Darjeeling- Himalayan Hill Station

We made the decision to try and get out of Kolkata for a few days and make it up to the Tea plantation town of Darjeeling. The train was not the dramatic experience that we had imagined. The station platform (at 7pm) was filled with more beggers than usual, people shouted "Cha/Coffee" (Tea/coffee) and a very determined kid of about 8 years spent the best part of twenty minutes attempting to sell us snacks from his collection. Having heared of the 'light fingured gentlemen' who populate Indian train stations, we were more cautious than ever with our bags.

When we got on the train we found that as it was an AC class (the more expensive), it filled with english speaking middle class people rather than the poor people from the platform. One couple in particular seemed to summarise a lot about modern India. He wore jeans and a polo shirt, read an english newspaper, and marvelled at my iPod. She wore a bright orange sari, read a hindi version of Cleo (with another saried woman on the cover), and interacted with her husband in the same way any married couple back home would- nagged him to fix her bed, yet laughed with him as he read the comics section of his nespaper outloud in english (which i presumed she could not read herself). They was such an interesting mix of Indian and West. They ate what seemed to be Indian fast food with their bare right hands and talked on their phones frequently. As you can see from this description, I spent most of the trip watching them.

The other person in our berth was a very well spoken middle aged man who told us alot about our destination. He had never been to Australia, but knew that our Prime Minister was John Howard- a fact that I came to india to try and forget. He said that he had taught philosophy in America, and together we politely criticised Bengali Communism, which had caused a citywide strike in Kolkata that day.

We got off the train at NJP station just in time (nobody tells you when your there), and it wasn't hard to find one of the plethora of drivers willing to take us up the mountains to Darjeeling. The ride itself treated us to some amazing views, and some astonishingly near misses of pedestrians.

We found Darjeeling to be a very pleasant place, populated by the rich of northeast India on vaccation, devoid of city pollution or many beggers. We found our hotel as soon as we stepped out of the car courtesy of an employee dragging us up there 'just for a look'. It was an emaculatly clean third story room (with a himalayan view) with a modern TV and hot water shower. We asked how much it would be (assuming that it was way out of our price range) and the man said '350'. 'Rupees?' we replied. After he said yes we had to think for about a nano second before accepting- thats just over A$10 a night for a double room, we couldn't believe our luck. Theres still a lot strange about the place, in peak season it's almost completely empty, and the worker who showed us the place routinely offers us hash when we pass him. For ten bucks and a goldern view, it was a price we were happy to pay.

After exploring the town for just under two days now, we both like it a lot. It's locals are Tibetan refugees, and the cuisine reflects this (FYI, fried vegetable momos are the greatest thing ever). We've been exploring the allyways and footpaths, this morning we made our way up to the buddhist Monastary that its on the main hill. It was filed with small monkeys, not to disimilar from the one which sits on Ace Ventura's shoulder (Spike). After photographing them for almost half an hour, we headed back to watch the end of the Cricket.

Having seen the score, we made the decision to leave (4/270 chasing 550- ouch) to the tea plantation for which the town is famous. I found this extraordinarily picturesque, and we took an (organised) impromtu tour from one of the factories workers andconcluded with a cup of Darjeeling's finest with an Israeli couple who told us alot about Bodhgaya (our next stop).

We also found the time to wander further to some of the smaller temples on the slope of the hill. One of them contained the original Tibetan book of the dead- even if we weren't allowed to see it. As we arrived at the place, an energetic Monk came and invited us in. After a quick tour and a view of his Dali Lama picture he politely hinted at a donation and sent us to the next temple. The walk back up the hill at around 4 (when dusk starts) was nice, as you can see from some of the photos below.

The biggest drawback of this place is that it's freaking freezing. Three blankets and thermals barely did the job it bed last night, I'm making good use of my Melbourne Demons scarf and blue beanie, as you might have seen. My large mass of facial hair also acts to keep my face warm (maybe one day Sam)

The town again displays some strange western aspects of India. The kids of the richer people dress like little hoodlims and spend their time playing games at the internet cafe. The youth also seems to like boy-band pop music- the type which would be harshly criticized (by me) back home. On group of about 12 boys (about 16 year olds) sat behind us in a restaraunt the other night and played similar music on their phones- really anoying. The Internet Cafe that I'm in right now has 'Can you feel the love tonight' playing on repeat and has done for the last half hour.

It has some brilliant shopping in the Tibetan markets, even if people here haggle a lot harder than back in Kolkata. I've spent two days negotiating with one lady over a jumper. When i was offered Rs20 above my initial price i tried the walk away tactic- unfortunately it worked a little too well and I actually left the place without a call back. I know i'm going to cave on the last day.

Another funny thing is that waiters at restaraunts here plonk their pads down on the table and get us to write the order for them, the first night we waited about 20 minutes to order before realising this.

Tomorrow we're going to tiger hill to see the sun rise at 5am, should be a good one as it apparantly gives you a view of mt Everest on a clear day. I really don't however look forward to being wiken up at 3.30 by that guy who keeps trying to sell us drugs.

Please keep commenting on this page... no matter who you are I love to recieve them. By the way, those of you who have seen mine and Nicks arguments in the comments section, please don't think that we are not getting along. Rather, spending this much time with eachother has forced us to playout our irritations in an intenet fantasy land. We are yet to actually get pissed off with eachother (exept for maybe one Iraq war arguement which I clearly won- take that Nick, you bloody nut)

We're heading off from Darjeeling now, so I have to get going. Keep on emailing me and so forth.

Sincerely,

Sam

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