share-jeep

In the hill country around Darjeeling, where the roads are steep, narrow, and sometimes very rough, the primary modes of transportation are either walking or taking a "share jeep".

The jeeps, mostly India manufactured small SUVs with just basic features and diesel engines dominate the roads, and sometime clog the roads. They are called share jeeps, because the riders share the cost. The basic quoted price of a ride assumes that about ten people will be in the jeep. If you want to leave early, or not be packed in like sardines, then you can pay a proportionally higher price. It was not unusual to have twelve or thirteen people, plus the driver, crammed inside of what in the US we would consider a four person SUV. The share jeep that I took, traveled the same distance as the train ride coming up the mountain in about a third of the time, but it was a rough and wild ride.