Of Rugby and Chocolate Mousse....and the great tea quest!
We can now have some deeper understanding of the
motives of the Crusaders. We may not have been chasing the Holy Grail...but
we're not far off on the dedication to the quest! After spending the morning
meeting with the newly-formed North Point tech
team,
Amber met up with me at the school so we could head off on the great tea quest. Our goal was the Happy Valley Tea Estate, the road to which is about 1km from North Point. So...off we set in our usual enthusiastic fashion - all the while dodging Ambassador taxis and diesel spewing Jeeps. At approximately the spot where we thought the road to the Tea Garden should be, we asked a local roadside lounger for directions. The number of words exchanged were not as important as the correct interpretation of the patented Indo-Nepali head wobble. In retrospect, we couldn't begin to imagine the consequences of confusing a "no" for a "yes" or a "I understand what you are saying but I don't necessarily agree with it" for a "if I wasn't worried my head would disengage from my neck, I would wobble until I could wobble no more - so I could completely communicate the folly of your proposed actions". Suffice to say that we took the wobbling for a yes - that the path heading down the hill would lead us to the Promised Land of tea! Well, it was a beautiful walk down....
...which suddenly turned into a walk through a microscopic version of Surrey...albeit with much friendlier locals...
and back out into a lovely, winding, country lane which (note the ominous foreshadowing) descended steeply through the surrounding tea garden....
I should point out that we'd been told that the Happy Valley tea factory was only about a 5 to 10 minute walk from the main road....so at this stage we were getting a little concerned that a half hour walk - so steeply downhill that gravity was causing my toes to slam-dance against the front of my shoes - could quite possibly lead to consequences too tragic to consider. About ten minutes later, the worst was confirmed when the road ran out and the friendly villager at the bottom, upon diligent cross-examination, had to admit that - even though the Happy Valley tea estate was all around us - the factory existed (relative to our current position) at an elevation roughly comparable to the 2nd separation stage of a Saturn V rocket (he was rather fond of the late 1960's). Fighting against the tendency to sit down and wait for the bi-weekly taxi to come by, we tightened our shoelaces, took a deep breath....and began the trek back up (I should add, to our credit, this was free-climb - and no ropes were involved)!
How much time it took us to get to the top of the hill, we can't say. Given the magical nature of the surrounding countryside - especially when viewed through sweat-soaked eyeballs - the whole episode took on a surreal Rip van Winkle-like aura. But...prevail we did...and damned if we weren't going to have some tea (albeit not of the Happy Valley variety). So...sweaty that we were, we trooped into Keventers - donned our brand-spanking new North Point scarves (because now it was cold)....and scarfed down tea, cheese toast and "finger chips".
For those who've spent their entire lives following hockey and baseball....there's nothing here for you....go home! Nope - this is the land (if tv is any indication) of cricket, English Football...and believe it or not, the Rugby World Cup. Apparently, according to Min, it is impossible to watch a rugby match without drinking beer. Being compliant, non-rebellious Canadian types, we were not going to challenge the immutable laws of physics - so a fair amount of beer was consumed...all the while watching the Irish valiantly going down to the Aussies. Here we have hardenend fans doing a respectable job of pretending to be interested (from the left - Moi, Becky, Min, Colin & Emma). We should point out that this was the day after the tea trek fiasco and Amber had spent the afternoon cutting their hair - all of them except Colin....for whom a haircut would have been somewhat of a futile exercise. For volunteers, who often have to bathe in freezing bathrooms out of a bucket, it was pure heaven to borrow our hot shower and be coiffed by a pro!
After all that beer, Amber and I decided to have a balanced dinner - chocolate mousse at the Park Restaurant! It may have looked disconcertingly similar to top soil (with good humus content)...but it was amazing! Amber was kind enough to help me out with my serving after finishing off hers.
Newly fortified with chocolate and sugar, we went off to the Purple Night Club...where we danced the night away (OK...it was only 11:30...but for Darjeeling that's amazing!) to a bizarre mix of hip-hop, Nepali & Bollywood hits.... This was a dangerous strategy as I had to meet up with Pemma (the school's Athletics director) for a tennis game at 8am. Fortunately, he was mixing Tequila & beer....so, in spite of his ninja-like Gurkha reflexes....I went to bed with some hope of "morning after" survival....
Amber met up with me at the school so we could head off on the great tea quest. Our goal was the Happy Valley Tea Estate, the road to which is about 1km from North Point. So...off we set in our usual enthusiastic fashion - all the while dodging Ambassador taxis and diesel spewing Jeeps. At approximately the spot where we thought the road to the Tea Garden should be, we asked a local roadside lounger for directions. The number of words exchanged were not as important as the correct interpretation of the patented Indo-Nepali head wobble. In retrospect, we couldn't begin to imagine the consequences of confusing a "no" for a "yes" or a "I understand what you are saying but I don't necessarily agree with it" for a "if I wasn't worried my head would disengage from my neck, I would wobble until I could wobble no more - so I could completely communicate the folly of your proposed actions". Suffice to say that we took the wobbling for a yes - that the path heading down the hill would lead us to the Promised Land of tea! Well, it was a beautiful walk down....
...which suddenly turned into a walk through a microscopic version of Surrey...albeit with much friendlier locals...
and back out into a lovely, winding, country lane which (note the ominous foreshadowing) descended steeply through the surrounding tea garden....
I should point out that we'd been told that the Happy Valley tea factory was only about a 5 to 10 minute walk from the main road....so at this stage we were getting a little concerned that a half hour walk - so steeply downhill that gravity was causing my toes to slam-dance against the front of my shoes - could quite possibly lead to consequences too tragic to consider. About ten minutes later, the worst was confirmed when the road ran out and the friendly villager at the bottom, upon diligent cross-examination, had to admit that - even though the Happy Valley tea estate was all around us - the factory existed (relative to our current position) at an elevation roughly comparable to the 2nd separation stage of a Saturn V rocket (he was rather fond of the late 1960's). Fighting against the tendency to sit down and wait for the bi-weekly taxi to come by, we tightened our shoelaces, took a deep breath....and began the trek back up (I should add, to our credit, this was free-climb - and no ropes were involved)!
How much time it took us to get to the top of the hill, we can't say. Given the magical nature of the surrounding countryside - especially when viewed through sweat-soaked eyeballs - the whole episode took on a surreal Rip van Winkle-like aura. But...prevail we did...and damned if we weren't going to have some tea (albeit not of the Happy Valley variety). So...sweaty that we were, we trooped into Keventers - donned our brand-spanking new North Point scarves (because now it was cold)....and scarfed down tea, cheese toast and "finger chips".
For those who've spent their entire lives following hockey and baseball....there's nothing here for you....go home! Nope - this is the land (if tv is any indication) of cricket, English Football...and believe it or not, the Rugby World Cup. Apparently, according to Min, it is impossible to watch a rugby match without drinking beer. Being compliant, non-rebellious Canadian types, we were not going to challenge the immutable laws of physics - so a fair amount of beer was consumed...all the while watching the Irish valiantly going down to the Aussies. Here we have hardenend fans doing a respectable job of pretending to be interested (from the left - Moi, Becky, Min, Colin & Emma). We should point out that this was the day after the tea trek fiasco and Amber had spent the afternoon cutting their hair - all of them except Colin....for whom a haircut would have been somewhat of a futile exercise. For volunteers, who often have to bathe in freezing bathrooms out of a bucket, it was pure heaven to borrow our hot shower and be coiffed by a pro!
After all that beer, Amber and I decided to have a balanced dinner - chocolate mousse at the Park Restaurant! It may have looked disconcertingly similar to top soil (with good humus content)...but it was amazing! Amber was kind enough to help me out with my serving after finishing off hers.
Newly fortified with chocolate and sugar, we went off to the Purple Night Club...where we danced the night away (OK...it was only 11:30...but for Darjeeling that's amazing!) to a bizarre mix of hip-hop, Nepali & Bollywood hits.... This was a dangerous strategy as I had to meet up with Pemma (the school's Athletics director) for a tennis game at 8am. Fortunately, he was mixing Tequila & beer....so, in spite of his ninja-like Gurkha reflexes....I went to bed with some hope of "morning after" survival....
Posted: Sat - November 1, 2003 at 07:52 PM
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Published On: Nov 21, 2003 04:41 PM
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Published On: Nov 21, 2003 04:41 PM