Chillin' in Darjeeling

Trip Start Oct 01, 2005
1
7
137
Trip End Sep 20, 2006


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Thursday, October 6, 2005

In a nutshell: We have spent the last couple of days mooching around Darjeeling and recovering from the Calcutta Expreience! We booked a 7-day trek (with Trek Mate) leaving tomorrow (Saturday) which goes to the Singalila Ridge where we should get a good view of the Khangchendzonga Panorama and hopefully Everest too! We've met some interesting people, eaten some great food, AND had a cup of tea! (yes, Anne actually drank a cup of tea and liked it!)
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Darjeeling is such a different place to Calcutta, it has a very different atmosphere. It's position right at the north east of India (it's in the state of West Bengal) means that several cultures meet here. For example, the bloke we booked our trek with has 2 Tibetan parents, he was born and brought up in Darjeeling so describes himself as an Indian national, he speaks Tibetan, Hindi and English and also Nepalese which is apparently the first language of people from Darjeeling!

We visited the Bhutia Busty Gompa (Buddhist monastery) which houses the original copy of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Our guide told us it dated from 1077, it's in lots of seperate chapters all wrapped up in coloured cloth but one was open that we were able to look at. The monastery has some interesting murals that really show the blending of Indian-style art with Chinese/Tibetan. We also went up to Observatory Hill where there's a Hindu/Buddhist thing going on, it looked very pretty with all the prayer flags fluttering in the wind.

There are the remnants of British colonial India here, bizarrely there are some parts of Darjeeling which reminded us of Lynmouth in Devon!

The weather is unfortunately unseasonally cloudy - the monsoon finished late this year, but the locals don't really know what's going on with this cloud! One moment it's clear as anything, the next a thick mist has swept in and obliterated any views. We have only seen snow-capped Khangchendzonga once, though it looks like things are clearing up so we have high hopes for the views on our trek.
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Comments

rachelle
rachelle on Oct 7, 2005 at 05:11AM

Oh - the first to post a message!!!!
Glad that you're having a better time now....and the trek sounds FAB! You're going to see Everest this weekend, I'm going to see Michael W Smith! Compare and contrast!

Much love
Rach. xxx

PS - do I really look like I do in the awful picture?!!!

pjb
pjb on Oct 11, 2005 at 09:03AM

Sounds great guys
Hi guys

Thanks for your regular updates. Great to read your latest and keep up to date.

Will pray for saftey as you go.

much love

Peter

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