“Here you are close to nature, behave naturally.”
The Indians sure have a way with words. The area around Darjeeling is full of these curious signs. The steap and winding road to Darjeeling is full of signs urging drivers to take care and drive slowly. My favorite, “Hurry burry spoils the curry.” We saw the “nature sign” in the South Khairbari Leopard Park.
From Darjeeling, we decided to return to Siliguri on the toy train. This time we sprang for 1st class, complete with reclining seats and plenty of leg space. We were once again like kids in a toy shop, our eyes wide and big grins on our faces at every turn. The train was a slower option than the bus (6 hours vs 3 1/2 hours) but worth the added comfort and the amazing views. After lunching on tuna sandwiches and coconut macaroons (from Glenary’s, a Darjeeling landmark), Fab and I reclined our seats to enjoy the journey. About half-way, the train came to an unexpected halt. The Indian tourists jumped off to snap a few photos; we waited patiently. About 30 minutes later, two Swiss tourists sharing out car confirmed the bad news: 3 hour delay. Apparently the train coming from Siliguri had derailed and they were working to put the train back on the track. Most of the passengers caught a passing bus, we didn’t have anything pressing to do, so we waited. Ten hours later we arrived in Siliguri.
Siliguri is a bustling city of 600,000 people. It’s a transport hub as the train station serves Darjeeling, Kalimpong and all of Sikkim. Other than take a train, there is not much else to do there. We were anxious to arrange our trip to the national park and be on our way. Due to the train delay, we had to wait til the next morning to make our arrangements. The next morning we went straight to the West Bengal Tourist Office to reserve a room at the lodge in the Jaldhapara Wildlife Sanctuary. The first response, “sorry sir there are no rooms available, you must book 3 months in advance. But you can take our very nice tour…” Hmmm, not exactly what we hoped to here. We asked if there were other hotels, if there were other possibilites and after about 30 minutes, they realized that there were indeed cottages available at the lodge. We would stay in a nature lodge just outside of the park. With persistence, everything is possible in India (Sab kuch milega!) One our later we were on a bus with a maniac driver (insanity is a legal requirement to operate any vehicle in India) to Madarihat (the village near the park.) When we arrived, we found at least four other hotels (but not much else) in the village. Our cottage was charming, though, in a rustic sort of way and the lodge was out of the village and set back from the road, making it a quiet and peaceful refuge. We spent that afternonon relaxing, washing our clothes in a bucket and enjoying the tranquility. It was quickly obvious that the hotel was only about 20% capacity and a couple of Indian families were are only companions. After dinner, we organized a jeep safari for the next afternoon and turned in early.
TARZAN AND JANE
After breakfast, Fab and I set off for a walk. We followed a well-used path along the river where we passed the usual sights, women and children washing clothes and bathing, men and women collecting wood, cows grazing along the banks. Fabien was fascinated with the trees entangled with vines and he followed his instincts to climb and swing. I used my monocular to search for birds, we saw a couple of kingfishes and egrets, and various others I couldn’t identify. We rolled up our pants and crossed the crystal clear river to see what was on the other side. We were forced to do a little trail-blazing and I began to regret wearing sandals as I imagined the snakes, worms, bugs and other creatures that were lurking in the mud and beneath the piles of leaves. Thankfully, we arrived back at the lodge without having encounterd any of India’s many venomous snakes. We picnicked outside the cottage with our local buddies, a couple of cows and goats and some poor mangy dogs. Shortly before we left for our jeep safari, two loaded down Western tourists rolled in on bicycles. “Wow, we saw them in Darjeeling, I took a picture of them,” said Fabien as we waved and hello and good-bye and sped off in the back of our jeep.
LIONS, TIGERS AND BEARS, OH MY
Jaldhapara Wildlife Sanctuary is a refuge for 50 Indian one-horned rhinos. There are also elephants, deer, tigers and many species of birds. With luck we would catch a glimpse of a few of these animals. Night is the best time to see them, but it is also possible early in the morning or the late afternoon. As we sped down the gravel road lurching to a stop when the driver or guide thought they spotted something, I was sure we wouldn’t see anything. But as we got into the “deep forest,” we slowed down and several barking deer came into view. We also spotted a couple of peacocks. At the first viewpoint, a watchtower to guard against poaching, we only saw a few birds which I couldn’t identify. At the second watch tower, our luck improved. As I was scanning the horizon for wildlife, I spotted (at the exact same moment as our guide) a one-horned rhino. I gave the guide a silent nod to confirm that I could see it, but he didn’t get the hint. “Madame, you must not say a word, you must be very quiet, you must be silent or it will run away,” (in a very loud voice of course.) Luckily, the rhino was not bothered by the loud voices and we were able to watch it for about 10 minutes. Satisfied, we returned to the lodge for dinner. We met Paul and Rita, the British cyclists, who we had crossed paths with before. (They have done a lot of world travel- I put a link to their web-site on this page.)
The next morning we shared a jeep with them to the South Khairbari Leopard Park. This was more of a safari park than a wildlife refuge, and the leopards were kept in a large cage where they could roam freely. There was also an area for lions rescued from circuses. It wasn’t as exciting as seeing the animals in the wild, and we had to ask ourselves about their quality of life. At least it is a good educational tool for teaching people about conservation and nature. We felt refreshed after spending a few days close to nature and we decided to return to the mountains for a couple of days before catching our train to Varanassi.
We chose Kalimpong, another village in the region. We visited a couple of Buddhist gompas, and a flower nursery with a collection of rare cactii. Then our second day, we went up to the Deolo viewpoint, and finally after almost 10 days in the region, we saw Khangchendzonga (the 3rd highest mountain in the world) poking it’s way out of the clouds. We could also see also see China to the east. With a bit more satisfaction, we descended the mountains again, back to Siliguri to catch our train to Varanassi.
Tags: BIG TRIP 2005-2006, In English 2005-2006, India
Administrator
Hey kids, our yard looks like National Lampoons Holiday!!!! Your adventures are keeping me going and standard talk during happy hour at the bar. love you both