We woke to a very pleasant view of the Darjeeling hills and vast tea plantations. The temperature is now a lot cooler than Kolkata's. As we walked to our first place of interest we stopped off for momos, which are delicious steamed dumplings.
First stop on our day's adventure was the zoo, not the animals but this is where the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute is based. We did a tour of the exhibits, read the palques on the walls and looked at the ancient mountaineering equipment. Our ticket includes a trip to the zoo, so before we left we did pay a visit to one animal's enclosure.
The chance of seeing a tiger in the wild is close to impossible so we visited the royal Bengal tiger enclosure to catch a glimpse. What a beautiful majestic animal stood before us. We don't know the individual history of the tiger that we saw but it seemed very sad that he wasn't out roaming the wilds of West Bengal ... where he belonged.
Next stop was a visit to the Happy Valley tea plantation. We walked between the tea bushes for a while and eventually the path led us through little villages and back onto the main streets of Darjeeling. Here we spent our time searching for evidence of the British hill station. We discovered many old colonial buildings in disrepair but also some beautiful restored hotels.
We saw the gymkhana club, St Andrew's church and the Planters club. The most impressive building was the Elgin Hotel, which looked so elegant and 'British'!
We walked to observatory hill to catch a glimpse of the Himalayas but cloud obscured our view of the world's third tallest mountain, Kanchenjunga. However, we got to visit the beautiful Mahakal temple and it's cave temple at the top of the hill. It is an interesting place where Hindu priests and Buddhist monks harmoniously coexist. Shrines to Hindu gods with Buddhist prayer flags fluttering in the background.
We filled up with a double portion of rice and daal before sinking a hot chai and enjoying a Swiss pastry. The rain then told us it was time to put on our waterproof jackets and head home. It rained hard and a very kind man invited us into his home to take shelter whilst the rain eased. How kind!
First stop on our day's adventure was the zoo, not the animals but this is where the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute is based. We did a tour of the exhibits, read the palques on the walls and looked at the ancient mountaineering equipment. Our ticket includes a trip to the zoo, so before we left we did pay a visit to one animal's enclosure.
The chance of seeing a tiger in the wild is close to impossible so we visited the royal Bengal tiger enclosure to catch a glimpse. What a beautiful majestic animal stood before us. We don't know the individual history of the tiger that we saw but it seemed very sad that he wasn't out roaming the wilds of West Bengal ... where he belonged.
Next stop was a visit to the Happy Valley tea plantation. We walked between the tea bushes for a while and eventually the path led us through little villages and back onto the main streets of Darjeeling. Here we spent our time searching for evidence of the British hill station. We discovered many old colonial buildings in disrepair but also some beautiful restored hotels.
We saw the gymkhana club, St Andrew's church and the Planters club. The most impressive building was the Elgin Hotel, which looked so elegant and 'British'!
We walked to observatory hill to catch a glimpse of the Himalayas but cloud obscured our view of the world's third tallest mountain, Kanchenjunga. However, we got to visit the beautiful Mahakal temple and it's cave temple at the top of the hill. It is an interesting place where Hindu priests and Buddhist monks harmoniously coexist. Shrines to Hindu gods with Buddhist prayer flags fluttering in the background.
We filled up with a double portion of rice and daal before sinking a hot chai and enjoying a Swiss pastry. The rain then told us it was time to put on our waterproof jackets and head home. It rained hard and a very kind man invited us into his home to take shelter whilst the rain eased. How kind!