Day 24-27 Thursday-Sunday 3-6/10/2019 Darjeeling, West Bengal - border crossing from Pelling City > Geyzing > Melli (South Sikkim) > Darjeeling, West Bengal - a long day for our bus & shared jeep ride from Pelling City to Darjeeling !
- While doing our walkabout in Upper Pelling, we saw a Sikkim Nationalized Transport (NST) bus stand & we were told before that for foreign tourists, SNT buses would go via Melli or Rangpo where we need to exit stamp our permit / passport. However, on the morning of departure, we were told that the bus (Rp80) ends at Jorthang, so we had to change bus to Darjeeling. Unfortunately the connecting bus does not go to via Melli or Rangpo so we had to take a shared jeep (Rp80) to Melli, a border post in South Sikkim.
- While doing our walkabout in Upper Pelling, we saw a Sikkim Nationalized Transport (NST) bus stand & we were told before that for foreign tourists, SNT buses would go via Melli or Rangpo where we need to exit stamp our permit / passport. However, on the morning of departure, we were told that the bus (Rp80) ends at Jorthang, so we had to change bus to Darjeeling. Unfortunately the connecting bus does not go to via Melli or Rangpo so we had to take a shared jeep (Rp80) to Melli, a border post in South Sikkim.
Melli Border Post, South Sikkim - greeted by a friendly police officer at the check point !
After exiting the Melli border checkpoint, both of us had to walk for 10 minutes (300m) opposite Melli via a bridge to a village (T junction / corner) on the West Bengal border side.
Waited for more than 1 hour at the T junction along the main road but no luck in flagging a shared jeep heading to Darjeeling direction. Frustrated, a shared jeep (Rp50) passing by offered to take us to a village town (near Kalimpong), a 20 minutes drive from the Sikkim / West Bengal border. Again we waited for more than 1 hour. After trying several attempts, we were lucky that a shared jeep stopped & offered to take us to Darjeeling but had to pay Rp200 (Rm12) against the normal price of Rp150 - beggars had no choice so we just had to accept it !
Arriving by shared jeep (Rp200) from Melli, border post in Darjeeling (17.00)
Hostel Accommodation - My 4 days 3 nights stay in Cozy Nest Homestay, 128, Ghandi Road, Behind Compuset Centre, Darjeeling ; basic Double bed private shared bathroom Rp600 (RM36) per pax per night
2) Darjeeling Mall
3) New Mahakal Market, Mall Road, Chowrasta, Darjeeling
4) Darjeeling Mall by Night - shopping or window shopping, the mall had a steady stream of local tourists shopping for merchandises, souvenirs, clothing, food of their choice !
5) Food glorious food in Darjeeling, West Bengal - street food, high end cafes, fast food; no end to eating in Incredible India if you are a glutton ! The worms in your stomach will always have a jolly good times !
6) The View Point & The Retreat, Darjeeling, Sikkim - after a slow early morning walk, we decided to rest our feet at the View Point for an hour hopefully to see a blue sky so as to get a clear view or a glimpse of the Himalayan mountain range ..... anxiety was the word to describe our feelings at this point of time ! But it was a cloudy day but we managed to see a little of the snow peak from far - a bit of consolation for both of us but we hope for a better day tomorrow ....
7) Pictures & posters of Himalayan range & Mt Kangchendzonga, Darjeeling on a showroom display at a reputable photo studio shop in Darjeeling Mall.
8) Darjeeling is famous for tea production; a wide varieties of pure, white, black, green, olong, masala & rose tea are on sales in a number of specialty tea shops in Darjeeling Mall.
9) Hillside sceneries of Darjeeling, West Bengal
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