Globetrotting Adventures: India: Darjeeling

Darjeeling 22.04-26.04

Just as Kolkata was starting to get really hot, we took an overnight train to spend some time at the Raj-era hill station of Darjeeling. It was significantly cooler when we got there and we all had to dig out the jumpers from the bottom of our bags. We were staying in a hotel called 'The Windamere' which was a heritage hotel with a lot of history. It was originally used to house the bachelor tea planters that came over from England to start their businesses. Since the buildings were so old, they didn't have central heating but every room had a fireplace and we were provided with hot water bottles every night to keep warm! The Windamere was also a famous place to have afternoon tea and to our delight there were scones and flapjacks! The Darjeeling tea itself was a bit weak for our tastes until we realised that you were supposed to drink it without milk. After helping ourselves to lots of scones, sandwiches, cake and flapjacks we sat down in a cosy living room with a log fire. Throughout our stay we met various interesting people at afternoon tea including three elderly Sikkimese sisters who had been educated in Darjeeling but emigrated to London and New York to work for organisations like the UN. They returned every year to sort out business matters and at one point mentioned they had recently sold a "little garden" which turned out to be 125 acres! Dad (an afternoon tea aficionado) had wanted to have afternoon tea at the Windamere for over 40 years since his last trip to India so he was completely in his element.

The living room

Scones in India!

The fire keeping us warm

The happiest man in the world

Nina sipping her tea in a very refined manner

A building called 'The Snuggery'!

The dining room

We were met in Darjeeling by our guide Dawa, a Tibetan/Indian whose first language was Nepali! Given Darjeeling's location, it is a melting pot of cultures with large Nepali, Tibetan, Sikkimese and Bengali communities. Dawa was only supposed to show us around for a day, but we think communications with his company got muddled as he was very willing to show us around for the duration of our stay. He was extremely inquisitive and interested in our lives and England and we got on very well. After talking about his village, he asked Nina what animals she had in her village. She said that Chesham had some cows and sheep to which he was very impressed and mused "your village must have lots of milk". He also kept asking when Nina and I would marry after finding out we'd been together for a few years. He asked Nina why she hadn't decided yet and found the whole situation very strange! We had to keep reminding him that our cultures were very different.

He showed us the Tibetan Craft Village which was set up to provide jobs for the people who had fled to Darjeeling from Tibet after the Chinese invasion. They made all sorts of things from carpets to jumpers and sold them on-site with all profits going back into the charity. On the walls of the workshops we noticed that there were charts showing all the workers and the results of their regular blood pressure tests. All of them, most in their 70s or 80s, seemed to be in very good shape! We also visited the Himalayan Zoo and the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute. The zoo had many animals that were local to the Himalayas including bears, snow leopards and some giant Yaks which we found out can survive at -40C. The mountaineering institute was founded by Tenzing Norgay, the first man to reach the summit of Everest with Edmund Hillary, and it contained an interesting museum about the Himalayas and various Everest expeditions. Looking at the basic equipment that they climbed with really put into perspective what an incredible achievement it was.

A worker making yak-wool shawls

Applying the finishing touches to a new carpet

A heaven for cats

A Himalayan bear!

Himalayan Yaks

The HMI

Tenzing Norgay Statue

We woke up at 5am the next day to try and get a glimpse of Kangchenjunga Mountain. It is the 3rd highest mountain in the world after Everest and K2 but until 1852 it was believed to be the highest. Although it is relatively close to Darjeeling, the frequent cloud cover means that it's often difficult to see. Early morning is usually the best chance you have for clear weather. We were really lucky that the morning we picked was relatively cloudless. Although the cloud just covered the peak, the views were still amazing and sunrise was beautiful. After catching a couple more hours sleep before breakfast, we visited the Happy Valley Tea Estate which provides Darjeeling tea to Harrods. We wandered around the plantation and saw how the tea was made in the factory before purchasing some ourselves. It became clear that someone, most likely Harrods, was making a huge profit as Dawa told us the tea pickers only made 90 Rupees (about £1.05) a day!

We also looked around the botanical gardens which was in significantly better shape than the one in Kolkata. It had loads of flowers and interesting plants used for medicinal purposes. A conversation struck up about dangerous animals in India and Dawa explained how he often came face to face with Himalayan bears when trekking. He said that they also came to steal corn from the field behind his house during the night. He then asked us what dangerous animals we had in England and the only thing we could come up with was badgers because some carry TB! We couldn't really compare! Afterwards he showed us around a really beautiful monastery and explained about the different sects of Buddhism. We then took the opportunity to explore on our own during the afternoon and took a look around the Gymkhana Club. It was an old Raj-era social club that hadn't changed one bit and reminded us of something out of A Passage to India.

Kangchenjunga (Centre right)

Sunrise from Observatory Hill

The Happy Valley Tea Estate

TEA!!!!

The root can be used as mouthwash

Foxgloves

Bird of Paradise

The monastery

Prayer flags overlooking the hills

On our final day in Darjeeling, we took the toy-train from Darjeeling station to Ghum. Ghum is the highest railway station in India and used to be the highest in the world. Unfortunately the steam trains weren't working so we had to take a diesel powered train for the 7km trip. The train literally goes on the side of the road and has to blow its horn the whole way to make sure cars and people get out of the way. We stopped for 10 minutes at the Gurkha memorial which paid tribute to all the Gurkha soldiers lost in wars worldwide up until the present day. At Ghum Station there was a steam train you could take pictures with and a small museum explaining the history of the line. Before it was built, the journey from Kolkata to Darjeeling took 6 days! We also had a look at Ghum Monastery which was 150 years old and a lot bigger than the one we saw the previous day. The monastery belonged to the Dalai Lama's sect so we got to see some of the big yellow hats like the ones he wears at ceremonies. The next day we flew back to Kolkata and had our final curry and even more upsetting our final Chai in India. Dad left the following morning back to London and we caught our flight in the afternoon to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

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