The journey to Darjeeling, home to some of the world's finest tea plantations, took nine hours by car, airplane, bus, taxi, and jeep, with the last kilometer or so on foot. I passed through rolling farmlands that led deep into massive jungles with huge vines and giant trees and finally rose up into the foot hills of the Himalayas... the front row seats to the most magnificent show on earth.
The small town of Darjeeling is like something straight out of a fantasy. All of the precariously perched buildings cascade down incredibly steep slopes covered in lush greenery. They're connected by thousands of winding steps that lead up up up (Doctor Suess would be proud). The people are a mix of cultures including Tibetan, Mongolian, Bhutanese, Bangladeshi, as well as Indian. There are Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, and Muslims all living amongst each other and there are large, mountain-hardy smiles everywhere you turn. When planning to walk to a particular site or temple the distances are deceiving. You have to take into account the elevation gain and loss along the way which basically doubles your distance.
Darjeeling sits squarely facing four of the five highest peaks in the world, each one being lit by the early morning sunrise in slow succession. The mountains stand like the dissonant tones of a symphony before the conductor taps his wand and brings the whole world to attention in a moment of sacred silence. Every morning hundreds of people take jeeps up to a point in the mountains called Tiger Hill which is supposed to provide one of the best views of the nearby peaks. My driver told me that I needed to wake at 3:45am in order to get to the hill in time for the sunrise.
The next morning was quite the spectacle. Hundreds of jeeps racing towards the hill, passing each other on the curving bends in the road as it wound higher and higher. The beams of our headlights bounced and cut through the darkness over the rough roads chasing the red taillights in front of us. "What's the rush?" I thought as we honked and zoomed past another jeep full of affluent Indian tourists. "It's 4am. The sun doesn't rise for another hour and a half and it's only 10 more kilometers to the view point".
In the next few minutes I found out what the rush was. Once we made the final turn we reached a traffic jam... in the dark!!! There were hundreds of jeeps stopped in the road and thousands of people all walking among the traffic to the top of the hill. Once I reached the top it was like being at a huge outdoor concert. People were crammed in tight and pushing and shoving there way into position. It was nothing like what I had pictured. I thought I was going to experience a peaceful sunrise in relative silence with time to drink in the significance of the moment. Instead it was like being at a circus. Families posed together for cellphone camera portraits. Relatives yelled across the crowd at other relatives to get a better spot. And all of this for what? A thick bank of clouds covering everything within site with the exception of only the nearest trees. I waited it out until well after sunrise hoping to get the shot of a lifetime and nothing... only clouds and crowds.
Even though the trip to get a shot of the mountains at sunrise was a bust, I did get some amazing photos of the monasteries along the way back. My driver, Kumar, took me through his small town named Ghoom which was an incredible slice of village life. I was able to see a temple full of about 300 young monks all chanting their morning prayers. As one of them slipped out a side pathway to fetch something for one of the elders, I walked around the side and caught his attention. With his permission I was able to get a single quick shot... one of my favorites so far.
The view from the window of my room at the Hotel Dekeling looked out on all of Darjeeling. It was in the attic of an old building high above the streets below. And when I say high, I mean very high... it was 112 steps to get up to my room. The winding staircase passed two restaurants and another hotel on the way up. Finally it passed the lobby of my hotel, then the kitchen above the lobby. And as the staircase climbed it got narrower and narrower. It continued up and passed the living quarters of the employees before finally reaching my room at the very top. I loved having the crow's nest but it had it's drawbacks. It had a corrugated tin roof and the young girls who did the laundry each day had a habit of spreading it out to dry in the morning sun right on my rooftop. Let me tell you, it's nearly impossible to be quiet while walking on a tin roof, especially in the early morning before the sounds of the day start to assault your senses. All in all though, it was a wonderful place to stay.
