Last weekend, we escaped from the sweltering heat of Mumbai
to the cool hill station of Darjeeling in West Bengal. Most famous for its
eponymous tea, Darjeeling town became a popular summer
escape for the British
in Calcutta in the 19th century, as well as the heart of an
established tea industry in the hills which continues to thrive today.
Darjeeling has been near the top of my list of places to
visit since we arrived in India two years ago.
The combination of a cool climate, mountain scenery, colonial history,
the opportunity for walks around the countryside and, of course, plenty of tea
suits me perfectly. It is a bit of a
trek from Mumbai – you need to fly to Calcutta then on to Bagdogra before
embarking on a three hour drive up the mountain side - so we took a (5 day)
long weekend to do this whilst I’m still able to fly (I have no more flights
planned now until post-baby in September).
The trip itself was a long (essentially a day each way) but fairly smooth and the drive into the hills is
easier than both the journeys to Ooty and Shimla from the nearest airport. I also successfully avoided travel sickness
on both stages of the journey, though a combination of sitting in the front
with the windows open and the distraction of a surprising but enjoyable collection
of 80s and 90s power ballads in our driver’s music mix on the way back.
We stayed in a homestay / small hotel called Pahari Soul which
is a 30 minute walk from the centre of Darjeeling town, in an area called
Dali. This was quite basic but good
value with warm, cosy rooms, hot water and our hosts were very friendly,
including bringing us plenty of tea and cooking simple local food for us each
evening. The town shuts early
each evening and, as we were staying out of the centre, there weren’t many options to eat
out in the evening, so we made the most of exploring the local area in the day
instead. When investigating
accommodation options for Darjeeling town in advance of our trip, we found this
quite constrained within the town. There
are a few “top-end” options but these seem very overpriced for what they are
(we had lunch / drinks in two of these hotels) which might be owing to lack of
space and availability. If we went
again, I’d try to find somewhere to stay properly away from the town (and the
noise, traffic and pollution…) and maybe just go in to explore for a day,
enjoying the landscape and climate for the rest of the trip.
So what’s good about Darjeeling?
First, its natural position on the hillside is
spectacular. Although the town itself is
around 2000m above sea level, the west side of the town faces the soaring
Himalayan mountain range, including views of Everest and Khangchendzonga, the third
highest mountain in the world (8598m). Our room
at the homestay had a fantastic view facing the mountains – in theory – although
it transpires that if you want to see this view then you need to visit between
October and December as the mountains are covered by cloud for most of the rest of
the year. Oh dear. We weren’t lucky enough for the clouds to
lift during our trip although we saw plenty of posters and postcards of the
view in local gift shops. Next time
perhaps……One of the main attractions of Darjeeling is seeing the sunrise from
Tiger Hill although we skipped this given the 330am start and cloud cover, but
I hear it’s good for those who are keen.
What we could have won...
The climate is also wonderful – it was a consistent 20
degrees and sunny during the day on our trip.
This meant that we could do a lot of walking, which is much more
pleasurable in the pedestrianised areas in the centre than on the main roads,
which are horribly clogged with traffic. If you look past the
litter and human distraction, you can see the wonderful green tea estate and
pine forests of the area which, again, are beautiful.
Darjeeling town itself has something quite charming about
it, with a scattering of colonial buildings, friendly people, and a laid back
vibe (including no pestering of foreigners which I enjoyed). The Darjeeling
Himalayan railway is a taste of the past with its narrow gauge track running up
through the town transporting tea, tourists and locals up and down the
mountain. We took the “joy ride”, an
ambitiously titled 2 hour trip round the local area on one of the original
steam trains (my first steam train trip) which was fun, if very dirty. I’m not surprised that Victorian England got
a bit grubby given the amount of dirt created by one small train in
Darjeeling! The train itself has the
potential to be wonderful but does need some investment – clean carriages, clean windows and a bit more on-board commentary would be great. There is a charming little museum in Ghum
(third highest station in the world) which documents the history of the railway
and is well worth a visit during the 30 minute break in the joy ride. The lack of health and safety can be slightly unnerving (the train track runs along the middle of the road which is also used by cars and every form of humanity) but also allows one to feel like you have moved back into another era.
The old British church - once rather grand although sadly now in need of work
Our ride for the day!
The guy was working hard with the coal throughout the trip
Again, there was zero health and safety. Lots of tourists were practically sticking their hands into the furnace to assess the heat levels...
Relaxing during a 10 minute break at the Batastia loop. The track has lots of loops and switchbacks owing to the need to climb steeply throughout the journey.
Glenary's - A Darjeeling institution serving tea and excellent apple pie
The rather grand ex-town hall. Now a government building with no access for the public.
We enjoyed afternoon tea at one of the old colonial hotels
in the town, The Windamere, which is converted from the colonial Ada Villa which was once a boarding house for British tea planters. This was very relaxing and quiet
in the otherwise noisy town surroundings, and it was slightly bizarre but good
to relax in an English-style music room in front of an open fire (a little
gratuitous at 20 degrees, but still nice) whilst munching on our tea and cakes.
Scones, jam and cream
The main highlight for me was a museum attached to The
Himalayan Mountaineering Institute located in the grounds of Darjeeling zoo. The zoo itself was rather tired, with lots
of demented looking animals in stupidly small enclosures, but the museum was
charming with a combination of history and geographical information about the Himalayas, and
an exhibition on the history of Everest expeditions. This was really fascinating, I had no idea
about all the different routes and attempts on the mountain in the past, and
there are lots of displays of antiquated equipment which sufficed in getting
teams of people up the mountain since the 1950s. Darjeeling is the home town of Tenzing Norgay who,
together with Edmund Hillary, first conquered Everest in 1953. He is the local hero and led the
mountaineering institute for many years – there is a statue commemorating him
in the complex.
The elusive red panda, which from my angle looked nothing like a panda
Outside the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute
Phil and Tenzing
Darjeeling is a culturally diverse town, with Buddhist,
Hindu, Muslim and Christian communities.
It’s had its fair share of unrest in recent times owing to the campaign
to create a separate “Gorkha-land” for the Gurkha community, a campaign which started in the 1980s. There are
campaign signs everywhere in the town although we saw more tangible evidence on
this struggle on our final day (when we had planned some gentle shopping and
tea / café crawling) and virtually every shop and restaurant in the town was
shut! Strikes are common in Darjeeling
so we were lucky to see only one day of this activity during our trip.
Darjeeling when closed
Unlike our trip to Coonoor in the Nilgiris, I didn’t come
away from Darjeeling with a strong love for the town or being keen to rush back. The natural situation of Darjeeling is
magnificent, but its steep and narrow roads are also such that it has
struggled to cope with population growth and now feels terribly traffic-ridden,
polluted and overcrowded. Parts of the
pedestrianised areas were better, but overall the town looked tired and
overwrought. I would be a strong
advocate of Darjeeling city centre becoming a pedestrian and train only zone…something
at least needs to be done to protect the history and natural beauty of the
area. There are old buildings left, but
not too many, and few have been well kept.
We had a couple of typically bonkers experiences. First was the shared taxi system….the roads
in Darjeeling are really too narrow to cope with buses so sturdy 4x4s provide
this service instead. Like your standard
car/truck, these have a front, back and boot area, and we soon found that the
typically accepted capacity for one truck was 12/13 people! Getting in a taxi from our homestay to the
centre was fine, but the reverse was pretty miserable. There was no queuing system except to scrum
around every taxi that arrives and force your way in. No priority or concession is given for
pregnant people – this was a bit stressful – and we eventually decided that
walking back was the lesser of two not-very-good options. Second was our lunch in one of the smartest
hotels in the town, the ambitiously titled “Mayfair” where they first forgot to
bring one of two things ordered (my lunch) and after a massive wait, presented
us with a bill included a large charge for Wifi. We hadn’t and couldn’t use the Wifi, but the
hotel refused to believe that we could possibly have data connections on our
tablets because we were foreign. Do not
go there, the food wasn’t good either!
Other highlights of our trip included a day's walking tour with one of our homestay hosts, Sonam, including a Buddhist monastery, Japanese temple, pagoda, Happy Valley tea estate, Observatory Hill temple, an attempt to go on the Rangit Valley ropeway ride (abandoned owing to a 3 hour queue but we weren't bothered as it was cloudy) and seeing the town's botanical gardens. There is plenty to see and do and Darjeeling which can be covered in a two to three day trip.
Buddhist temple, similar to those we saw in Ladakh and a five minute walk from our homestay
The Japanese pagoda
Our walking tour host, Sonam, in the greenhouse at the botantical gardens. I was curious that daisy and dandelions seemed to comprise most of the flowers in the building!
Phil went for a long, steep run every morning. Unfortunately, he tripped over a speed bump one morning and took a lot of skin off on elbow, requiring some care and attention.
Monkey magic at the temple
Lots of colourful prayer flags at the temple on top of Observatory Hill (which ironically obscured any view and made it impossible to observe anything!)
The lush slopes of the Happy Valley tea estate which did a pleasant tour of the factory as well as allowing us to explore the estate. It's all very well kept there and they supply to only three shops, one of which is Harrods...