DARJEELING

28-31 October

From Dorje Ling: 'the place of the thunderbolt'

HISTORY:

Almost 600 km north of Kolkata and 2000m up in the Himalayas, Darjeeling was until the 19th century owned by Sikkim but in 1817 the right to use the site as a health sanatorium was ceded to Britain. It soon became the most popular of hill resorts, especially after 1839 when the Hill Cart Road was built to link it with Siliguri. Tea arrived a few years later sucking in an influx of Nepalese labourers and causing the deforestation of its hillsides. The town's growing wealth caused the British to annex it in 1861. This wealth was added to by its becoming a centre for mountaineering, playing a key role also in the conquest of the greater Himalayas. 

In the early 1900s Darjeeling was one of the British Empire's most glamorous and far-flung outposts. And until 1911, when Delhi replaced Kolkata as the capital of India, it was the summer capital to which the government decamped to escape the soaring summer temperatures. 

POLITICS:

After Independence the region joined West Bengal, administered from Kolkata. However, the infrastructure created under the Raj has, under pressure from an ever-expanding population, been unable to cope, leading to acute shortages of water  and electricity and chaos on the hopelessly inadequate roads. Calls for autonomy grew, taking shape in the Gurkhaland  movement of the 1980s led by the GNLF. After a violent decade they came to power democratically but their politicians became complacent and were replaced in the regional election of 2007 by a rival party, the GJMM. This GJMM victory has reinvigorated the push for an autonomous Gurkhaland, with wild-cat strikes and violence designed to cripple West Bengal's hold on the region. Later in our visit we were to see 2 examples of this continuing conflict: 

• the previous tour group had been unable to visit Shimla as a result of violent Gurkhaland insurgency and the area was only declared safe enough for us to visit the day before our arrival: 
• while in Shimla we witnessed West Bengal regional elections being held in which the BJP (the largest national party) sought to oust regional control from the GJMM.

GETTING THERE:

On paper the transfer to Darjeeling promised a long day travelling, starting with an an uneventful internal flight from Kolkata to Bagdogra 

For the first of many times, Rudy negotiated with the airport officials to get us to the front of the queue!

followed by a road transfer to Darjeeling that we knew would give us some breath-taking Himalayan views. BUT we were in for a much more eventful day.

Bagdogra was a surprise not least as it was so hot! And, after the crowds and bustle of Kolkata, the airport seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. As our bus struggled through the teeming traffic out of town it was clear that Bagdogra  had been a straggling road-side settlement that was now having a multi-lane motorway flyover built through the middle of it. The old food stalls and other shops still remained in its shadow (some displaying some fabulous carved wooden headboards that Sue would have loved to have bought if only the bus had stopped!) and cattle, dogs and other animals wandered at will. 
Before too long the bus began to climb and the mountain views began.

Just to prove we were there!

We knew we were going to a tea plantation the next day in Darjeeling but we thought we had got a preview as we drove along. In the event, we saw no actual tea being picked in Darjeeling so it was fortunate we drove by at the right time.

A back view of the fabulous head dress.

As with every place we visited, a local guide, from Darjeeling,  had joined us and Rudy in Bagdogra and was to stay with us for the duration of this part of the tour. He told us as he had routinely been driven down the mountain that morning he'd seen surprised to see some wild elephants at the side of the road. Perhaps they would still be there, but he didn't think it very likely.
But they were!! For both of us this has to be one of the highlights of our trip.

After all that excitement we drove on along Hill Cart Rd. for a couple of hours before  it was time for a 'comfort break' as well as a cuppa and a bite to eat. 

We'd arrived at Kurseong.

Before the building of the railway in the late 19th century the journey from Kolkata to Darjeeling took 45 days, a formidable annual prospect for the officials of the Raj and their wives and families as they moved everything that would be needed for the summer capital to function fully. Kurseong was to give the ladies in the party their first opportunity to change into clothing more suitable for the much cooler Himalayas.

We weren't sure why this was here, but it was fun.

  St Paul the Apostle's church was immediate evidence of Britain's colonial presence.

Kurseong is still the HQ of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.

Driving to Darjeeling requires nerves of steel and an ability to disregard many of the'rules of the road', such as not overtaking on blind bends! The road is woefully inadequate to cope with the enormous amount of traffic: apart from the seemingly never-ending stream of tourist buses and jeeps, everything has to be taken by road up the mountain for the inhabitants.

But the breath-taking views more than distracted us from the sheer drop on our left, the constant blaring of horns and the lurching over-taking moves.

Many hours after setting off from Kolkata that morning we arrived at the Mayfair Resort and were shown into a colonial-style study for a welcoming cup of Darjeeling tea (what else?) and biscuits.

The next morning, before we set off for the scheduled train ride, we were able to see our surroundings properly for the first time. We'd definitely recommend the hotel for its comfort, ambience  and food.
The views over the hotel rooftop were stunning.

And a quick walk around the hotel's exterior was a feast for the eyes with inviting shady seats ....

..... and beautiful colourful flowers everywhere.

DARJEELING HIMALAYAN RAILWAY (the Toy Train):

Off to town and the 7km steam-train ride on the Toy Train from Darjeeling to Ghoom.




The DHR was completed in 1881 and was designed as an extension of the North Bengal State Railway, following Hill Cart Road and  climbing for a tortuous 88km up to Darjeeling. Granted World Heritage status by UNESCO in 1999, it is no longer an essential mode of transport but has survived on its tourist appeal. 
We headed into town to Darjeeling station to wait for the departure to Ghoom and then on to the  Batasia Loop, the most dramatic of the DHR's loops., a spiral railway created  to lower the gradient of ascent.

There was plenty of time to stroll along the station platforms taking in the atmosphere of the place.
Some signs were more modern than others ....

.... but for the most part they were redolent of a past era.

And you didn't have to be a 'Train Spotter' to see the beauty of these beasts.

Where was the Fat Controller?

 And then we were off, chugging along through the streets of Darjeeling mere feet from shops and pedestrians: steam belching and children waving.

The train stopped and a seeming-passenger, who had been standing by a door, opened the door, jumped out and was joined by another man who appeared from nowhere. They both squatted by the wheels, did some essential tweeking before rejoining the train and setting off again.

About 5km out of Darjeeling, as the train entered the Loop, we stopped at a Memorial to the Gorkha soldiers of the Indian army who sacrificed their lives after the Indian Independence of 1947. 

The Kanchenjunga Range in the background

Then on to Ghum railway station which, at 2,258 metres, is the highest railway station in India and the second highest in the world.

Another chance for Stuart to look at the engine that had got us here.

Old Ghum Monastery

Only a short walk from the railway station was this monastery, constructed in 1850 and belonging to to the Yellow Hat Buddhist sect.

Inside the monastery is a 15- foot model of the Lord Buddha known as The Maitreya Buddha (Buddha of the Future) created with clay that was brought from Tibet. In front of the statue are 2 huge oil lamps that keep burning all the time and all through the year.

Inside the monastery are images of many Buddha deities and lamas, a large collection of manuscripts, bells and a huge drum.

Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park

 That afternoon, somewhat reluctantly as we are no lovers of zoos or captive animals, we were taken to Darjeeling Zoo. This 67-acre site is, at 7000 feet, the largest high altitude zoo in India. Once famed for its pair of Siberian tigers donated by Nikita Kruschev in 1960, it is India's only specialised zoo, internationally recognised for its conservation breeding programmes of highly endangered species of Eastern Himalaya. That said, on the day we were there, despite plenty of visitors, our impression was of an air of general neglect and a number of clearly bored and unstimulated animals pacing their cramped enclosures.

Tea Plantation:

By 1850 the annual consumption of tea in Britain was already at around 2 pounds per person. English traders were becoming increasingly wary of having to depend on China as a sole supplier.
Due to its cool weather and topography Darjeeling seemed the ideal place to experiment with tea cultivation. The effort locally was spearheaded in 1841 by Archibald Campbell, a civil surgeon of the Indian Medical Service, who happened to be an avid horticulturalist. Transferred from Nepal, he brought with him seeds of a Chinese tea plant and began to experiment with planting tea bushes. The results were so good that 6 years later commercial development began and by 1866 Darjeeling had 39 tea plantations producing 133,000 lbs. of tea.

On our second morning in Darjeeling we were driven to the Happy Valley Tea Estate which had originally been named Wilson Estate after being established in 1854 by an Englishman named David Wilson. 

This board at the factory entrance shows the year of original establishment.

By 1929 the estate had been bought by a wealthy Bengali, combined with an adjacent tea estate and renamed Happy Valley. Today the estate is spread over 440 acres and the bushes in the tea garden are all a minimum of 80 years old.

We were given a guided tour of the entire tea production process, starting in a large hall where plucked teas were kept on elevated wooden beds for a process known as Withering where the moisture content in the leaves is reduced.

The leaves are then rolled, fermented and dried . The resulting green, black and white teas all come from the same leaf.

As we were visiting in October we would not have expected to see the plucking and processing in progress, but we were shown a lot of recently-introduced machinery. Clearly since coming under new ownership and being reopened in 2008 there has been more investment and modernisation: Happy Valley tea is on the shelves of Harrods in London. But when asked about the effect of this on the numbers needed to work on the plantation, the estate guide was obviously flustered and became very reluctant to give us any numbers. Our local guide was so angered by the false impression of plantation wages that we had been given he set us straight as soon as we were outside. It sounded an all-too-familiar story of employers reneging on long-standing committments to augment extremely low wages by providing education and health services, seemingly with impunity.

The tour over, we climbed through the estate .....

...... to see houses clinging precariously to the mountain side.

Tibetan Refugee Self Help Centre:

Back in the bus and some more spectacular views on our way down. Next stop a centre built in 1959 initially to provide emergency relief to Tibetan refugees who followed the Dalai Lama and escaped from Tibet. 

Many of the original refugees had been farmers in Tibet but the Indian government was not able to give them land so it was decided to retrain them in skills that would enable them to be self-sustaining and thus retain some degree of independence, as well as offering the prospect of an improved life. As a result many of the next well-educated generation left to make new lives abroad and  it is largely the elderly and single women who remain.
The centre now comprises a home for the aged, 

a school, an orphanage, a clinic, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery and craft workshops producing high quality carpets, many of which sell in the UK ...

 woollen items ....

A group of elderly women recycling used wool

and exquisite wood carving.

Tea Tasting:

Our visit to Happy Valley had not been an unqualified success not least as the tea-tasting session promised had been little more than a few spoonfuls of different teas, not even offered in a cup, before we were whisked off to the shop. Rudy and our local guide had clearly been annoyed by this so, later in the afternoon, they took us on an unscheduled walk to the Mall (locally known as the Chowastra, chow meaning 'four' and rastra meaning 'roads'), the town centre with benches and old and heritage shops where tourists and locals come to relax.

Here we visited one of the many tea shops offering tastings in much more convivial surroundings, 5 cups of hot, different grades of Darjeeling and with no pressure either to buy or to move along quickly. 

Steve enjoyed his cuppas.