After our awesome experience in Amritsar we took a night train back to Delhi. One of the trail guides we met while hiking to Beas Kund near Manali offered to take us out for an evening in Delhi for some really delicious street food. They said we weren't getting the true Delhi experience if we never ate street food so we hesitantly agreed to meet him! We say hesitantly because we heard horror stories or foreigners getting Delhi belly from eating the street food. We ended up being completely surprised at the quality and deliciousness of the street food! Raghav’s friend Vandana had previously been on a walking food tour of the area and knew all the best places for us to eat. Our first booth was a chicken vendor who served the BEST BBQ chicken with Ghee (similar to butter) we've ever eaten! We ate nearly two full chickens worth. We were all so stuffed but Vandana said we had to top off our bellies with dessert! They arranged two cycle rickshaws to take us through the back alleys to our next gut filler. Driving through the alleys with locals was a great experience! They taught us a lot about the people, culture, and also informed us of the differences between areas. The next stall was a specialty ice cream shop called Kuremal Mahavir Prasad. Vandana was very upset as the shop was closed; she went around and spoke to a couple of young men standing around. The next thing we saw was one of the men opening up the shop just for us! We couldn't believe they were opening up just for us but Vandana explained it was her third time coming that week and she was beginning to get quite the reputation as an important customer. We tried two different desserts; the first dessert was made from fruit concentrate and ice, kind of like a really delicious slushy. The second dessert was something we had never seen before called Kulfi wale; it was a frozen spiced ice cream stuffed mango, peeled then thinly sliced. So each bite had fresh mango, spice, and ice cream it was Delicious! We thoroughly enjoyed our night out and rolled ourselves home. FYI we never got Delhi belly! The food was all prepared to the highest standards even though it was prepared on the street. We highly recommend other tourists to try some of Delhi’s awesome street food. You should be fine if you ask locals or go to stands that are preparing the food fresh! The next day we flew from Delhi to Bagdogbra (the city closest to Darjeeling). After our flight we jumped into a jeep and began a 4 hour ride up the steep mountain side to Darjeeling. We met two other English travellers and decided we would share the experience of the jeep ride. The driver stuck us four in the back where the two bench seats faced one another. It was very cramped but we had a great time getting to know Shane and Gemma! The drive was scenic; we drove through tea plantations and got great views of the valleys. Darjeeling isn’t the small quaint town you picture. It’s actually quite large, loud but set on a beautiful landscape in the Himalyan foothills. We took a day to rest then arranged for a 4 night trek up into the Indian Himalayas. The Singalila trek is not only popular with foreigners but also with Indian trekkers. The trek climbs up into the mountains above the clouds (and sometimes through them) and criss-crosses in and out of India and Nepal. We chose to do this trek in particular for the views of the Himalaya and the chance of seeing 4 of the 5 highest peaks including Mount Everest! From Darjeeling we took a 1.5 hour Jeep ride to a smaller town called Maneybhanjang to meet our guide Pemba and start the trek. The first day we hiked in thick fog through forest and alongside a Jeep road which services the small villages in the area. We hiked for 5 hour and ended in a tiny village where we spent the night at a tea house with homemade Nepalese food. Our second day we woke up really early bundled in some blankets and hiked to a small lookout to watch the sunrise hit Kanchenjunga, the third highest peak in the world. After we enjoyed the view we went back to the tea house relaxed, ate then headed out for the days hike. We continued hiking, the trail traversed through small villages, a conservation area with the Red Panda (we looked hard but never saw one). The total day's hike was 20 kms with 12 being very steep. Unfortunately the clouds rolled in early, which significantly decreased the views. It was interesting and slightly eerie hiking above the clouds. Later in the afternoon on one of the very long and very steep climbs the clouds opened and we got a view of our hotel which sat at the top of Sandakphu overlooking the huge mountain valleys. We finally reached our hotel at 3636m we could feel the elevation in our breathing and were so looking forward to sleep. Even though the hotel is so high and set in the mountains there was no heat so it was very cold. We were lucky that our guide gave us hot water bottles to sleep with! We had a very difficult night as it was very cold and we had eaten something that made our bellies turn upside down (not the street food from Delhi, this was 5 days after). Needless to say we spent the majority of the night running back and forth from the bathroom (squat toilet with a tap). After the horrible night we were glad to see the first signs of sunrise. We once again bundled up and stepped outside to see the sunrise hitting the mountain range. It was stunningly beautiful! Pemba pointed out which mountains we were looking at. The neatest part was Everest was further away and it looked smaller than some of the other giant mountains around except for when the sun rose it hit Everest first! It was an amazing view. We were feeling very ill so we decided to hike to another village at a lower elevation. Pemba was convinced we had a touch of altitude sickness but he quickly realized it was only in our guts as every 5 minutes we were running into the woods to use the bathroom! Although the 14kms was downhill it took way longer than planned and was way more difficult for us that we had thought. Once we arrived at our village we ate then climbed into bed and slept the night through…all thanks to Imodium! After we woke from a decent sleep we ate then hiked the last 7 km to where a Jeep picked us up. We asked if it could pick us up any closer but due to a massive landslide that happened during the Monsoons the driver had to wait at the other side. Once we rounded the last bend we had never been happier to see a Jeep! We had a 3.5 hour ride back to Darjeeling where we checked into our hotel then went to a Doctor. Due to a Hindu festival the doctor’s office was closed so we had to endure a visit to the hospital. We walked into the building which looked like it was built in the 1940’s and never updated. There was no triage area so we walked up a really decrepit staircase and started to pop our heads into rooms to find someone. Signs above the doorways read; women’s ward, men’s ward, economy ward and our favourite, which we didn’t dare enter was the surgical auditorium. The dormitories (wards) had people laying on gurneys which looked like they came from World War II. The whole building was old and very dirty. We eventually found a nurse and explained that we would like to see a doctor, she told us to wait downstairs and they’d let us know when he arrived. Waiting for the doctor we heard a lot of commotion then saw a group of (at least 8) Indians all carrying and surrounding a stretcher up the flight of stairs. There was tons of yelling and chaos but the man on the stretcher seemed to be conscious. Once the doctor arrived he made us feel much better about being there as he was very knowledgeable and professional. He explained we probably had eaten some type of parasite and prescribed us antibiotics and instructed us to drink electrolytes. We were glad we were healthy other than the stomach bug as we’d have been very reluctant to get treated for anything serious there. After a few days of rest we felt much better and much lighter! We enjoyed a few more days in Darjeeling sipping tea and people watching in the main plaza.
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