Darjeeling Locomotion

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Darjeeling breeds some of the best high mountain teas in the world. The hillsides east and west of the mountain ridge have the tea gardens plunging onto clear streams and rivers. The population inhabiting these areas comprise of Nepalese stock and they came in initially from Nepal as labour for the tea gardens.

I was fortunate to travel and stay in one of the tea plantations enroute from Darjeeling to Mal Bazar in Sikkim. The road is steep. narrow and twisty. If you drive down for the first time, it is with the proverbial heart in your mouth kind of ride.

The only traffic that you meet is a regular stream of World War II vintage Land Rovers that carry human cargo up and down. Downhill is mostly in neutral gear with the engine switched off to save fuel.

The surprise is the number of people that the vehicles carry. There are young lads hanging on to every crook and ledge of the vehicle. The front bumper has a few passengers. The bonnet has some and the tail section and roof top is also jammed with human spiders and flies. I am sure they would all become expert mountain climbers given their strong grips and extreme sense of balance. Sherapas are from Nepal , mind you.

You can count the number of passengers outside the vehicle. Easily about 9 in the tail section and 9 on top of the roof. Count a few on the front fender and the bonnet and about another 15-18 invisible occupants inside the vehicle.

You have a count of almost 35-40 Nepalese atop this 4 wheeler. Quite a feat !

The photo quality is poor. Something to do with it being a bad time of the day.

The image below is the same vehicle and passengers viewed from the rear.

darjeeling india travel himalayas ezee123