Foothills of the Himalaya - a 6-week trip

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Sunday 20th May. We left on the 2-hour car journey to Darjeeling at 09:00. The road was very twisty, pot-holed , and steep. After a hair-raising and ball-crushing 2 hours we arrived at our destination - not that we could see much due to the covering of mist. The mornings in this area tend to be bright and sunny but the afternoons see the heavy rain and mist, and there's not much to do at such times. We were staying in the Mayfair hotel which is quite posh but there are stairs everywhere. Our afternoon was spent at leisure so we took the opportunity to walk up Observatory Hill, and were rewarded with quite decent views of the Eastern Himalayas - even saw some snow-covered mountains. A better view-point is Tiger Hill in Ghoom but we were due to go there on Tuesday at the ungodly hour of 03:30 in order to see the sunrise.
On Monday we were treated to a grand tour of Darjeeling starting with a walk round the Zoological Gardens which is home for endangered Indian animals such as the tiger, common + clouded + snow leopards, barking + samba deer, red panda, and black bear. Due to the recent bird flu, precautions were still in place to minimise contact with the birds they had. The Guide then took us up into the hills to the Tibetan Refugee Camp, and that was quite interesting. He then pointed out various of the key landmarks in Darjeeling.
Today we went up Tiger Hill but the low cloud resulted in a poor sun-rise. The place was mobbed with cars and people. We walked the 2 ks down the hill back into Ghoom, and then returned back to the hotel at 07:30. Later we went on the toy-train from D. to Ghoom but it broke down for 1/2 hour. After a 10-minute stop at the highest elevation, we resumed the journey: a total of 7-8 ks in about 1 1/2 hours; we would have been quicker walking but it was an experience.

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