A few days away from Koraput

I'm very lucky to have been on a wonderful holiday in Darjeeling.  It is a beautiful and fascinating place, a mix of Nepali, Indian, Tibetan, Gorkha, British and other cultures with Buddhist, Hindu and Christian followers.  The town is spread across steep hillsides with clear evidence of it's colonial past and is surrounded by tea plantations.  The gradient of the roads with their narrow, winding course must make things a bit tricky especially during monsoon or winter ice and snow. Porters carry huge loads up the hills, reaching places impossible for road vehicles.  All sorts of ingenious solutions seem to be found to deal with the difficulties of getting big, heavy kit up the mountainside and I was particularly taken with the sight of a tractor-powered road roller.  Although it is currently in the state of West Bengal it may not have much in common with cities like Kolkata.  There has been a drive for the Darjeeling area, along with several other areas in this part of North East India to split away from the current political boundaries and become a separate state, Gorkhaland http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorkhaland.  

We had decided to treat ourselves to a really nice holiday in a good hotel as it was our 30th wedding anniversary. In the past, the majority our holidays have been camping or self-catering but this time we decided to treat ourselves.  It was particularly luxurious for me after spending months in the rural town of Koraput which has limited choice of foods and for me, everything has to be done by hand. The luxury of showers with hot water, a laundry service and all our meals (including afternoon tea with scones and cream) was bliss. I stayed briefly in a hotel in Delhi last week which had a pair of scales in the bathroom. I knew I had lost a lot of weight during the first 3-4 months - or 'reduced' as one of my colleagues keeps telling me but hadn't weighed myself since I left the UK last July.  I have put on a little weight in the last couple of months and I was surprised to find that I'm 12kg lighter than before I came to India but have been working hard on changing that by stuffing myself with excellent food on holiday and trying out lots of lovely Darjeeling teas.

The first few days in Darjeeling we were rewarded with clear days and good views of some of the Himalayan peaks.  We got up early one morning to go to Tiger Hill to watch the sun rise and enjoyed the sight of the sunlight on Kanchenjunga turning the snow first to dark red, gradually turning brighter then gold before glowing white when the sun was fully risen. Great start to the day. I think we caught a glimpse of Everest but am not entirely sure.

The Himalayan Darjeeling Railway or Toy Train just had to be tried http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darjeeling_Himalayan_Railway.  We had great fun while the narrow guage steam train chugged it's way up impossibly steep gradients, causing chaos among the cars with road and track following the same route up the hills, criss-crossing each other numerous times.  The track zigzags backwards and forwards and loops round to gain height and I got covered in soot while I leant out of the window taking photos.  I could turn into a train nerd traveling on trains like that.  Being in Darjeeling we did of course have to visit to a tea plantation, followed by a cup of what we were assured is the best tea in the world.  It was very good tea.