Finally!!! Darjeeling!!!!

  

The final nighttime approach. It is with bittersweet enthusiasm that the Bums tackle the curves leading up to Darjeeling. We travel most the road in first gear, the rickshaw growling towards the finish. At certain points, the chariot shows her meddle and I am able to push it to nearly 40 km/hr on the dark slippery road. I know Bennett is in terror. I push the rickshaw harder, playing chicken with the jeep ahead of me.

Nearly at the top, Bennett requests I pull over so that he may urinate. I stop the rickshaw and wait. Suddenly, a van pulls up beside us. It is pitch dark. People get out of the van and surround the rickshaw. The Driver flashes an ID and tells me we are going the wrong way on a one way street. It’s a 5000 rupee fine. So close to the finish, this couldn’t be happening. I tell them I don’t have that kind of money. Bennett approaches the driver and insists on seeing the ID. The driver pulls away. Suddenly, Bennett notices that the people surrounding the van are too tall to be Indians and there is a smell of alcohol in the air.

It is Jordan, the Wangdi Inn proprietor, Ivan of the Dosa Boys, and the Bodensee Rickshaw Team, more affectionately known as ze Germans, playing a mean trick on us. They got us. Real good!

We get the location of the Wangdi Inn where they are staying and check in ourselves. We go to Joey’s Pub in town and get blasted, drinking till the wee hours of the morning with the Dosa Boys and the Calamity Crew.

Posted at 08:00PM Jan 09, 2007 by D Bums Comments[0]