The town of Darjeeling is a gem tucked away in India filled with good people, beautiful mountain sights, monkeys, momos and of course tea. After my adventure here I found many things to do in this little area that many say is not really Inida.
One of the highlights of the stay was waking up at 3:00 in the morning to find my way by jeep to "Tiger Hill", where mother nature herself is famous for putting on a out of this world performance! I stepped outside my guesthouse and soon crossed paths with another "TIger Hill" show goer (Joe from Scotland) and we made our way down to the hills (Think san fransisco) jeep stand to meet another girl from the USA (Chrissy) and take the trip up. The whole event is a big deal as everybody piles in the jeeps and drives off into darkness for about a half hour. When you arrive it kind of feels like a concert. Lots of cars, lots of lined up traffic, lots of people, and lots of vendors selling tea-ok that part is a little different. You have to choose which accomadation and venue you want to see the show: 40 ruppees ($.90) gets you top floor of a glassed in building with tea and bisquits, 30 ruppees gets you middle level and tea - no bisquiets, and for the late arrivels and penny pinchers they get to be right out in the cold on a patch of grass for 20 ruppees. We went the middle path - the top was sold out!
WHen we got up to the room there were tons of Indian tourist sitting in chairs looking out the window watching the sky change moment to moment with oranges, reds, and yellows as the mountians claim there space in the sky with black, blue, and grey pressence. It was amazing like a living painting and quite an event but little did they know we had the best seat in the house. As we looked out the back windows and put our backs to the Indian tourist we watched as mother earth announced some of the largest peaks in the world include Mt. Everest herself. We felt blessed as she winked at us first thing in the morning and Krissy and I climbed out on the ledge, watched the moutnians glow, and became another tourist spectacle for the audience. The warm tea was great, the company was perfect, and by the end of the day I moved in with Krissy and shared the next several days with a fellow capicorn....whose birthday is just the day after mine!!!
More to come...and thanks for all your concerned emails. i am safe and well and will not be going to a city for a couple more weeks. thinking happy thoughts and making happy things happen:)
