High on Tea in Darjeeling

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January 27th 2006

Published: January 27th 2006

OK ....Varanasi was much better than expected...thank goodness....made two new friends ...a man from South Africa and a woman from Varanasi. Also, I have brought with me the affliction that the driver in Agra warned about .... although I stilll question as to how the varanasi-vengence would dare to come my way....in all my years of travel and eating everything anywhere this is the first time.

I must confess I have gone the way of emodium only because of the prospect of continued long train rides and upperbunk reservations (not my choice). Who knew all the trains would be full, that it was winter vacation for the kids and that the man we hired to reserve our seats could do no better. He has prbably done very well just getting us on a train. A woman I spoke with from Varanasi to NJB in West Bengal, an 18 hr endurance test considering the affliction(did not eat anything!) said that trains had to be booked 2months in advance. The first clue was when I tried to book i n Dec. and found only full signals...I thought the system was not functioning ...more fool I....Also the web site mentions nothing of these situations.

Enough whining!

Darjeeling is darling ...no pun intended. I now know the true meaning of 'shared Jeep'! I have seen the orderly vovering of hectares of mountain side with the low tea bush. We travelled up into the hills along side the toy train track ... sometimes it was so close to the houses or shops that produce lay on the track and laundry was surely blown against the side of the train. Our journey on the toy train is on Sunday. It begins at 09:15 and will last 9hrs. We will reach NJP in time to get on the train to Kolkatta at 19:30 and will ride through the night. I am in a bit of a terrror becasue I have to climb up to the top bunk but I am rationalizing:
1. will not be disturbed by someone's rear end on my blanket next to my socked feet.
2. will not have to watch the man in the next set of bunks clipping his toenails.
3. will not have the bare feet of the man in the opposite bunk on my section of the seating area on the lower bunk.
4. will not have someone above me that snores and almost certainly farts durring the night.
THAT UPPER BUNK IS LOOKING BETTER AND BETTER
5. will not have someones sheet, blanket, feet falling towards my face wether I am asleep or not.
6. will not have to get up and rearrange my pack so all three people in the three tier compartment can sit across from one another and cough at each other.
7. will not have to look at other peoples food which I am not eating....bisquits and water, plain rice and black tea for me these days)
8. will not have to lie across from the man looking for last years bugers in his nose.
THAT UPPERBUNK SEEMS A BLESSING
9. will be able to lie down in the upper bunk for as long as I want because it does not get folded away like the two bottom tiers
10. will be able to fart, clean my nose and clean those parts necessary without being observed.

We did try to cgange our bookings, which was impossible and then we meet an Australian in the street and he also lauded the upperbunk ... we also inquired aboout flying and five to eight hundred US later the upper bunk seemed feasable!!!

After being under way foor 25 hrs yesterday we did not undertake too much on our first evening in DHR.
We had left the Hotel Kalka.........
the best place ever to stay, clean, good food, terrace facing the Ghats, hot water when you remember to turn on the gyser, a monkey protected balcony to hang up laundry, easy access to the market, not working on commission and only Rs. 400/night.......

at 15:00 by autorickshaw back the same dusty way we had come only htis time all the shops were open all the ttraffic was moving and all the air was absolutely unbreathable. We ahd to wait a while and then when we got on discovered three tier instead of two!!! a nice young man offered to climb to the top I got the bottom bunk...see previous description of that experiencce.... and Wendy was in the middle. After a smelly veg meal all settled down ... there was not one trash can in sight and all refuse is tossed beneath the seat wether ther is luggage there or not! When one is finished with the food the tray with the empty aluminium containers is put on the floor.

A small boy doing a duck walk came along with a big plastig bag collecting the aluminium containers ... nothing else. In the morning when everyone was awake another boy came with a small broom and swept all of the refuse from under the seat. I haad to give him a rupee because having been here too long I also contributed to the gaarbage on the floor .... well? where was I going to stash banana peelings...the windows do not open and it is a long traeck to wher the open door is to fling the things off the train!

I settled in for the night last because there was so much movement between the two bunks where I was sitting. Finally the whole car went to sleep. There were numerous disturbances, lots of stops and lots of snoring. I of course had to go to the toilet which on a train is not too bad. The hole goes straight to the track...better have hold of everything or it is gone....with a piece of toilet paper in hand no knobs or locks have to be touched ..... There are 49 to 60 seats in one car ... any idea how many hand held p...ks that is? especially when they all go in the evening and again in the morning. At one station I saaw a generator with a water tank go by thew window and I thought becasue it was sort of abig stop that the toilets were getting a hosing down ....no such luck.....good thing my runners have thick soles!!!!

Finally at 12:30 we reach NJP. Now to look for the 'shared jeep'. hey want Rs 100. We heaard only 80 or 90. Wndy willing to pay without a haggle ...we are three(the english kid who offered to take the top bunk)...the two were ready to pay 100 so I agreed if I could sit in the front with the driver. I was not in a good mood ....basically I was full of s..t. In the jeep once it got underway there were 10 passengers and the driver. The luggage was strapped to the top. For quite a while the countryside was flat and we proceeded past Siliguri and north towards the mountains. Then we began to ascend..... alongside the little tiny tracks often driving across them. THe girl who sat in the middle between me and the driver had to straddle the gear shift for 100 hundred of the 130 km. Guess who had the pleasure for the last 30 km? Well what could I do? a woman and a small child got on when the girl in the middle got off and when she got off an old woman got in and than in the end a small boy got in. As one or two passengers got out more were picked up....sometimes more were picked up than got out ... such is the nature of a 'shared jeep' ....you learn something new every day. No way is it "we all get on and then we all get off".

Darjeeling being a hill station that is exactly what faced us when we got out of the jeep. A very kind passenger who lived near the Hotel Bellvue offered to lead us up the winding streets to the hotel. My pack was on my back. Wendy did not want to use a porter. We did make it after much huffing and puffing, some struggle with the little wheels and with help from the kind lady who carried Wendy's lightest bag.

We arrived at the hotel after 17:00. They were waiting for us!! We were ushered into a very luxurious room....I knew we did not want to pay for this but by this time I was exploding!
(We had had a tea stop along the way but there was no "outof sight" opportunity so even though I was prepared to use the roadside as a facility you haad to be a mountain goat to find a footing never mind a squat spot!)

When we were filling out the register we learned the true value of the room...Rs1600 ... too big too cold and in ned of too much fir to heat!!

We moved to a Rs700 room and it was just as nice only smaller. Meat was next on the list for Wendy. She ordered a dish that three no four kinds of chicken and loved every bite after four days as a veg! I ate a chicken burger because the veg burger was finished and it didn't stay with me long.
Back at the hotel the young boy was trying to start the fire with pieces the size of my arm and after hyperventilating and with some pieces of the ever usefull toilet paper the fire was going and the room felt cozy until the middle of the night when nose and ears began to tingle with cold.

Getting up at 08:00, I had a lovely breakfast of boiled eggs and toast with Darjeeling tea. After breakfast I made the decision to emodiumize!!
I had three chewables and Wendy gave me six capsules. DAre I evewn say the varanasi vengence is under control. Plain rice and lemon tea at lunch seems to have remained... here's hoping!!

A wander around DArjeeling proved rewarding enjoyable and worthwhile.
A visit to the train station further cemented the fact that there was no way to change the reservations we had. That only took an hour of waiting because the man was on a half hour break. Again clocks everywhere that no one seems to regard!

In a tea shop window I spied an absolutely adorable wood carving of a tea picker with her big basket on her back...only about 10 to 13 cm in height. I spent the better part of the day looking for a shop that sold carvings...none to be found. Will go to the shop tomorrow and ask if he want to sell ...probably not...he was closed today.

Wandered around the moountain had to go to the toilet and asked if the library was open and did it have a toilet. This will one whole segment on its own. Suffice it to ssay in the library hung a contoour map of the world with Tanganykia(sic) can't even spell it any more its been so long!!

Found a tibetan hat ...not the one I have been dreqaming of....10yrs too late for that one...real fur has been banned and now with icicle fingers am signing off till tomorrow.

The plan is the Zoo to see snow leopard and red panda plus other animals who hopefully will not be in insufferably small cages and the mountaineering museum. If at 04:00 the air is clear will go to Tiger Hill to see the sunrise and view Everest but I am thinking that is a long shot...it was hazy all here even thought the sun shone and it was pleasantly warm... in the sun.

It is very pleasant here and I am happy to have come!!!

High on Tea in Darjeeling

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