Thursday, May 26th: Exploring Darjeeling

Notes from the traveling desk of Rita Meek

Note from David: Hard to believe, but I don't have any photos from today, so this will be a text-heavy post!

As usual, Jim and I woke up multiple times during the night and stayed up for good at about 5 am. Soon thereafter a monk was walking down the street, ringing his gong. Another unusual start to what will undoubtedly be an amazing day!

We had breakfast with David and Jo in their room which looks out on the street scene in Darjeeling.We were all fascinated by the number of children who were beautifully dressed in uniforms, obviously going to one of a variety of schools. We saw the people putting up their stands and arranging their goods for the day. Also, foreigners strolled by wearing ‘interesting’ clothes (on Friday Jo and I saw a gentleman wearing Coca-Cola pants). We set off for the zoo, and along the way, my stomach began to give signs and signals that it was very unhappy. We found out that the zoo was closed on Thursday, so we decided to head off to the Happy Valley tea factory. Along the way, I got to visit the Mayfair Hotel since we thought that was the most likely establishment that would have an American-style bathroom. We walked down the slope to the Happy Valley tea plantation after a fairly long meander, passing a number of older women picking tea leaves.

At the factory entrance we were greeted by a guide. As opposed to the tea tour the day before, this one did not allow any photographs of the inside of the factory. We were taken from room-to-room, and one of the things that I thought was particularly interesting was that the workers are divided into three groups: around 18 - ?, over 50, and inbetween. The oldest group was assigned areas to pick which were the closest to the factory; the youngest were given areas farthest from the factory, and the middle were inbetween. It seemed like the group worked as a team, so that the weight in kg they were supposed to pick was significantly more than anyone could pick on their own. We went into a special building where we met a woman who proceeded to give us a lesson in how to tell the different qualities of tea by blowing on the tea in your hand to release the aroma. She also gave us a cup of the fanciest tea they produce at Happy Valley. The Happy Valley tea is sold only by Harrod’s. By the time we were done with this adventure and bought our obligatory package of the fanciest tea, we headed back by taxi because I was very sick and Jo was very tired. I then went to bed for the rest of the day. David and Jo had a lunch which was “unusual” and then took a nap. Jim went out for an explore and went around Observatory Hill, went to a monastery below Darjeeling. Dinner at a bakery/restaurant and then to bed.