Darjeeling Death Drive

There is always a price to pay!
India has taught us that lesson well, and we have learnt that the nicest things come at the highest price.
Darjeeling has been our favorite part of India by far, and with good reason, the Darjeeling district in the Shiwalik Hills at an average elevation of 6,982 ft offers the best views, smells, air, & teas. It's height truly separates it from the rest of India, making it feel like a country of its own, but the downfall is that getting there is always tricky!
We had to ride the narrow, rocky, unmaintained, steep mountain roads to Darjeeling three times, in a jeep FULL of people. Every single time I almost pooped my pants, literally these were the most terrifying road experiences I have ever had.
Trip 1:
Our 1st jeep experience was on the way from New Jalpaiguri Train station to Darjeeling. Practically everyone that visits Darjeeling come via this train station and takes some form of vehicle (jeep, car, bus) up the hilly mountain roads. The 1st trip actually wasn't that bad in comparison to the other trips to come, but at the time I didn't know that and I grabbed the seat in front of me the entire 3 hour ride up. Now it should be noted that it is only 80 km/ 50 miles from the train station, but it is important to drive very slowly when you are driving on the edge of the scariest cliff, on a road that looks like it was constructed in 1918, with a jeep carrying 12 people. So I held my breath the entire way, didn't look out the window, and tried to forget I read in the lonely planet that 100, 000 people died in car accidents in India last year.
Trip 2: Here is where things get crazy!
The last day of our trek put us in Rimbick, which is where all people end their trek. After that you all jeep back to Darjeeling together, I just had no idea we were all going in one car. We rode a jeep the size of your average mini van with 16 on the inside, and 8 on the outside. By the outside, I mean exactly that - well mostly they stayed on the roof, but there were a few just kinda dangling off the side. In total we had one jeep carrying 24 people, plus all our bags, on the skinniest road (clearly designed for one way, but people drive whatever way they want) on the edge of a mountain cliff. I kid you not there were some corners where we came way too close to tipping right over. The engine sounded like it was having a heart attack, and these Sherpas on the roof are just dancing around up there, or just climbing around the outside of the car while it was moving. One guy almost stepped on Sam's hand because it was resting on the window ledge and he decided to take a walk around the car, using the widow as one of his steps. At one point we were driving through one of the many villages and one of the roof Sherpas kicked some guy on the side of the road in the face, I am not sure if it was an accident? Anyways the guy who got kicked decided to grab the Sherpa by the leg, and try to pull him down... Not really a good thing to do on a moving vehicle...???
This all sounds crazy, but don't worry we at least figured out this kind of nonsense car loading is illegal, when the police showed up the Sherpas just took off and hide in the trees and the driver stopped at this random spot down the road to pick them up, they all hopped back onto the roof and away we went.
Trip 3: Was from Darjeeling back to New Jalpaiguri and would have been fine cause I was getting quite used to feeling my heart in my throat, but they go ahead and put a frigging teenager in the driving seat! A teenage BOY I should add, he couldn't have been more than 18 - MAX! And he drove like a teenager too, way too fast, and way to close to hitting all the other cars. I wasn't even scared for myself this time, but could not get over the fact that the front seat passenger was a husband and wife holding there 1year old daughter in their arms. I mean it's bad enough that none of us have seat belts, but at least give the child a car seat for the love of cheese!
Very lucky for us! We made through all of this alive, and I hope hope hope it is a long long tie before I go ahead an tempt fate that much again.
More stories to come, don't do what we would do...
M.