World Heritage & World First

20 May 2008 (Day 5) - Unseen View & Tuuuttt Tuuuttt (sound of the train)

We woke up very early today at 3.30am coz yesterday we asked our driver to pick us up at 4.00am. The only reason for us to wake up this early coz we wanna go to Tiger Hill (30 minutes away) to see the sunrise view of Mt Kanchenjunga which is the third highest peak in the world standing at 8,598m. We didn't even had a shower coz it gets extremely cold during that hour even when we use the hot water. Unfortunately due to the cyclone and overcast weather yesterday, it's really get cloudy this morning and we can see nothing. Finally after waiting for an hour, we saw the sun already rose in the thick of the cloud and we can't even see the beautiful full view of Mt Kanchenjunga from the Tiger Hill as well. We kinda disappointed not to be able to view one of the magnificent place to view the sunrise. As it getting very cold up there, we decided to go back to hotel for breakfast. Along the way, we stopped at two monasteries in Darjeeling town. Since most people here are Buddhists, monastery play an integral part of their daily life. The thing about these monastery in the Himalayan Region is once you enter into one, it feels like you already enter all of it coz the interior and exterior design were almost the same for all (no doubt it's very artistically beautiful). From the statue to the painting, it's all almost the same except a few small things which I'll explain later on in my next post. So, the excitement level of visiting one monastery after another will definitely be in declining mode.
Also along the way our driver spotted a kinda fine view of Mt Kanchenjunga. So, we stopped for a pictures and at least we got to see the view first hand (i attached the picture here). You can see the snow cap mountain on the background and that's Mt. Kanchenjunga. After breakfast, we took a shower then we proceed to Tibetan Refugee camp. The fled from Tibet during the Chinese invasion of Tibet around 1950 and settled at the Refugee Camp in Darjeeling. These people are Tibetan and they just hold a refugee card coz they have NO nationality. Since Tibet is not a country, they hold no passport. They're neither Indian national nor Chinese national. We chatted with a few of them and they're holding a prayer for the monk that died during the riot in Tibet at the time we were there. They're really nice people that fight for their freedom of religion coz China doesn't allow that to happen.
Next stop, we going to ride the famous toy train. They called it toy train not because it's a toy BUT the train is much smaller compared to conventional train. There was drama during the train ride. Since we're going up the hill suddenly the train stop and slide down the hill due to insufficient steam (the train powered by steam). It's not scary coz the train doesn't move that fast but we felt kinda funny for the whole episode. After 30 minutes, the train start moving up again to our destination. We stopped for pictures at Batasia Loop (the most photograph site along the railway) and then proceed to the second highest railway station in the world (stated there) i.e Ghoom Station located at 2700m. Actually I knew it's the third highest after Tanggula Pass (5,072m) in Lhasa-Golmud, Tibet and La Raya Pass (4,313m) along the Lake Titicaca route in Machu Picchu, Peru. The train journey was amazing and we got to know the history of the railway from the museum at Ghoom Station. I'll be too long if I wanna tell you about the history, no?

After that we went to Himalayan Mountaineering Institute coz I'm interested to know the history of mountain climbing in Himalaya. The first man succesfully climb the Mt. Everest was an Indian national i.e Tenzing Norgay. Actually he's a Sherpa from Nepal but Indian government gave him the citizenship. He's the pioneer in mountain climbing in Himalaya and became president of one most influencial climbing institute in Himalaya (I forgot what's the name of the institute coz too much info to remember during the whole journey). Too bad this time around we won't be able to do some serious hiking due to time constraint. So we learnt all the history of climbing and they even found an eagle died at 27,000 feet and brought back at the museum. It's amazing huh? I think the eagle must somehow get lost in wind storm coz i think it's impossible for the eagle to fly that high. Since the Zoological Park is in the same area as the Institute, we took the opportunity see the red panda and snow leopard which are a rare species. We browsed around the zoo for 10 minutes hehehe coz all the zoo are the same anyway, no?

Later that day we hit the town again. This time we went for a horseback ride along the mountain. It was so amazing to be able to do horseback riding on the Himalayan mountain. I really enjoyed the experience. After that, we went shopping again hehehe coz Darjeeling town is really nice place to walk and window shopping. Maybe the cool weather play the part as well. We found out Darjeeling has a Shopping Mall and it's quite nice given the town situated on the hill. Since this is the last night we'll be in Darjeeling therefore we explored most part of the town and eventually we went to the square where there's live performance going on for some sort of concert. We call it a day around 9pm and went back to our hotel. Tomorrow we'll have another long journey to Sikkim.