As per our Itinerary, we had to leave at 3.45 AM for Tiger Hill to watch sunrise over Kanchendzonga. Our driver was kind enough to let us be in the arms of Morpheus for a little longer. We changed our itinerary and decided to do half a day of Darjeeling local sightseeing and planned some feverish shopping in the evening.

With Paranthas and Sandwiches under our belt we were ready to leave by 9 AM. Because our itinerary had changed and we were doing local sightseeing, our vehicle was demoted to a local taxi. After we managed to fit in, we headed to the Tibetan Refugee Self Help Centre. Tibetan refugees make exquisite hand crafted items like woollen shawls & carpets, carved wooden crafts, leather jackets, coats etc. 

The building was quite ordinary with few old printing press and some Tibetan artefacts. However, the place became charming and chilly for several minutes when a thick fog descended upon us.  The fog moved away with equal abrupt, restoring our visibility in its wake.

Several Tibetan families have made this place their home. Prayer wheels and coloured prayer flags adorn the place. I learned later that the flags are always arranged in a particular order from left to right…blue, white, red, green, yellow. Blue represents the sky, white represents the air, red symbolizes fire, green symbolizes water, and yellow symbolizes earth

The view from the Self Help centre is splendid.

We headed west on the Lebong Cart road to visit other places on our itinerary.

On the way we had to make way for the iconic Darjeeling Toy train.

Our next stop was at the Rangeet Tea Estate. Tourists get an opportunity to dress up like a Gorkha and pose for photos… Choubandi choli for women and Bakkhu for men. We joined the fun and took few selfies in the local dress.

Enroute to HMI, we stopped at Tenzing Rock named after Tenzing Norgay who climbed Mount Everest along with Sir Edmund Hillary. This is for professional rock climbers. The Tenzing rock is on one side of the road and on the other side of the road is the Gombu Rock named after Nawang Gombu, nephew of Tenzing who climbed Mount Everest twice. Gombu Rock is for amateurs and tourists, especially kids. Both Tenzing Rock and Gombu Rocks are located on Lebong Cart Road of Darjeeling. It would take around 20 minutes from Darjeeling city centre.

For half a kilometre from the Gombu rock, the road is lined with Tea stalls that are stacked with the famous Darjeeling tea. If you are an avid tea drinker you can buy your quota here. While the green tea is good, I will not recommend the regular tea if you are accustomed to strong tea. It was too light for my taste.

You also have few Momo (dumpling) stalls here. It is a local delicacy. Vegetables stuffed in a thin layer of dough and steam cooked. It was Rs. 30 for a plate of 8 Momos. Kids love it. The lady serving the Momos was enterprising enough to let us try our hands in rolling the Momos.

From Tenzing Rock we went to Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI). It is beautifully maintained property. HMI conducts basic and advanced mountaineering courses to develop skill in mountain climbing. Don’t miss the Bengal Natural History Museum in the campus. This houses a huge model of Himalayas showing you the entire range and all the principal peaks and the Tibetan plateau. It gives a perspective of the challenges faced during mountain expeditions. The other exhibits include axe, night apparel, tents, boots, heads lamps, oxygen cylinders, shovels, compass etc.  On one section the badges of the various mountain clubs and association are displayed and various personalities who participated in different expeditions. There is an interesting section about the culture and languages spoken in this part of the world.   

Don’t miss the Bengal Natural History Museum in the campus.

Darjeeling Zoo, which is in the same campus as that of HMI is worth a visit. One can easily spend half a day in the Zoo watching the alpine fauna. Unlike the city Zoos where the animals are confined in a small cage, the Darjeeling zoo has been setup in the animal’s natural habitat allowing them to roam freely in much larger area. The entire place is clean and care has been taken to protect the animals from human abuse.