Photos…Darjeeling, Amritsar and Dharamshala

1. Photo of Tim with crazy Nepali teens. They treated us to dal bhaat and pani puri enroute to the bordertown of Khakarvitta…food that gave me a good case of the runs unfortunately. They described themselves as being “punk” as they liked to dress in all black. Obviously not the kind of punks with mohawks, and weird piercing and tatoos that you get in the Western world but they were pretty rebellious for Nepal!

2. Steam-pulled toy train (Darjeeling Himalayan Railway) built in 1881. Tim and I took a joy-ride from Darjeeling to Ghum and back. This toy train was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1999. For some reason I imagined a toy train to be really small…like those trains that you see in carnivals or West Edmonton mall’s Galaxyland.

I also imagined this toy train to be somewhat of a romantic ride in the hills…but the steam whistle was piercing to the ears and it was hard to keep a conversation going. Furthermore, there was hardly a view of the hills and Himalayas because of the haze, and the local villagers we past by looked so poor, dirty and starving- it was a rather depressing scenery!

3. Tea tasting and Happy Valley tea estate. I never been to a tea tasting before and so it was quite an amusing experience. I really didn’t know what the protocol was; we assumed it was far different than wine tasting- i.e. looking for clarity, swirling and smelling the sample, and then slurping it up…etc.

The saleswoman would open up various tea canisters and offer them to me to take a whiff. They all smelled very nice but very similar. I then tried a few varieties- first, second and third flush tea leaves (ranks refer to the harvesting season- first flush is in spring; second is in summer; third is in autumn).

Supposedly you can taste the difference (see Wikipedia’s definition on Darjeeling tea: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darjeeling_tea), but I couldn’t really taste them!

1st Flush is harvested in mid-March following spring rains, it has a gentle, very light color , aroma and mild astringency.

2nd Flush is harvested in June and produces an amber, full bodied, muscatel flavored cup.

Autumnal Flush is harvested in the autumn after the rainy season, and has a somewhat less delicate flavour and less spicy tones.

Only the first 1 inch or so is plucked off the tea plant (Camelia sinensis). The youngest leaf (top leaf) is referred to as “tippy”- and is the most flavourful than all the rest (hence pricier too).

One interesting fact about Darjeeling tea that I learned on Wikipedia was that Darjeeling tea has been recently Indian “patented” because “adulteration and falsification were serious problems in the global tea trade; the amount of tea sold as Darjeeling worldwide every year exceeded 40,000 tonnes, while the annual tea production of Darjeeling itself is estimated at only 10,000 tonnes, including local consumption.” It’s good to know that I got AUTHENTIC Darjeeling tea from Darjeeling!

4. Golden Sikh temple in Amritsar (Punjab state). Beautiful work of architecture- marble buildings and floors, and the roof and much of the exterior of the Golden temple is actually made out of real gold (100kg)!

This temple is referred to as the holiest shrines in Sikh worship. Pilgrims come and bathe in the holy water; some even have gone as far as drinking the water that people bathe their feet in before entering into the temple (Ewwww! Yes, Tim and I truly witnessed this!)

The atmosphere that this temple exudes was quite powerful- you’re overcome by a feeling of peace (even though non-stop hymns were being blasted from the speakers) and everything seemed to move in slow motion. People were actually walking slow and patiently. No one was in a hurry. No one was hassling you to buy things. People hardly talked. And if they did, they weren’t yelling at eachother. It really didn’t feel like you were in India at all!

5. Dharamshala. Sorry no pics of the Dalai Lama. I really missed my opportunity!! We didn’t stay very long in this hill station but it was a fairly pleasant experience. The place was “relatively” clean, possibly from the Tibetan influence. Some places even had rubbish bins! Wow, such a simple concept can make a world of a difference to the aesthetics of a place.

Tim and I took a 2hour cooking class on how to make Tibetan momos. Delicious! Had a good conversation with our instructor Sanyje- we were surprised to learn that he and his family escaped from Tibet by crossing a Himalayan pass (6500m!!) into Nepal in DECEMBER (chinese troops leave the passes unattended in winter)…insane!! He had some real strong feelings against the Chinese so I didn’t tell him that I was actually part Chinese (he was lead to believe that I was Vietnamese b/c I told him that my family were Viet refugees)- LOL.

6. Polluted waterway. I don’t think I ever came across a waterbody that wasn’t full of garbage. In India, I had (and am still having) a real hard time getting accostumed to 2 main things (besides constantly getting the runs and/or being constipated):

1. Littering. I’ve always been taught not to litter. But in India/Nepal throwing your garbage out the window of the bus or train or street is common practice. Occasionally someone sweeps up the streets and the garbage is collected. Most often it is not.

2. Utilisez SANS papier de toilette. Yes, that’s right- using your left hand to do your washing for Number 2. I’ve quickly learned to eat with my right hand rather than with my left (I’m left handed)…and I’m using hand sanitizer like crazy!! In Tim’s words the experience is “Horrifying. Very horrifying.”-LOL (I often would ask him how his experience was after using the “loo”).

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