Photojournal of Darjeeling

I felt disappointed in Darjeeling while we were there, because our experience so contrasted with my expectations.  I expected a pastoral village tucked into the sunshine mountains.  Darjeeling is no pastoral village.  Rather, it is a rural city in a developing country, nestled among beautiful mountains.  As in Mumbai and Calcutta, the heritage buildings are lovely and contribute to a particularly interesting story.  But those heritage buildings cry out for maintenance and the new city lacks beauty.  Also disappointingly, I expected cool, crisp weather but spent my days damp and dodging raindrops.  

Still, as I processed the photos, I was reminded of the many points of beauty contained in this one small area.  The city sits so high in the mountains that the clouds lay close upon you and envelope your very body, often burying themselves between the folds of the hills.

The city is known for its schools, and every afternoon saw young learners in their uniforms wandering their way home from school.

Darjeeling has the only zoo in the Himalayan ecosystem and boasts many animals in their natural habitat.  Lilly has been chasing wolves since this summer in Yellowstone, and enjoyed watching this Tibetan wolf.

Darjeeling is home to a large diaspora of Tibetan refugees, and brightly colored prayer flags cover the town.

The city boasts a view of Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world. 

The clouds offered amazing sunsets,

 And a rainbow.

And then there was the tea, which we drank all day long, in our guesthouse, on the lawn, at cafes, and along the road.  We tasted a different local tea with every cup.  We drank with sugar but not milk, because Darjeeling is not like the rest of India.  We watched people plucking the tea, drying the tea, and sorting the tea.  And every step contained beauty.