To zoo or not to zoo?

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Apr 252012
 

You have a cold? Try a pinch of tiger, or a smattering of red panda. A Chinese medicine maker’s pantry is spread over the hills of Darjeeling, but this zoo is doing all it can to protect the animals.

London Zoo used to be a regular day out for my family. Once through the barrier, my brother and I would make a beeline for the circular snake pit, where we’d hang over the side trying to spot the most dangerous specimen. The pandas were cuddly. The polar bears were surprisingly grubby, not white-as-snow at all. The big cats, whom I adored, at ‘feeding time’ were too smelly for my sensitive childish nose. I tried and failed to be interested in the birds so beloved by Dad. I enjoyed the warm reptile house, the sea lions and the insects, but Guy the Gorilla was my tippy toppest favouritest of them all. Continue reading »

Kechopari Lake

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May 292011
 


Earlier this morning Jamie and I heaved ourselves out of bed to catch the sunrise over India’s highest mountain. In the silence of a Himalayan dawn, we watched the tiger-toothed caps of Kanchenjunga massif emerge from the blackness, changing from pink to peach and finally to a pure, glistening white. One kilometre below us, the valley tucked itself under eiderdown clouds, and people of the Lepcha, Bhutia and Nepali tribes began their daily work.
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Shangri-la in the eastern Himalaya

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May 222011
 


“I promise this walk is not long and nor is it steep,” said Jiwan.

If our recent experience of what a Gorkha regards as an ‘easy walk’ was anything to go by – a one in three incline through forest and driving rain for eight hours – we were not entirely convinced by Jiwan Rai’s assurances. Still, today he was wearing a suit and shirt, black shiny leather shoes and an umbrella hooked over his arm: it couldn’t be that difficult, could it?
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Bamboo House Papa

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May 202011
 


“Would you like to have lunch in Nepal?” said Pramod, the headmaster of RIBS primary school in Manebhanjang, Darjeeling district.

We had just spent the morning talking to his bouncing pupils, aged three to ten, and were ready for a break. So we strolled up the road, nodding to the disinterested border patrol guards, and jumped over a storm drain into Nepal. It hardly felt like moving into another country, but the frisson that goes with flouting the rules turned lunch into a small adventure.

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Darjeeling: Queen of Hills

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May 022011
 


On a banner stretched across the main road we read “2600 years of the enlightenment of Lord Buddha”. By chance we had arrived just in time to join in the celebratory procession planned for the next day. At a mere 2100m Darjeeling is unlikely to strike you down with altitude sickness, but be prepared for an ear-popping drive from the Indian plains as you ascend two kilometres in four hours.
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