Darjeeling

Managed to tear ourselves away from Pelling and head for Darjeeling. On top of one these high forested hills is a city of 100,000 people. And lots of tea plantations. Originally part of Sikkim the British/East India Company managed to convince the Raja to lease it to them and it eventually became part of India. There's still an independence movement wanting the region recognised as Gorkhaland (as in the Gurkha regiments of the British army who were recruited here).

Tea plantation.

Women toiling in a tea plantation.

Drove up a crazy-steep road to get here, my neck was actually sore keeping my head upright. And have settled into a week of doing nothing in preparation for the big Everest trek. High on a hill with a view of the snowy Kangchenjunga Darjeeling's a combination of colonial England (high teas, fireplaces, old houses) and India (crowds, chaos, colour).

High tea at the Windermere, dahling.

Guidelines for appropriate behaviour in the sitting room at the Windermere - I'm going to apply this at home from now on.

Karl jammin' by our fire.

Rail tracks are as good a place as any for a market, right?

 

 

Hmmmm........

 

 And the usual wildlife...

 

We've been indulging mainly in the colonial aspects.

We've sampled some of the tea. The tea menus are like wine menus, complete with tasting notes. We've agreed they all taste like tea. My palate seems only able to differentiate a few types of tea: black, green, genmaicha and ginger-honey-lemon. As the tea here is all black, it tastes like tea. Also, I'd kill for a good coffee.

Took a trip on the old Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.

Karl and train at the Darjeeling station.

 

Built by the British back in the 1880s on a two foot gauge wiggling back and over through the valleys up to Darjeeling at 2100m. An insane project. It was pulled by baby steam engines (?because full-size ones wouldn't fit?) and is still running today with some diesel-powered engines and some original steam engines. Steam engines on regular railway routes in 2013!

Still takes four men to drive a mini-steam engine.

 

We took the short tourist trip down to the next station and back and it was so much fun! The rails run along the road, mingling with the vehicle and pedestrian traffic, passing within inches of shops and houses, a-chugga-chug, a-chugga-chug, a-chugga-chug, wheeeeeeeeee!!! (goes the whistle) a-chugga-chug, a-chugga-chug, a-chugga-chug.

 

Smuts blowing in the window and collecting on the roof. Brilliant.

 

As the rail and road both wind their ways together down the hill the rail takes a wider line at corners so that it crosses back and over from the left to the right side of the road – just to make life more exciting.

Passing almost through people's living rooms.

Otherwise lots of sitting by the fire, slowly working our way through the restaurants and bars, trying to convince the hotel manager the wi-fi still isn't working (Manager: the wi-fi is working now, yes? Karl: no, it's still not working. Manager: it should be working now, yes yes.), without much success.

Can't resist another hotel room window shot.

 

One of our favourite spots in town is the glorious Glenary's. On the ground floor is a bakery to stock up on pastries on the way home or indulge in doughnuts and coffee (coffee!!!!!), upstairs is a restaurant with very yummy curries and to top it all off in the basement there's a bar. It basically caters for every possible whim at any time of the day.

Karl with pint for now and box of pastries for later.

 

 Also loved Joey's – a proper, cosy little pub with four small tables and a couple of seats at the bar.

Me outside Joey's (also with a box of pastries for later).

 

Sunset over the hills.

 

 

Bye-bye Darjeeling, next stop Everest!