BPD: The Darjeeling Diary

(BackPack Diary: The Darjeeling Diary, 19-20 Apr '15)

After what seemed like a long night, I woke up to a brightly lit up room, that looked like it was noon; but to my surprise the time was just 8 am and I still had the whole day ahead. Stepping onto the balcony, I was greeted with a clear view of the Mt Kanchenjunga range, with all of its peaks. The previous night's heavy rains had cleared up all the clouds to give this stunning view on my first morning there. Little did I realise that this was the best view I'd be getting of the Kanchenjunga over the next week, that I foolishly didn't bother to take a picture.

Sunrise at Tiger Hill

I met with an interesting set of people and explored Darjeeling with them over the next day and half. All travel around the city was primarily on foot and meeting of all these people, chance encounters. I saw the sunrise at Tiger Hill and visited the war memorial at Batasa loop with 2 men from the Czech Republic who were on a week's vacation to India and Bangladesh. They were puzzled when a large family from the rural West Bengal jumped on them, for an extended photo session. Later on, once they regained composure, they had an innocent question for me - "Why are we so interesting to them?" :) I also met 2 women who were on a 3 month tour of India, one an American activist and the other a Columbian anthropologist who had spent most of their time in India at Dehradun, working with farmers against GM seeds. It was good to know more about GMO, its effect on farmers and the movement currently on in India by people like Dr. Vandana Shiva to fight it at the grass roots level.

It was a nice stroll from the Botanical garden, through the Observatory hill and Mall road overlooking the tea gardens and concluding at the Mahakala Shiva temple in Chowrasta. The Bhutia Bhasti monastery was steeped in history with its ~200 year background and well preserved temple artifacts. The people at Tibetan Refugee camp recounted tales of the Chinese invasion of Tibet in the 1950s, over their game of dice, and how India proved a safe haven for those who managed to move out. All these people had made the camp their home and many of their children continue to live here, while managing livelihood through various means in Darjeeling.

At Lloyds Botanical Garden	Butter lamps at Bhutia Basti monastery

Nepali game of dice, at Tibet Refugee centre	Children playing at the Refugee centre

The Himalayan Mountaineering Institute lived up to the expectations, with the museum carefully stocking several objects from the Mt Everest summit of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa. The museum also captured some nostalgic moments from the earlier failed expeditions of the Everest, including climbing equipments apart from paper clippings about the aborted attempts and fatal news breaks. It was fascinating to see the evolution of climbing equipments over the century, by comparing those from HMI's recent Everest expeditions. Another noteworthy piece was a replica comparing heights of all the tallest peaks around the world, ranking them by the continent. After much scanning I was delighted to find only a namesake of a mountain that I had been to, but this was the Neelkanth mountain in Rishikesh that I had taken a Jeep ride to! Looks like its going to be some time before scaling something this noteworthy.

Prayer bells at the Mahakala temple	A hungry Red Panda, at the Zoo

The place is crazy about Football & clubs!	..and only signs of cricket, near bus stand!

The Zoo, which we covered since it was part of the same campus as the HMI, sprang some surprises, inspite of the low expectations. There were a lot of first timers for me - Royal Bengal tiger, family of Leopards (snow leopard, black leopard & clouded leopard), Himalayan Monal and several other exotic birds. Finally, an early morning walk to the Japanese temple and Peace pagoda had a serene and calming effect. Particularly the 4 Buddha gold-covered statues depicting different stages of the path towards Nirvana is life-like and brings out subtle emotions with great effect.

I bid goodbye to Darjeeling with a visit to Glenary's, a bakery that serves delicious apple pie and cappuccino with a lot of other great smelling pastries, apart from serving the precious commodity of free-Wi-Fi! The place is frequented more by travellers for its free Wi-Fi, and one can see backpackers browsing and transferring files from laptops.

BPD: Day One Doldrums

(BackPack Diary: Day One Doldrums, 18 Apr '15)

The onward flight to Bagdogra from Hyderabad had time flying past real quick, inspite of the 2 hour stop-over at Kolkata. I was catching up with some much needed sleep at every possible opportunity, to make up for the complete night-out over the previous day. On Friday night, by the time I had cleared the work backlog (just about to make way for the 2-week trip), and did the packing (I've not yet outgrown the thrill of last minute packing), it was morning and already time to leave for the airport.

Once I landed at the Bagdogra airport and collected the luggage, there was a mini-anxiety attack - there I was all alone, with no plan of where to go next, or what to do. As the small-town airport became empty with the last bunch of travellers departing, even the touts grew less interested, looking at my blank face. I finally gathered myself and walked some distance outside the airport, to board an auto that was going to Siliguri, the nearest town. Giving me company was a family of 6 along with their dog, who were on their way to a weekend vacation at Gangtok, from Bagdogra.

Over a plate of traditional Sikkimese thali lunch at a small family run hotel, I decided to travel next to Darjeeling. I had wanted to visit the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI) and moreover, Darjeeling was a popular spot amongst backpackers, giving opportunity to get a list of other offbeat locales to visit.

Hike up to Youth Hostel, Darjeeling

The 2-hour ride to Darjeeling was engaging, on what to expect and what to do in the city, with a cheerful & chatty taxi driver from Sikkim, a set of students from Kolkata traveling for the weekend and an aged lady returning from her daughter's home. Upon reaching Darjeeling, I hiked up the hill, in search of the Tenzing Norgay Youth hostel, something that I had heard about earlier. The 3 km hike proved futile, for the place was dilapidated, needed some government clearance to stay and further didn't have any travelers. Instead I booked a room in a nearby youth hostel, which seemed to have a flurry of activity with travelers moving around.

Before calling it a day, I planned to take a brisk walk in Chowrasta, the famed hangout spot in Darjeeling. While walking past hordes of tourists bargaining in the shops and other travelers chatting up in the streets, I had a second attack of anxiety within the day, as if questioning what in the world was I doing there all alone and seemingly lost!

I had heard about most solo backpackers taking a while, and at times a full week to come to terms with the situation, and consoled myself to be alright sooner. With a quick dinner of Nepali soup, rice and dum aloo at a couple-run restaurant, I went to bed, with no alarm for the next day, no local sightseeing ideas and only a plan to 'sleep-as-much-and-as-longer-as-you-can' night! After all, its a vacation and this was just the first day of it.