India, where to begin? India was an assault on all of our senses. It has been a place I’ve wanted to visit since reading “A Fine Balance”; it was the one place I wouldn’t take off the list for this trip.  Friends, colleagues, bloggers and the news all warned of the intensity of this country and to be honest it made us nervous about our month here. My parents were worried too, about the whole trip, but particularly India and I know in the beginning Mark felt the same way. So, because it wasn’t coming off the list there were compromises that had to be made (which in the end I’m soooo happy we did).

News reports often tell of rape and poor treatment of women, poverty and crime, but, more and more as we discover on this trip, that like at home, if it bleeds, it leads. This of course doesn’t give one the best first impression of a place. The news isn’t the best source when learning about a place. Our experience in India was wonderful. There wasn’t one moment when we felt unsafe. We walked in markets at night, talked to locals on the streets, took two overnight trains and stayed in the heart of Old Delhi where we walked in the dark to and from dinner. India is a country with people who always have a smile and just want a good life for their families like anyone else. But, I think our impression of India would have been very different if we had tried to do everything on our own for the first time.

The compromise I made to make everyone feel ok about us spending a month in India was to not organize and do everything ourselves.  We needed to trust someone more experienced to arrange safe places to stay and methods of transportation. I REALLY did not want to do a packaged group tour on a bus and be herded around like cattle and staying within budget was a must. In the end, I found a small company based out of Delhi that I thought could give us what we wanted. After a month of emails back and forth we had come up with an itinerary that was the perfect amount of independent travel and safety. So, for $155CAD/day we had an educated professional English speaking driver, a new Toyota Innova (with A/C – a BIG MUST) and all hotels and breakfast included. There were lots of other things included as well, I’ll add a list at the end of the post. The driver took us to all the places we wanted to see, explained how to get in, suggested at what monuments we may want to have a guide inside to explain a little more about the place (these were included in the price as well) and how much we should pay (tuk tuks, tips etc.). Then he left us on our own to explore at our own pace. This was exactly what we needed.

That being said, we started out our first week completely on our own. But, we felt okay about this because we were heading to Darjeeling which is in the north-eastern part of India and less populated than the rest. Navigating our way through that week alone we felt we could handle. We flew from Kathmandu to Bagdogra (the closest airport to Darjeeling), but on the way stopped in Kolkata for 24 hours (this is the way to get a cheap flight!!). We knew we wouldn’t have time to see anything there so we booked a place we could hang out in a bit that was fairly close to the airport. I had some Expedia points to use and we kinda splurged a bit on the Westin Kolkata. Gorgeous hotel, probably the nicest hotel I’ve ever stayed in. The food in the restaurant was “the best culinary experience” of Mark’s life. The room was beautiful, the bed was like a dream, the bathroom was huge and there was a bigger than Olympic sized swimming pool outside on the 10^th floor. Needless to say, we had a great 24-hour layover.

In Bagdogra we had a car waiting to take us to Darjeeling (about 3 hours away). Our homestay hosts, Dipak and Nirmala were great resources for what to see and do while in Darjeeling. Dipak and I had messaged back and forth a bit before we arrived and he helped us arrange transportation from the airport.

In the drive from the airport to the town we gained almost 2 km of elevation. It was cold when we arrived that evening. Also, buildings in Darjeeling don’t have central heating, so electric blankets at night were our best friends.

Darjeeling was the place the British came to escape the heat of the summers when they occupied India. The elevation of this hill station made for a nice climate. There were two reasons we wanted to visit Darjeeling: to see Kanchenjunga (the third largest mountain in the world) and to learn about how tea is made (Darjeeling is famous for its tea).

On our first day Dipak gave us directions to the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute and the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park, both were only a 20-minute walk away from our place. The mountaineering place had a great display showing the historical timeline and evolution of mountain expeditions. Grace tried the rock climbing wall and we stopped to watch a troop of monkeys playing in the trees above us.

The zoo was small and had some mountain animals that we’d never seen before. The Red Panda was definitely a highlight. But the most interesting part of the zoo was the fact that we seemed to be the most photographed creatures. We were swarmed by people asking to have their photo taken with us. Most of the other tourists were from India and we were the minority (especially the girls, there aren’t many children travelling around). We thought it was funny that people would send photos to their friends saying “look what I saw at the zoo today” and there would be no animals, just these four random Canadians in their picture.

Our accommodation was a homestay (Himshikha Homestay), which means we weren’t in a hotel, but in someone’s home. In our case, we had an entire floor of the building and a separate entrance. There was a large balcony overlooking the valley that got sun most of the day. Darjeeling is built on the side of a mountain and our place was near the top; the view was amazing. We had breakfast upstairs with Dipak and Nirmala every day and after our first meal with them we decided to have dinner there every day too! The food was great and so was the company.

After our first full day, Mark started to run a high fever and had a massive headache. This lasted for two days and it wasn’t until the fourth day that he was feeling back to normal. The girls and I walked around the town and did some school work while he was down and out, we didn’t want him to miss out on anything. Our original plan was to move to a tea estate after the fourth day, but opted to stay where we were the whole time to make sure Mark was better. We were still able to tour a tea estate that was right below the homestay. Dipak and Nirmala were so helpful and understanding, I’m sure they were a factor in Mark’s speedy recovery.

Once Mark had kicked the virus we went for a ride on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Toy Train; it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site (the entire line and the locomotives). The line runs from the plains up to Darjeeling, but we only went on the short ride from Darjeeling to Ghum. It was built in the late 1800’s and was used to carry people and freight up the mountain. It’s a tiny steam train on a narrow-gauge track. The ride itself follows the same road we drove in on for most of the journey, but does pass through the Batista Loop which was added to help with the steepness. We got out and took in the view from this higher point. This was the first day we caught a glimpse of Kanchenjunga (the clouds were finally clearing).

Most days we ate lunch in a place called Glenary’s (it’s over 100 years old) or at the Himilayan Java Café (awesome coffee and smoothies). Darjeeling is a popular destination so there is no shortage of good places to eat.

Dipak kept an eye on the weather for us and on the clearest morning there was a knock on the door, it was time to see Kanchenjunga with the morning sun shining on it. We walked with Dipak to the park above his house at the top of the hill. As we took the last steps up and around the corner we were rewarded with a grand view. We were in a beautiful park with the clearest view of the mountain range.

The weather stayed clear all day so we took advantage and went to the Peace Pagoda (the sister to the one we saw in Pokhara, designed by the same person. There are 20 of them in the world). Once again we felt like maybe we were a bigger attraction and posed for so many photos.

The weather for rest of our week in Darjeeling was clear and sunny. It almost seemed like when Mark got better, the weather cleared. This was great luck because we were able to visit the tea farm, botanical gardens, Mahakal Temple and Observatory Hill.

Dipak and Nirmala made our week memorable. They were so generous and caring. There’s not a better place to stay in Darjeeling for great hospitality. We finished off our week with them by having my birthday dinner at Glenary’s. Dipak even arranged to have the live musician dedicate a song to me (“What a Wonderful World”) and we had birthday cake!!

Early the next morning our car picked us up and took us back down the mountain to catch our flight to New Delhi. Our time in northern India didn’t go exactly as planned, but sometimes that makes for the best experience. We met new people who we now call friends and Mark left Darjeeling healthy; for that we are thankful.

To be continued……