Didn’t Get To See The Mountains
April 26th, 2006 | Published in dispatch | 7 Comments
Corn roasting over open fires, more British-than-the-British high teas, beautiful weather that makes you just want to walk around the Chowrasta squashed among the school children of St Paul’s and Loreto Convent… Darjeeling is that place I can return to year after year. It’s been cloudy and foggy all week since we got here; views of Kanchenjunga just aren’t the same as they were when I was last here. This morning the owner of the hotel knocked on my door (he’d adopted Z. as his godchild; he served in the army in Singapore before independence and can still speak Malay better than I can): “You can see the mountains this morning! You can see the mountains this morning!”
I ambled over to my windows, rubbed my eyes, and fell asleep again before I saw the mountains. That’s an excuse to be back again soon, I guess.
There’s something about Darjeeling. It’s the stunning location of the town, set where it is - in the mountains, facing Kanchenjunga on one side, Sikkim on another. Nepal and Bhutan on yet another. The beauty of another era; the ghosts of the Raj, of the British, still lingering. It’s the awesome-ness of being here in the place Jan Morris claims so many travel writers overwrite, yet “Darjeeling cuts itself down to size”: it is the compact walk-everywhere town set around the Chowrasta and hanging off ridges, the horses and ponies trudging around The Mall, tea for breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper, and momos, thukpa and chowmein everywhere you look.
I’ve had to cancel Sikkim from our plans due to the unforeseen illnesses - the British came to Darjeeling to recover from their illnesses, we came here to get sick - if we want to get to Varanasi at all we need to get out in 2 days (trains are booked solid on many routes). That’s another excuse to come back, isn’t it?
April 26th, 2006 at 11:35 pm (#)
hey,
funny how things work… here I am at SMU and there you are in the town that i spent most my life in… i studied at st.paul’s school for twelve years… i suggest you visit the school, no matter how short your visit… it is a world by it’s own… and in tour words, “more british than the british.” haha..
would love to read a few more posts about darjeeling…
by the way, the other thing that is must-do in darjeeling is a visit to penangs for their momos.. it is a crime in darjeeling to not do so..
April 27th, 2006 at 12:16 am (#)
DOnt worry Adri !
i will take u to Gangtok next time !!
Get well soon, and enjoy the banarasi pan at Varanasi !
Put up a pic of that
cheers,
bir
April 27th, 2006 at 9:19 am (#)
It seem you are in serious sick? Hope you get well soon..
April 27th, 2006 at 1:08 pm (#)
cool - you can do Sikkim by itself sometime.. quite a beautiful place! and maybe by that time, u may have a plan for bhutan too :) varanasi sounds good tho’ i dont fancy it at this time of the year.. make sure u do the mountains to plains transition properly.. keep the blog updated.
April 27th, 2006 at 6:25 pm (#)
Hi Siddarth I’ve been to Penang’s already! Anil (also from SMU) made me swear to go here. The momos are GREAT… everything else is quite bland though.
The girls here (and guys) are SO HOT.
May 6th, 2006 at 2:34 am (#)
sikkim is beautiful !!!!! only 46km fr darjeeling,the famous buddhist Deer Park is there.I love sikkim !! its more tibetian than dharhamsala (forgot how to spell tat ) to me.
to Bir: go Gangtok n eat the lunch fr Golden heights n chocolate cake fr Grandaries .
they say ‘drink lasi in varansi’ ,i like tat place too.The holy place.whahaha
May 14th, 2006 at 12:02 am (#)
Reading your updates, in a overblast aircon bedroom, and looking at your Kanchenjunga google photos makes me think that you’re embarking on mountaineering! Good write up! Hope you’re well now!