We want Gorkhaland!

We arrived to Darjeeling after parting ways with Brendan and John. It was super sad to say goodbye and completely unsatisfactory not making it to the end of the race! But the time had come for us to move on and move up (3000 meters up!) to the mountainous town of Darjeeling. The drive up was steep, we climbed up from 150 mt to 3000 mts in a mere 80 kilometers! We arrived at the jeep drop off and climbed up to the top of town to our hotel, Tower View. It was cheap and cheerful, in other wards, a freezing, cement room with friendly owners and a hot shower. It could be worse, right? Yes, as the sun went down, so did the temperature. We managed to find a warm pub for the evening, but as we headed back to our room, we realized we did not have nearly enough warm clothes to stay long in Darjeeling...especially when we realized our room was no warmer than outside! We bundled under blankets and into our sleeping bags, but still neither of us slept much that night.

We got up early and headed out down the hill into town feeling slightly groggy, grumpy and still cold. However, when we turned the corner, the street opened up and we were stopped in our tracks by the view. The mountains, the Himalayans, are grandeur, nothing like them, stunning. While not Everest, you can get a clear view of the third highest mountain in the world, Kanchenjunga. It definitely made the cold, sleepless night worth it.
We spent the next few days in Darjeeling enjoying not only the mountains but also the unique culture of Darjeeling.
A few highlights were-

• -Tibetan Refuge Center. The refuge center was established by Tibetans who fled to India in 1959. The center continues to support the Tibetan population with weaving factories that are open to the public. It was super interesting to learn about the history and current events regarding Tibet and see how they have maintained their culture, language, and religion while living in India and Nepal. While we were at the center, we also found their nursery where we ended up staying for a while just playing with the little ones! They were so cute, so bundled up in their jumpers and blankets they could hardly move!

• -Tiger Hill, a viewpoint where everyone goes to watch the sunrise over the mountains. We didnt get to see Everest, but it was still the Himalayas in all their splendor, if you could see them over all the Indian tourists! It was super crowded! We participated in lots of 'group pictures' with local tourists, some must have had at least 50 pictures with us and our group in them.

• -Happy Valley Tea Estate. Darjeeling is known for their tea plantations and this is one of the largest in the area. Although it was off season for picking and the plantation was closed for the day, we ran into a man that had worked there his whole life and gave us a private tour. He took us through the process of picking, processing, and brewing the tea leaves. We then sat in his living room with him and his father sampling the tea. It was cool to sit in his home and get to chat with him a bit about his life.

• -Observatory Hill. A place where you can enjoy the view and experience the temple of Mahakala, some manifestation of Shiva. This temple is sacred to both Hindus and Buddhists. The place is supposedly protected by the multitude of prayer flags and the army of monkeys that make their home there. The multicolored prayer flags make it incredibly beautiful and surreal, especially with the mountains hanging in the ski behind them. The monkeys, not so beautiful, and keep you on your toes as they are known to be aggressive!

• -The Lloyd Botanical Gardens

• -Cinnamon Coffee, Momos, Tibetan bread and soup, Joeys pub

We got to enjoy so many things in Darjeeling, as we ended up being there for 6 nights! That is 4 nights longer than we intended to stay. But, we learned that traveling in India is more difficult than anywhere else! The trains have been booked, up to a week ahead, so we have had to do some planning in advance. When we figured that out, we ended up buying a ticket to a city close to Varanasi, our next destination, but later found out that city was the capital of the most dangerous district in India. It made me super nervous that we would have to get off there and find a local train to Varanasi. But, in some way we were protected and never made it on that train because Ghorkaland called a strike in Darjeeling. That meant that everything that had anything to do with tourists shut down. The first night of the strike, we managed to find a very small restaurant that was feeding tourists and it turned out to be super fun! Everyone said the strike would still be on the next day, but that we could go to the police and they would get us to the train station (which was back in Siliguri).

The next morning, we got up early, rang our travel agent, went to the police station, the traffic police, all of who said it was possible to get out but they couldn't help us. We ran around town for 3 hours trying desperately not to miss our train, but in the end we were told you had to have permission from the political party who called the strike to be escorted out. We do know people who made it out that day, but it took them all day and they were stopped the whole way down to Siliguri by road blocks put up by the strike.

The Ghorkaland area is part of the large district of West Bengal, even though Ghorkaland is distinctly different in culture, language, dress and beliefs. Most of the inhabitants are originally Nepali or Tibetan. Since 1968, the Gorkha National Liberation Front's has maintained a semi autonomous government within West Bengal, but tension persists between the two governing parties and even today, well, last week, they are well known to call badhs (strikes).
It was very impressive to see how united the people became during the strike. And although inconvenient, the people remained friendly and helpful, making sure we didnt starve! The owner of our hotel served us homemade soup the second day because there were no restaurants open anywhere. It was cool to be a part of their history and their fight for freedom. Just another example of TII, this is india.