WE GOT OUR RUSSIAN VISAS!!!
It took a total of 5 weeks (3 weeks for processing, plus 2 weeks spent waiting for letters of invitation to be shipped from Siberia to Kolkata), and several trips to the Russian Consulate, but we are finally allowed to go to Russia. This is insanely good news since we already booked and paid for our trip from Beijing to St. Petersburg. Here's Mallory outside the consulate, looking suitably excited.
Now, back to the rest of our time in Darjeeling.
We spent one very early morning catching a jeep to Tiger Hill, the highest point near Darjeeling, to see the sun rise over the Himalayas. We got really lucky with our choice of day and not only did we get to see the closest stretch of mountains, we even got to see Everest (way off in the distance, but still, it was cool). The pictures make it look like a really serene, peaceful sunrise, but that's only because you can't see the 200 Kolkatan tourists standing directly behind us (we got there early to get a good spot). The best part of the whole thing, aside from the view, was when hundreds of other people started cheering wildly when the sun finally broke over the horizon. Yeah, go sun! Sunrise is number one! In your face, night time!!
We used another morning to take a "joy ride" on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway toy train, a steam-powered, super-narrow-gauge train that follows tracks through a bunch of mountain villages between Darjeeling and the plains to the south. The tracks themselves are only about 2 feet wide, and don't look like the kind of thing that a sane person would try to run a train on. The ride was cool, full of equal parts "wow, great scenery" and "we are about to get hit by a truck" moments, since the rail line runs beside, and occasionally in the middle of, the main road through the hills.
Being the dorky engineer (and fan of crazy old-school technology) that I am, I was almost more fascinated by the train itself. It dates from the 1890's, and takes three people to run: one conductor, one guy manning the steam whistle, and one guy shoveling coal. Coal!
We also went to the zoo, visited the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (which has Tenzing Norgay's boots from the first summit of Everest!), took a tour of a tea plantation, and ate lots and lots of momos (Tibetan steamed vegetable dumplings). Fun fact: The Darjeeling Zoo has the most profane parrot in India! I will spare you the details, but suffice it to say that someone with a good grasp of English obscenities taught this parrot exactly how to express its displeasure at passing tourists (ok, I can't be sure it's the MOST profane parrot in India, but I'm going to go with that until proven otherwise).
Mallory also got to celebrate her birthday in Darjeeling! Woohoo! We celebrated with a night out on the town (read: at one of Darjeeling's two pubs), followed by two days/nights at a posh resort on top of a hill just outside of Darjeeling (our room had TWO fireplaces!). We also went to see a Bollywood movie called Karzzzzz. The extra z's symbolize reincarnation, I think. It was in Hindi, and there were no subtitles. Still, we managed to follow along pretty well. Also, the poster has a dude playing a flaming guitar. Yes.
Here is Mallory with her birthday cake and ice cream.
Here's a quick round-up of recommendations in case you find yourself in Darjeeling in the near future.
Best restaurants:
-Kunga's: cheap and tasty Tibetan food, including momos and bhagthuk, a garlicky and delicious noodle soup.
-Hasty Tasty: best Indian food in town, for less than $2/meal.
-La Casse Croute (a.k.a. Hot Pizza Place): Surprisingly delicious pizza in an area not usually renowned for its accurate or tasty Italian dishes.
Best entertainment:
-Karzzzzz: it had dancing, reincarnation, revenge, a bald guy with a robot arm, and a sudden kung fu fight scene at the very end, for some reason.
-Joey's Pub: one of two bars in Darjeeling, it's a great place to meet other travellers. Just don't plan on partying too hard, last call is at 9:30pm.
Best hotels:
-Dekeling Hotel: alright, this is the only hotel we tried in town, but it was clean, well-maintained, comfortable, and cheap, at $20/night for a double room with "side mountain view" (note: side mountain view indicates that a mountain can kind-of, sort-of be seen from your window if you hang out of it on a rope or something).
Tomorrow we catch a flight to Rajasthan, in the hopes of seeing some desert palaces, and maybe taking some music lessons.
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