We arrive in Darjeeling at 15h30. Bishop Stephen invites us for a drink at his place. There is even a sign at the front gate with The Bishop’s House written on it! He lives in a large British style house on a hill along with other Jesuit fathers and priests. When some of them see us there they look pretty bewildered. I imagine they do not have many women visitors… After a drink we say good-bye and are kindly escorted to the hotel we have reserved by a Nepali boy. The Bishop wants to make sure we don’t get lost.
Our hotel is located on Chow Rasta or the main place of Darjeeling. Hotel Bellevue is run by a Tibetan family and is just what we are looking for. Our room is located on the top floor and has a view in the back on a small garden. In front of the rooms in the hallway you can see onto Chow Rasta and on a clear day see the 8586 m high Kanchenjunga (the 3rd highest mountain of the world after the Everest and K2).
Darjeeling is located at 2134 m and we can feel the difference in temperature! It must be close to freezing in the evening. We wear everything we have as soon as the sun goes down which means hat, gloves, scarf, jacket, long sleeve t-shirt, sweater, socks, warm shoes and an extra blanket over everything like the Indians do to keep us warm.
Darjeeling has a totally different feel to it compared to other Indian cities we have visited so far. I think it has to do with being located in the hills and the people being a mix of Nepali and Tibetans. It is also alot calmer and people are in general very soft spoken and very polite. Most people speak Nepali and or Bengali here. I learn some Tibetan at our hotel like «to ti che» which means thank you. It makes me think of my time in Dharamsala 4 years back.
Darjeeling is also called the Queen of the Hills and was once a beloved hill station of the British officers when it got too hot in the plains। The first evening we go for a walk at the market place and have dinner at Glennary’s (an an old British restaurant) that serves Indian as well as continental food. We choose the table near the. Unfortunately I have gotten a cold and do not have much appetite. It must be from the train ride from Kolkatta to NJP or the 1st night at the Ashram when I forgot to close the windows… As we go back to our room we ask the young Nepali boy of the hotel that we would have the stove lit in our room. Yes, we have a wooden stove! Just perfect, the room has lots of wood and makes us feel like we are in a Swiss chalet. He brings up a big pile of wood and starts breaking it into small pieces to fit in the stove. He stays for a whilte to make sure the fire has begun well before leaving. The room heats up in no time, a wonderful way to end our 1st evening.
