Day 128 (Sun 12 Nov) - Darjeeling
It had been pretty cold last night. Sarb even went to bed wearing his woolly hat!
Got up and went to Glenary's cafe (under the restaurant) for breakfast. It was a delicious breakfast washed down with a fabulous cup of Darjeeling tea.
Headed off to the tourist information centre. They were very helpful and we booked to go to Tiger Hill early the next morning. The guy seemed a bit worried that we hadn't booked our return train ticket to Kolkata. Took his advice and went off to the train station. Station was pretty busy and there was the normal pushing and shoving and queue jumping.
Walked back towards the town, passing through Chowk bazaar which was full of market stalls. It was full of colourful goods and challenging aromas. Picked up a few limes for our gin and tonic's later tonight. Arrived at Lloyd Botanical Gardens. The paths were very steep so we didn't venture far as we knew we'd have to clamber back up again and Sarb was keen to get to the zoo before it closed.
Strolled along Hill Cart Road, past Happy Valley Tea Estate and found the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park. All of us agreed that we don't usually like zoos but this seem to be fairly sympathetic to the animals needs and they had embarked on a positive snow leopard and red panda breeding programme. In fact they are doing such sterling work in this area we caught two snow leopards having a cheeky snog. Sarb was particularly taken with the snow leopards. They reminded him of Jo's sisters cat Tilly, who is only marginally smaller than the leopards.
Strolled back to our hotel. On the way popped into the shop and bought some gin and tonic so that we could drink it whilst watching the sunset.
Whilst we were sitting outside our rooms and admiring the fine views ([1] [2] ) , two friendly little dogs came to see us.
They had been hanging around the previous day and they seemed to be a permanent fixture so we agreed to call them "Chapati" and "Pakora".
Got up and went to Glenary's cafe (under the restaurant) for breakfast. It was a delicious breakfast washed down with a fabulous cup of Darjeeling tea.
Headed off to the tourist information centre. They were very helpful and we booked to go to Tiger Hill early the next morning. The guy seemed a bit worried that we hadn't booked our return train ticket to Kolkata. Took his advice and went off to the train station. Station was pretty busy and there was the normal pushing and shoving and queue jumping.
Walked back towards the town, passing through Chowk bazaar which was full of market stalls. It was full of colourful goods and challenging aromas. Picked up a few limes for our gin and tonic's later tonight. Arrived at Lloyd Botanical Gardens. The paths were very steep so we didn't venture far as we knew we'd have to clamber back up again and Sarb was keen to get to the zoo before it closed.
Strolled along Hill Cart Road, past Happy Valley Tea Estate and found the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park. All of us agreed that we don't usually like zoos but this seem to be fairly sympathetic to the animals needs and they had embarked on a positive snow leopard and red panda breeding programme. In fact they are doing such sterling work in this area we caught two snow leopards having a cheeky snog. Sarb was particularly taken with the snow leopards. They reminded him of Jo's sisters cat Tilly, who is only marginally smaller than the leopards.
Strolled back to our hotel. On the way popped into the shop and bought some gin and tonic so that we could drink it whilst watching the sunset.
Whilst we were sitting outside our rooms and admiring the fine views ([1] [2] ) , two friendly little dogs came to see us.
They had been hanging around the previous day and they seemed to be a permanent fixture so we agreed to call them "Chapati" and "Pakora".
posted by Jo and Sarb at
11/12/2006 07:21:00 am
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