There are three main reasons I always always dreamt of visiting Darjeeling:
It looked every bit as majestic and fun filled as I had imagined it to be. The first thought that struck me as I arrived was "Hey, This IS Malory Towers". I could almost see Darrell and Gwendoline and Irene. On a more basic level, it also did remind me of Main Hoon Na, a part of which was actually shot here. That morning they were having a special holiday mass in their chapel, a glimpse of which I got through their huge glass windows. It reminded me of school, and first friday masses and easter and ash wednesday prayers.
After that I walked quite a bit uphill to reach the fabled Glenary's for breakfast. At times the climb was pretty steep. So that made it a lot more tiring for my used-to-plains leg muscles. And I suddenly knew why I did not see many fat people in the hills. So anyway, the climb had whetted up a ravenous appetite, just right to do justice to the breakfast that was waiting. It didn't take me long to order. I had thought of it for hours before that. I wanted a simple assortment of toast, baked beans and eggs.
The others did order sandwiches - cheese, ham, ham n cheese, chicken n cheese, club..what not. And how could our array be incomplete without sausages? So there we were. A typical English breakfast accompanied with the best of Darjeeling Teas. And we sat by their huge full length glass windows. So we could have a slow, leisurely meal overlooking the rolling hills and the clear blue August skies and the silvery snowy peaks in the distance. It was bliss. The only kink in the experience was the Tropicana guava juice that accompanied my meal. You would have expected an eatery of this stature to have given fresh juice for breakfast. But then, the cheese in the sandwiches more than compensated for it. So much so that I had a couple of plain cheese sandwiches packed for lunch. It was nice..thick aromatic dense slices of cheese from some wonderful country fromagerie...
The rest of the breakfast was wonderful too. The baked beans rightly tempered, the eggs just crisp enough and the toast just perfect. On the way out I also bought some handmade chocolate coins, consisting of dark chocolate with a host of dry fruits to get for home. But alas, like Vizag, these chocolates too were consumed before we could reach the plains. Anyway, if you are in Darjeeling or North Bengal or Bengal at all, it's a must visit - for the legacy, the food, the ambience and the service.
- My mom grew up in the hills of Darjeeling and Kalimpong. So I wanted to experience a part of the wonderful, dreamy growing-up stories she always told me.
- Loreto Darjeeling, as any Loreto girl would agree is nothing short of a pilgrimage for us. Being a Loreto girls from the plains, I had always tried to imagine what life would be at the convent in Darjeeling, nestled in the clouds, with stone buildings and a legacy of Mother Teresa, Vivien Leigh(yes, the Gone With the Wind icon is a Loreto alumnus), Leila Seth and who not. A steady girlhood diet of Enid Blyton's Malory Towers just kept fueling our imagination.
- Glenary's.
After that I walked quite a bit uphill to reach the fabled Glenary's for breakfast. At times the climb was pretty steep. So that made it a lot more tiring for my used-to-plains leg muscles. And I suddenly knew why I did not see many fat people in the hills. So anyway, the climb had whetted up a ravenous appetite, just right to do justice to the breakfast that was waiting. It didn't take me long to order. I had thought of it for hours before that. I wanted a simple assortment of toast, baked beans and eggs.
The others did order sandwiches - cheese, ham, ham n cheese, chicken n cheese, club..what not. And how could our array be incomplete without sausages? So there we were. A typical English breakfast accompanied with the best of Darjeeling Teas. And we sat by their huge full length glass windows. So we could have a slow, leisurely meal overlooking the rolling hills and the clear blue August skies and the silvery snowy peaks in the distance. It was bliss. The only kink in the experience was the Tropicana guava juice that accompanied my meal. You would have expected an eatery of this stature to have given fresh juice for breakfast. But then, the cheese in the sandwiches more than compensated for it. So much so that I had a couple of plain cheese sandwiches packed for lunch. It was nice..thick aromatic dense slices of cheese from some wonderful country fromagerie...
The rest of the breakfast was wonderful too. The baked beans rightly tempered, the eggs just crisp enough and the toast just perfect. On the way out I also bought some handmade chocolate coins, consisting of dark chocolate with a host of dry fruits to get for home. But alas, like Vizag, these chocolates too were consumed before we could reach the plains. Anyway, if you are in Darjeeling or North Bengal or Bengal at all, it's a must visit - for the legacy, the food, the ambience and the service.
