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Published: April 14th 2006
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Darjeeling, I think, was a bit of a missed opportunity. Had a hacking cough, which didn't help, and the weather was pretty miserable, which really didn't help. Would invariably be nice in the morning, have a mid afternoon rainshower, then clear up for a bit in time for an early evening drizzle. Amazing to think that just a few hours drive away are the scorching hot plains of West Bengal.
The biggest missed opportunity, though, was time. Darjeeling might not have been my favourite place that I visited in India, but I think it's the place that I'd most like to go back to. I can see how people spend months in the hills around West Bengal. The list of things that I'd have loved to do but didn't is considerably longer than the list of things that I did do. Visiting Sikkim, Butan, going on a trek for four or five days, spending a few days wandering round the smaller village, seeing Kalimpong... the list goes on.
The list of what I did do was a lot shorter. Maybe the highlight was visiting a tea plantation - the Happy Valley Tea Plantation, to be precise. One of the
plantations where the tea grows on impossible slopes, which meant an impossible climb down to the factory (and an even more impossible climb up...) but it was well worth it. Was intercepted by a woman who works on the plantation, and who had a little stall by the factory. Unfortunately I missed the picking season by a week or so - it goes in waves, apparently. What she could do, though, was give me a bit of a lesson in tea making and tasting, with the upside being that the tea was on the slopes just a few days before I arrived.
The tea she made - Three Second Tea - was the tongue-twistingly named (let's see if I remember...) Super Fine Golden Flowery Tippy Orange Peko Number One. This was memorised after a series of tests - every so often, she'd ambush me and ask me what I was drinking. She was more entertaining than the tea, actually. Also tested me on how long the tea was fermented for, and how I should make each of the three different types of tea that she showed me. Like being back at school, but with better tea.
Anyway, as
expected I walked away with a shed load of tea, which is going to last me until I next go back to India. Even if I don't make it back until I am at least 60. After I left her, I had a nose round the outside of the tea factory itself, where I was intercepted by another tea worker who gave me a bit of a rundown on how it all works. For a tip, of course. But it was still interesting. Sounds like backbreaking work - carrying up to 15kg of tea around on your back, on slopes that mountain goats would struggle with. I asked if the pay was good for this area. My guide just laughed. "For a woman, yes.". Sexual equality has a way to go in India, I think.
Much of the rest of my time was spent just mooching and sulking about having a cough. I did make it to Tiger Hill - a hill (on a hill) from where apparently you can see the sun rising over the Himalayas. Start time of 4am, when I jumped on a share jeep that was heading up to Tiger Hill. And which didn't move
until 4.30am, while I sat there getting more and more frustrated and watching tens of jeeps go steaming past. Finally made it to Tiger Hill after dawn had broken, and the thousands of (almost exclusively) Indian tourists had already nabbed the best spots.
As a result, they got by far the best view of the sun coming up from behind the thick layer of clouds that obscured everything but the most immediate hills and valleys. Not entirely sure if it was worth the 4am start, to be honest... That said, I would have kicked myself if I hadn't done it, so I don't regret it. And I might not have seen the Himalayas, but the sight of the sun making its way above the clouds, combined with the mist rolling through the spectacular valleys that stretched for miles around, was pretty special. Even if the stupid start time did wipe out the rest of the day.
Perhaps I shouldn't mention it, but I feel like I should. In Kolkata, I was starting to think that West Bengal had the best looking women in all of India. In Darjeeling, I realised I was right. The weird thing is that
the ethnic makeup of the area is entirely different to any other part of India that I visited. It is almost exclusively Gurkha, from what I could gather, and the difference was striking. And I don't know if it's the clean mountain air, the toning effect of having to climb a mountain every time you want to buy a pint of milk, or just the delicious and healthy food that abounded (Tibetan influence, apparently), but there were more beautiful women per square foot than any other place in India.
Just an aside. Giving people a feel for the local area, and all that...
So Darjeeling was weird. Pretty underwhelming, to be honest, but also somewhere that I'd really like to go back to. As I said, more than anywhere else so far, it felt like a missed opportunity.
(And for anyone reading this who is thinking of heading to Darjeeling, I highly recommend Andy's Guest House. Great place to stay, really cheap, and the woman who runs it is truely helpful. Up on Dr Zakir Hussein Road, with great views of the surrounding valleys.)
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Simon
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Best Looking Women
No mate, the best looking women in India, by a country mile at that, are in Punjab, and specifically in Chandigarh. Sorry, but you're going to have to go back there now to find out for yourself!