Darjeeling

You can see mountains from Darjeeling too. But the agent that made my arrangements for me has put me in Kuersong, halfway back down to Siliguri! I express my displeasure and he agrees to move me to Darjeeling the next day. The place I’m staying in Kuersong was once the British Viceroy’s summer home during the colonial times. It’s perched on a ridge (see a trend here?) high above some of the Tea Estates. Did I mention that I’ve drank more Tea in the last 4 days than in the previous 4 years (except for ice tea, that doesn’t count).

The next morning, my guide and driver pick my up and we drive back uphill another hour to Darjeeling. The first stop is Tiger Hill to look at the mountains. Nope, still cloudy and no mountains to be seen. No Tigers either. I will concede that it was a hill.

Then we stopped at Batasia Loop to watch the Darjeeling Toy Train pass by. The Toy train is a tiny narrow gauge train actually runs all the way down to Siliguri. What is a 2.5 to 3 hour drive by road, the train can do in just 6 hours. The long run is done with a tiny diesel engine, but local “tourist” runs are done with little Steam Engines. They still have 3 operational. The train is really cool, but when it passed by they had the engine hooked up backwards pulling the cars from it’s nose so it didn’t photograph well. What do you expect, it’s India? Did you really think they’d hook the engine up the right way?

My guide dropped me off at my new hotel, which is….

wait for it….

perched on the top of a ridge.

My room has a view of the mountains. At least it would have a view if it weren’t for the clouds. This is 5 days of clouds now, and it’s the “best time of the year”.

Darjeeling is a little like a combination of Shimla and Manali on the western side of the Indian Himalayas. It’s very steep like Shimla, but a bit grungy like Manali. However, it’s much bigger than both of those combined. Since this is some of the world’s most famous Tea Country, there are Tea sellers everywhere. I decided it might be nice to buy some Darjeeling Tea to take home as gifts so I went into one of the bigger shops to check it out. I explained to the clerk that I was an American and hence I knew less than nothing about tea and wanted to take some back as gifts for friends and family who knew even less than I do (I’ve at least seen Tea plantations on two continents). He proceeded to get two packets of tea out, opened one and had me sniff it. To be honest, it smelled like lawn clippings from the top of a compost pile. Then he opened a packet of “the good stuff” and gave me a whiff. It smelled like lawn clippings from the bottom of a compost pile. I said “uhh, thanks, I’ll think about it” and walked out. Later I tried another Tea seller and gave him the same intro to my Tea IQ. He picked up a package and said “Here, this is want you want. Anything better would just be a waste of your money”. I said gimme four of those puppies.

On my last morning, I woke up at 0630, looked out my window and OMG, There are Mountains! So I scurried up to a pedestrian walkway that has scenic lookouts and had about an hour and a half before the clouds finally reclaimed the view.

Darjeeling Toy Train Steam Engine:


Uhh, guys, you have the engine hooked up backwards:


Darjeeling is much cleaner than other parts of India (I think Lebong is where they smoke Leweed)


I’ve been jealous of my son ever since he got his Space Gray AppleWatch. Well I’ll show him! I found one of the rare Gold Editions and it was far cheaper than they are in the US. That Jony Ive is a design genius:


Yes! After 5 days I have finally confirmed that there are actually Himalaya Mountains. It is not a myth. The tallest one in the middle is Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world.