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Published: August 7th 2007
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We were going to call this blog 'Throwing up on Everest' to get a few more hits, but really this was just us feeling bitter because we hadn't actually seen Everest and were heavily pissed off. To see The Mighty One, we'd gone up 'Tiger Hill' at 4am (4am!) on the first viable clear morning that was offered to us by whichever God that doesn't exist because if he did then we would have seen Everest. We were accompanied by every other person in India or so it seemed, and we sat, perched in ascending order up a building according to how much you paid for your ticket. We chose the Super Deluxe room which was of course at the top, just above the Deluxe room. We waited for about 45 minutes before the sun came up, and hit Khachendzonga, Indias tallest and the worlds third tallest mountain. The sight was beautiful - white snow covered peaks slowly growing into what could only be called barely visible, floating behind our old friend Asian Haze. Asian Haze is something that has probably affected mine and Xaviers' happiness the most during our trip, need I say it, in a totally minusing way. We
have been savvy to some of the best views in India - stupendously deep Himalayan valleys (say, looking down a couple of kilometres to the bottom) and huge mountains (the hugest in fact), yet we've seen about maybe 15% of the view at all times because of at the best of times the haze in the air, and at the worst of times, the clouds AND haze in the air. So we didn't actually set eyes on the 3 cm of Everest that was possible that morning because of this haze. GGGrrrrrrr! Anyhoo, moving on.
Darjeeling, where we based ourselves for a while, was resplendant in English toff architecture, tea fields, Nepalese and Tibetan people, and what looked like 19th century northern English mining town sewers and water pipes. We enjoyed our time walking up the steep steep hills for about 5 minutes, and then my knee went bung (I blame the damp!), and it also went gammy. So I drew accusatory stares from most of the locals who must have thought I was a opportunist beggar, and gritted my teeth and walked around anyway. Later, talking to a fellow traveller, we learned that it was not an uncommon
Snack stall in Mirik
A little table piled with bhuja type stuff, peanuts, spices, limes... to make your own concoction. phenomonen, there being 4 other people with gammy and bung knees that he'd met.
We visited the 'Happy Valley' tea estate in Darjeeling. It was closed, but we found ourselves by a little cottage in the tea fields where a plump little wheezy Nepalese woman came to the door and convinced us that we should come inside and try her 5 second tea. Well! Okay! We were led into a kitsch little lounge room and embarked on the best tour of tea we could have hoped for. She set out five little bowls of tea leaves for us to smell and rank, and kept telling us things then saying 'And what is the meaning of this?' then would tell us the meaning. Perfect. We tried her Super Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe No. 1 tea, which she brewed for just 5 seconds, and it was subtle and flowery in a lovely way. We bought some tea and then were off on our steep walk back up into town. Since then we've tried a few other cups of tea (Darjeeling is apparently where the worlds best tea comes from), only to realise that it was just reinforcing our love
Khangchendzonga floating over Darjeeling
This is the third tallest mountain in the world, looking like clouds floating high in the sky. Quite elusive I must say. This was on one of of only 'clear' days. of coffee, of which we only get very very weak instant here. Tea is lovely, but unfortunately it doesn't quite cut the mustard.
We visited the Himalayan zoo and also the Himalayan mountineering institute, funnily enough in the same precinct, perhaps due to the silly heights that all creatures involved manage to scale to. We saw Yaks - huge crosses between elephants, cows and bears - Tibetan wolves, Black bears, Snow leopards and Tigers. Wow. Then we went over to the Himalayan mountineering institute and saw Tenzing's mug that he used on the 1953 expedition (the one that won). Tenzing lived in Darjeeling for most of his life and his ashes were scattered on a hilltop beside the mountineering institute, which he was Director of. It was sweet the way the exhibitions there listed him before Edmund Hillary as the most important person of Everest, and we read sentences like "Tenzing Norgay, the first man to climb Everest... along with Edmund Hilllary". Because really, he was just as important as Hillary, it's just the whole world (apart from the Darjeeling Himalayan mountineering institute) has perhaps been more inclined to celebrate a Westener's achievements a tad more than his. Anyway,
Xavier at Mirik lake
Mirik was a sweet little town with nothing much going for it other than a lake and a very 'reminds us of nz' laid back quality, and some very funny people. I felt a great warmth in my heart reading about Everest, and thought back to seeing Sir Ed in person in Satya on krd in NZ, and comtemplated the feat of him being (along with Tenzing) the first human ever to climb the highest mountain in the world. Like, I mean, thats real history! Its up there with the first man to grow veges! And it all happened so recently!
Walking back down through the zoo, we were acosted by a smiley young woman wanting to take a photo of her with her arms around us, which would surely end up resembling a photo of a few lifelong best buddies. This has to have happened to us at least half a dozen times overseas - we've hardly been able to say hello before we're coerced into standing in front of a camera with complete strangers and smiling like bewildered rabbits. We wonder what they say about these photos when they get home with them... 'this is me and my two tourist friends'. Or in the case of the young women at the zoo, Xavier and I were sure that she was going to photoshop me out later and pretend
Beedis!
Indian cigarettes - 4 rupees a pack, and always with some funny portrait on the packaging. that Xavier was her exotic NZ special friend. Anyway, it feels like bloody exploitation if you ask me. Which raises the question of taking photos as a traveller - I've been reluctant to take photos of many people, esp closeups, because I feel like its treating them like exhibits (at the zoo, coincidently...). But apparently in Goa, Indian men walk the beaches and take surrepticious photos of female tourists sunbathing, so I guess MY photos of Indian people can't be THAT bad.
After Darjeeling we went to a little town called Mirik, which was really nice and laid back, but it did have some funny people in it, which I guess is what you get in small towns. I've never before had a waiter burst into loud laughter at us when we've said 'thats all', meaning that we'd ordered enough food. He also managed to pace up and down beside our table all night, ask Xavier when I'd gone to the toilet 'Where has she gone?', and not actually do anything himself (when he asked if he could take our plates away, the one time that we weren't actually eating anything and said yes, he called someone else over
to pick them up). But the lake was nice.
Now we're in Sikkim and are expecting to conduct a Yak ride tomorrow. Lets hope we can see it through the haze.
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