driving was manic. It was also very misty to the point if hardly being able to see. 

The famous Darjeeling railway, they still use the steam trains as well as diesel. It runs right through the narrow streets of the town.

We arrived in Darjeeling after dark wet and cold and Maps.me got us lost down a dark and dingy alley with no exit. We knew the hotel was only 500m away so Robyn set off on foot to find it, I studied the maps and between us we found another way. Phew. 

This is spectacular country and we are looking forward to exploring it. 

Over dinner we chatted to a really nice girl called Agatha from Norway. The first proper conversation we  have had with a westerner for a very long time, we really enjoyed that. 

It’s time to break out the merino, 14 degrees here and misty so no sun. Brrrrrr