Darjeeling, West Bengal, India
Darjeeling is one of the best known of India's hill stations, high elevation resort towns set up by the British during the colonial era to escape from the sweltering lowlands of India during the hottest parts of the year. Modern day Indian tourists follow in the footsteps of those Brits. Darjeeling is located on the top of a ridge at close to 7,000 feet with impressive views of the Himalayas, including Kanchenjunga - third highest mountain in the world on the India/Nepal border and once considered highest until better surveying showed Everest had that honor.
Unfortunately, the weather for most of our three chilly days in Darjeeling was cloudy and drizzly, so I got few good views of Kanchenjunga
. We took a guided walk around the area through tea plantations (highest altitude in India so apparently good stuff), the local zoo and Himalayan Mountaineering Institute's museum, a tea tasting at a local shop, carpet weaving demonstration at a Tibetan refugee center, and very English style high tea at the Windemere Hotel.
On our last morning we rose at 4:00 for a Jeep ride to Tiger Hill, an observation point a few miles outside of town. Getting up at 4:00 to watch a sunrise is never really my thing, but here we got to do it with about 500 of our closest Indian friends after navigating a traffic jam of SUVs that got them all their for a view that at a few times emerged from the fog. I'm quite over highly popular viewpoints and prefer my solitude.
Darjeeling - The Raj's Premier Indian Hill Town
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Darjeeling, West Bengal, India
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