Day 1: We left Kolkata but got off to a slow start, tons of traffic and horrible, horrible pot holes. Evening time rolled around faster then we thought and we were no where close to our destination. With the sun setting and only 30 min. before it is completely dark we started asking people where we could find a hotel/hostel. Everyone pointed north telling us to drive another 30km. Well, it turns out those 30 kms were the longest 30km of our lives. The sun had set and we were still an hour and half away from the hotel. As most of you can guess, night driving in India is a death sentence. The bus and truck drivers rule the road and drive like maniacs. Since we only had one head light working, it was time for us to get creative. With flashlights in hand both Heather and Brendon stuck their heads out the sides of the rickshaw and shouted when they saw potholes, trucks, buses, bicyclist and or pedestrians. John, being in the driver seat, did his very best to keep us on the road and not kill or get killed by anything. I being seated in the middle filmed the madness that we were in the midst of. Never thinking we would make it, we did finally arrive safe and sound to the hotel and celebrated with tears, food and drinks! We were so excited to see other rickshaw teams that had ended up at the same hotel. Hungry and in desperate need of a drink to calm our nerves we sat down and had dinner and shared in the drinking festivities with the other teams. (not much drinking actually went on because the beer was warm and disgusting )
Day 2: Since we were behind schedule we felt it best to get off to on early start...only to find that a bar on the luggage rack had broke and needed to be welded back together. So before we could officially hit the road, we needed to find a welder. Most shops were still closed because it was early but after about 15 min. we manged to find some guys who could help. As the men went to work we simply stood around smiling and chatting with the swarm of locals around us. Before we knew it the welding was done (taking 30 minutes or less and costing us less than a dollar!) and we were ready to take on the road. The day was long but overall everything went pretty smoothly. We stopped for a mid morning chai tea at one of the tea shops and I'm guessing we made the owners day. The chai tea was great and of course we were swarmed once again by all the locals. However, the swarms of locals always seemed to consist of only men. We were definitely starting to wonder where all the women were and why it never seems like any of the men worked??! After we had our tea we thanked the man said good bye to everyone and before leaving Heather asked if she could take his picture. He of course nodded yes, and then when she showed him the picture he nearly cried out of excitement, it was so sweet.
Continuing on our way we came to the understanding that we were not going to make it to Darjeeling, let alone Siliguri which is the big city at the bottom of Darjeeling. For our second night we settled in a small town called Darkola. The guesthouse was nothing fancy but I'm sure we also made this mans night. Unsure as to what we would find in Darkola we were shocked to stumble upon a restaurant and better yet an internet shop across the street from it. Our uneventful night turned out to be eventful.
Day 3: With Siliguri being just a few short hours ahead of us we were excited to get up and moving. While we packed up the rickshaw,we were introduced to the guest house owners two daughters. It was obvious he had called them and told them to come down and meet us. The girls showed up in their Sunday best and asked to have their picture taken with us. After several photos the man then proceeded to invite us over to a little tea shop to share in a chai tea and cookie before we got on the road. With our tummy's warm from the tea we said our good byes and headed towards Siliguri. When we set off, the morning fog was thick and the visibility was almost as bad as driving in the dark. We saw several lorries that had tipped over, luckily noone had been hurt. After the fog lifted, the ride went smoothly and within four hours time we arrived in Siliguri.
Now you may be wondering why we only drove for four hours. Well it was decided last night that it would be silly for Brendon and John to drive Matie (the rickshaw) up the steep mountain to Darjeeling (climbing 3000mts in only 80kms) when they would have to drive it back down the very next day. Since Siliguri is the town where one normally catches a jeep or bus to go up to Darjeeling we decided to settle down here for the day. It also worked out well for them because this is the town where they would turn off the highway heading north and start driving east towards Assam. With there being no time for them to stay a day or two in Darjeeling they decided it would be better and more enjoyable if they drove east as planned and stopped at Jaldapar Wildlife Sanctuary (JWP) to see a one horn rhinoceros while riding on an elephant. We, of course, liked the idea of visiting Jaldapar so when they found a man who would book them a reservation we were then quickly convinced and decided to tag along one more day.
Day 4: Excited and well rested we took our time getting packed up and moving this morning thinking it would be short drive to JWP. Well come to find out two hours into driving we had missed our turn off and were in all truth headed towards Darjeeling. This not being our destination we had to turn around and drive an hour or so back to where the turn off was and continue proceeding east. Frustrated, annoyed and concerned if we would make it in day lights time we pulled out the maps and tried our best to figure out how far we really had to drive. With luck on or side we ran into another rickshaw team and they had a more updated map of India and had seen that highway 31c cuts across faster then highway 31. Since we were fighting time we thought it best to take 31c and come to find out it saved us lots of time. Our original estimated time of arrival was set to be around 2pm we arrived at 4:30pm. Not bad at all since we thought we would arrive around 5:30 or so do to the detour.
Upon our arrival we could not believe that right before our eyes was a one horn rhinoceros. Just as amazed as ourselves was another rickshaw team, Ben and Peter, who are from the states. The six of us just hung out watching the rhinoceros and the bison which came out later in the evening. We spent our night relaxing, drinking tea, eating dinner and exchanging rickshaw run stories. It was a fun night and we were so glad to have joined along.
Day 5: (Knock, Knock, Knock) Startled and stumbling to the door stressing that we had overslept and were missing the elephant ride, I open the door. The servant man simply says time for tea. Wondering what time it is I say no thanks and head back into bed. Our elephant ride was to be at 6:30 and they thought it would be a good idea to wake us up at 5:30. What were they thinking? Ten minutes to 6:30 we rolled out of bed put on our warmest clothes and walked outside. Well come to find out the elephant ride had been pushed back to 6:45 so with minutes to kill we thought why not indulge in some tea. After our quick cup of tea we went out and meet the elephants, hopped on their backs and headed out into the park. Our ride lasted just over an hour and sadly we didn't see any more one horn rhinoceros, but it was an amazing trip through the park. We saw the sunrise over us, deers hiding in the bushes, a peacock fly up into a tree and various different kinds of animal foot prints. JWP is beautiful. After our ride we had some breakfast and then packed up our bags and had to say our final good byes. This is where Heather and I took a car ride back to Siliguri and Brendon and John continued driving east to the finish line. It was hard to say good bye to Matie and the guys, but we felt it was time. After some pictures and our final farewell we got in the car and drove back to Siliguri were we would then catch a jeep up to Darjeeling.
Three days behind our expected arrival day we did finally make it to Darjeeling and ended up spending a week. Although riding in a rickshaw was never an idea it ended up being one of the craziest and most adventurist we have done so far on our trip. We are both so glad and fortunate to have run into Brendon and John and thankful they were so welcoming to let us ride along. I would highly recommend doing one of these adventurists runs to any one who likes traveling and copes well with unexpected happenings like break downs, night driving, and so on. If this suits your fancy be sure to check out the website www.theadventurists.com
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