Returning to India!

          Concluding a pleasant short sojourn in Darjeeling.  I did not use the city to its full tourist potential,

Mountain spectacular---3rd. highest in the world.

being mainly happy to just stroll the city streets, enjoy a selection of restaurants that offered international cuisine and chat with visitors from a number of places around the globe. Darjeeling could be utilised more fully as a spring-board for hiking, rafting & climbing activities nearer the Himalayas in Sikkim & Bhutan. Anyway this was a look- see trip, so perhaps next time! The bonus prize at 8.00 am this morning was clear, clear skies and the best snow clad mountain vistas seen during my stay. I was able to click my best photos yet.

           After breakfast I descended, clad in warm sweaters, the 100 stairs, (I know, I counted them), from Dekeling Hotel reception, to the shared taxi rank, 4 wheel drive SUVs, to negotiate the return 3 hour ride back to Siliguri. The price had mysteriously increased 35% up to $3.50, since my inward leg, and I was unable to negotiate it down. The sweaters were rapidly removed as the temperature soared with the rapid loss of altitude.

       

Winding Siliguri to Darjeeling road.

The road back seemed a lot steeper and precarious than it had appeared as we climbed up to Darjeeling—just an optical illusion, of course. There are concrete safety barriers intermittently, in other places, nothing at all between vehicle and a multi hundred foot  sheer drops. The highway descended the very steep hill-sides through a series of switch backs. At times, from my front seat next to the driver, I was able to count 4, perhaps 5, levels of road beneath us. We flung ourselves at considerable speed & a lot of dust around the tight, loose gravel bends, my thoughts often centred on hopes that the breaks & steering where in good repair. I had noticed amongst the many shared taxis in Darjeeling, that more than a few tyres were almost devoid of tread. Anyway, isn’t that part of the travel adventure, third world style.

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 The power of social media. 
           Being a creature with roots in the pre-internet era, I have always been a little sceptical of the power of social media---who knows, who cares, being frequently my attitude. During this trip to India, where I had self-planned the itinerary, my advance hotel arrangements were completed on-line, using the likes of Booking.com. Upon departure from my hotels, I have sensed concern from hotel managers as to the acceptability of the hospitality and enjoyment of the stay, sometimes even with an overt request to rate highly the property highly in any post stay reviews that I might complete. When I have been making my own accommodation purchase decisions, I have been influenced by internet reviews recorded by previous visitors. Perhaps this is a new era of effective consumer power that is emerging.