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Published: December 20th 2006
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Tea leaves get their close-up Wow.....
This place is awesome. The people are all so friendly, Ive had a lot of people start conversation with me, including a 9 year old girl who was so cute and spoke very very good english. One of the guys that I was talking to said that the people in Darjeeling are very well educated , and this certainly seemed to be the case to me, but there arent any jobs. So people all try to go to Calcutta or America. It is very expensive for Indians to get work visas in America - 10 Lakhs rupees ($200). plus the flights and everything else....
Getting here was quite an adventure. On the flight I met this guy who was from Darjeeling and he said that I could tag along with him from Bagdogra (where my flight arrived) all the way to Darjeeling. He also paid for the jeeps and refused to let me help. It was pitch black too, so I am so happy that he did that.
The trip from Bagdogra was awesome. The first part, from Bagdogra to Siliguri was so reminiscent of the trip that I took with the Iqbals from Dhaka to Chittagong.
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A view inside the factory Which isnt surprising seeing as how they are also Bengalis. Once you leave Siliguri it is a constant climb, for 70 km. Literally never descending. Doing this at night was absolutely magical, as you would see twinkling lights covering the mountainsides. Also, going at night also has the advantage of not allowing you to realize how close to death you come at each turn. Gotta hand it to our driver, he was pretty awesome, I certainly would have made the 7000 ft plunge. The whole way they were speaking Nepali, which was really cool
The people here are a mix of Chinese, Nepali and Indian. The women are unbelievably beautiful. I do not get harassed at all, and I feel completely safe here. I could seriously live here.
So, today I almost passed out in the middle of a tea garden. Unfortunately this is not much of an exaggeration. I got a jeep ride from downtown Darjeeling to a tea garden (not the one I thought I was going to), and I hadnt eaten at all or drunk any water. Due to the extremely low humidity, you need to drink a LOT of water. Obviously I hadnt, and
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The closed factory, and in the background, the third tallest mountain in the world I had been walking around for 4 hours before I went, so I was about to pass out from hunger too. I'd like to blame all this on someone else, but its all on me. I walked down, a couple of hundred feet vertically to the factory, only to find that they werent making tea (bummer), but I got a tour around from the manager which was pretty nice. I would have enjoyed it more if I wasnt already dehydrated and famished.
Then I started on the way back up. This was extremely tortuous. Every bend in the road I would sit down and let my breathing come back to normal. I started with a long-johns, sweater and jacket, but ended up with only the long-johns at my elbows. I was overheating and it was really not good. Eventually I got back to the jeep after buying some tea and then made it back to Darjeeling safely. I was really quite worried for a time.
After that adventure I went to lunch and drank 2 liters of water, so Im feeling much much better.
Ive been wandering around all day, and I still do not know Darjeeling
at all. It is ridiculously tricky to get around since many of the "roads" on the map are in fact staircases. Not a handicapped-accessible city 😊 So far my feet and legs are hanging in there.
Not sure what the plan is for the rest of the day, but tomorrow Im going to Tiger Hill to see two of the top three tallest mountains in one place. One of my friends told me its "heaven" so Im looking forward to it. This means i need to wake up at 4ish though, which should be ok.
The weather is cold at night but very pleasant with a sweater during the day. Basically I have nothing to complain about Darjeeling. The only problems so far are of my own doing 😊
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Becky
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Terrific!!
I'm enjoying your travels so much - it's great to read a blog each morning to start the day. Wonderful pictures too! Merry Christmas! I may not get to speak to you on Christmas Day. Love, Becky