Recent reviews Darjeeling
[shangri-lady, 11/08/2010] What a relief to breathe the fresh air of the hills coming from the heat of the Indian plain! To be honest, down at the Bazaar, where our taxi stopped, there was quite a lot of pollution emitted by countless diesel vehicles jamming the roads. Yet, after we made it up the steep alleyways and stairs to the upper parts of Darjeeling, we left behind smoke, dust and dirt reaching a public open space which the locals call "Chowrasta". As far as I could track down this is Urdu meaning "four roads crossing" which perfectly pictures the setting.
Prior to our departure, my uncle who was in the tea tra
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[shangri-lady, 08/08/2010] When standing in front of the golden statue at Chowrasta, you wonder who the gentleman depicted might have been. The meaning of the inscription in Nepali isn't understood by most foreigners. When, at an ungodly hour, waiting at Tiger Hill amidst hordes of other tourists hoping that the fog might lift (Now! Please!) to give view to the Himalayan range, you doubt wether you weren't better off at your bed, still. Yet, when you stand in front of the Peace Pagoda, there are no issues. You see, you marvel, you understand the message:
Harmony - Purity - Peace.
This impressive construction, about 30
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[last-horizon, 02/06/2010] When walking to the top of the ridge of Darjeeling - "walking" to be taken literally, this part of the town is barred to traffic - one ends up at Chowrasta, an open square offering a magnificient view far into Sikkim and to Kangchenjunga, the third highest peak of our planet. This wide outlook is lined with a number of shops and hotels, one of them carrying the name most appropriate for this spot: Bellevue.
The Bellevue Hotel Darjeeling has been the property of the Pulgers for at least forty years. They originate from Tibetan and Sikkimese nobility, just the same they are among the most affab
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[serkhang, 05/10/2009] The original Bellevue Hotel (not to be confused with a similarly named hotel nearby) lies at the very centre of the pedestrian zone, on the brink of Chowrasta, the central place of °upper° Darjeeling.
The rooms are spacious, warm and clean, with modest furnishings, mainly wood and natural textiles. Attached bathhrooms are simple, but supplz of warm water is really unlimited.
Owners and employees are amiable and extremely helpful. As a guest, you will feel homelike.
[koshkha, 18/02/2009] When I was looking for a hotel in Darjeeling I was really struggling to get hold of good information. I knew there were some spectacular but very expensive hotels but I didn't think we needed to spend a fortune to get somewhere nice. So I rejected all the £100+ hotels and started to look at the mid-range hotels, those coming in at around £50 to £60 per night. Hunting through dozens of websites to try to get good information, I came across one I liked the look of a place called the Dekeling Resort. It was around the right price level and had just four rooms in a place tucked up on the hillside
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[koshkha, 01/01/2009] When I was a child, I used to spend many rainy weekend afternoons with my Grandfather's copies of the Guinness Book of World Records, soaking up human achievement and the extremes of odd behaviour. I knew I was unlikely to ever get a place in the book; I was no athlete, I wasn't likely to become an adventurer, and even if I wanted to sit in a bath of cold baked beans for a year and a day, there would always be someone willing to do it for a year and two days. One type of record that always fascinated me were the 'firsts' - the first to sail around the world, the first to walk the length of a c
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[koshkha, 30/12/2008] Travel has a funny habit of making us behave in ways we'd never do in our home environment - you only have to see a plane load of British tourists on their way home from a beach resort to know that they'd never dress quite that badly at home. For some, foreign climes encourage binge drinking and unprotected sex with strangers; in others, like my parents, it brings out the urge to get 'cultured' and traipse round museums they'd never bother with back home. My particular travel insanity is an inability to remember just how much I hate train travel the moment I see the words 'narrow gauge'.
I
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[koshkha, 09/12/2008] There are some things I don't recommend doing in what we might euphemistically refer to as 'less developed countries'. These include drinking anything with ice-cubes in it, eating sushi, showing interest in something you don't REALLY want to buy and going to zoos. But in the case of Darjeeling's zoo, there were two magic words that forced me to abandon my prejudices and put this on my must see list. Those two words were 'Red Pandas'.
I shouldn't have worried about animal welfare because I'd already read that the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park in Darjeeling is a world-renowned breed
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[koshkha, 30/11/2008] Fans of the BBC's hit show 'Goodness Gracious Me' will probably recall the classic sketch where the cast go 'out for an English'. This was about poking fun at the British habit of going out for Indian food and being obnoxious to the Indian waiters and turned the tables on the norm by showing a group of Indians competing to eat the most 'bland' food on the menu. I couldn't help but imagine that a place like Glenary's might have been their inspiration. This is a classic example of 'Old England' transported direct to the Himalayas and it's popular with visitors both Indian and international.
D
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