The drive from Glenburn to the Bagdodra airport in Siliguri is reputed to take 3 hours. We did it in 5!
First .. 40 minutes of uphill on narrow, rough, cobbled road in jeeps with stop after about 15 minutes because of broken down truck blocking part of road. All drivers and men get out of the jeeps and ponder the situation, then finally fill in the ditch at the side with rocks so that jeeps can squeeze by .. 30 minutes added.
Second .. Darjeeling road is decent, but then we join Hwy 10 coming down from Sikkim .. road is pitted from monsoon rains .. landslide repairs being done ... stop at railroad crossing for train so another 30 minutes added.
Third ... get to the outskirts of Siliguri and traffic is utterly jammed and backed up .. turns out to be combination of some gov't official's convoy being given priority and a broken down truck in the middle of the road .. 1 hour added.
Fourth .. screech into the airport drop off with minutes to spare. Employees kindly give us rush job through checkin but of course get slowed in security lines.
All board! .. Then we make it to Delhi but plane has to circle for 45 minutes before space is available for landing.
Adventures in travel ...
First .. 40 minutes of uphill on narrow, rough, cobbled road in jeeps with stop after about 15 minutes because of broken down truck blocking part of road. All drivers and men get out of the jeeps and ponder the situation, then finally fill in the ditch at the side with rocks so that jeeps can squeeze by .. 30 minutes added.
Second .. Darjeeling road is decent, but then we join Hwy 10 coming down from Sikkim .. road is pitted from monsoon rains .. landslide repairs being done ... stop at railroad crossing for train so another 30 minutes added.
Third ... get to the outskirts of Siliguri and traffic is utterly jammed and backed up .. turns out to be combination of some gov't official's convoy being given priority and a broken down truck in the middle of the road .. 1 hour added.
Fourth .. screech into the airport drop off with minutes to spare. Employees kindly give us rush job through checkin but of course get slowed in security lines.
All board! .. Then we make it to Delhi but plane has to circle for 45 minutes before space is available for landing.
Adventures in travel ...
