“A beautiful day shone before us with clear views across to snowy peaks…”  Darjeeling, India

This morning we awoke to more delights! The breakfast was fantastic and the chef made it his priority to search me out at breakfast to tell me all the options I had to eat in addition to the normal omelettes and boiled eggs. I sampled Idli served with a coconut and tomato chutney and then the best treat for me Dosa (Indian pancake made from rice and lentils). Choosing a plain Dosa I ate it the untraditional way with honey instead of chutneys – repeating the ritual everyday for breakfast.

Darjeeling is known for its unpredictable weather patterns! We were therefore pleasantly surprised that that the mist from the day before had disappeared. A beautiful day shone before us with clear views across to the snow covered peaks of the great Himalaya and Kangchenjunga – the highest mountain peak in India.

The day continued to entertain and surprise us with every turn. We left the normality of our hotel and descended to the streets below, being careful to walk without getting knocked over by the enthusiastically speedy drivers. It is here in the town you realise just what a physically hard life the people endure in this hilltop town. You often see women and men young and old carrying on their backs heavy loads – it could be gas bottles, food, mountains of luggage – up the steep roads.

I must admit it was overwhelming to take in all the noise of the cars hooting, people talking or arguing over who needs to move first to free up the traffic jam. It is not the cleanest of places and the air was permeated with the smells from the rubbish just dumped in the streets in piles and the pungent smell of tar making. BUT what I loved about the town was how colourful it was! Colour was all around you from the brightly painted houses to the flowering pot plants on their window sills and balconies to the prayer flags blowing in the wind. The taxi’s decorated their cars inside with colourful seats and dashboards, some of the locals wore amazingly colourful traditional dress and even the fresh vegetable stores with their vibrant green red and orange produce brought bright hues and freshness to the streets.

We were lucky to have in our party a local who was a great negotiator and managed to secure a taxi for the day! The first stop was the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoo and the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI). On entering the zoo, we were entertained by the Darjeeling tea ladies and daughters in national dress – only to discover that you could pay to dress up in traditional dress and we were essentially photographing other tourists – whoops! The zoo on a whole was rather unimpressive but we were privileged to see a Bengal tiger move from his resting place and give us a small parade. For me I found the HMI much more interesting as it looks back in history to the attempts made to climb Everest giving special attention to Tenzing Norgay (a Sherpa who conquered Mt Everest with Sir Edmund Hillary). I would say that you would be more confident and comfortable climbing now with all the new equipment available than in the earlier days – making their conquest even more impressive.

From here we went to the Tibetan Refugee Self Help Centre situated on a hill overlooking impressive views of the tea plantations. The centre was built nearly 50 years ago with just four workers and is now home to over 650 refugees. The site that the centre is built on holds significant importance to the Tibetan people as it is on the same location that Dalai Lama spent his exile in India. Our visit over the weekend meant that it was a quiet place. We were fortunate enough to be there when the carpet workshop was open and watch as the carpet workers weaved their magic into the beautiful handcrafted Tibetan carpets.

Winding our way along the hillside are next destination on this busy day was the Happy Valley Tea Estate – which is situated at the highest altitude in the world for a tea garden. Although the first pickings had not begun yet on the estate, the tour guide was very informative about their traditional tea making process, giving us a number of teas to try at the end. It was interesting to find out that it is the mist common on these hills that gives Darjeeling tea its famous aroma!

It was back in the car for a bumpy and sometimes hair-raising ride back into the centre of Darjeeling as we sped up little roads and turned tight corners – we made it back in time for a late lunch before it was off to take our seats on the famous ‘Toy Train’.

Accommodation: Sinclairs Darjeeling Hotel was clean and functional.  The restaurant was particular good for evening dinners with lots of yummy choices for breakfast.  WiFi intermittent and you need a separate code for each device every day.