Pesach in Darjeeling, India

This post is about the wonder that is Darjeeling and the very unique experience of having a Seder in India.

Darjeeling is known for its great views, its "traveler hub" status, and its nice local people. Like at the tea estate, there was too much haze and fog to see anything. You are supposed to see the Himalayan mountains including the Kanchenjunga mountain (third highest in the world). It gets a bit frustrating not seeing the mountains but it was certainly a travelers hub. We met so many backpackers. A lot of really nice people that we have seen continuously throughout our travels since then. The locals are a nice change from the people further south in Kolkata. They are Nepali and Tibetan people that have a different, more Asian look. They are also more friendly and the women will smile and look at you unlike many other Indian parts.

There are hundreds of hotels in Darjeeling and travelers stay in many different places but a major area is on top of a hill. The road to our hotel, by the end of our stay, was impossible to traverse without having to stop multiple times to talk to people. There was just a way about people too; everyone was ready to talk, share experiences, and give advice.

We arrived a day or two before my birthday and spent sometime exploring. The night of my birthday was fun and the first time we drank in India. They drink a lot more in the North of India. We had a few drinks and listen to live music. That was a nice surprise for us after always hearing Hindi music. As we were sitting a few people joined us and after a nice chat we all went for dinner. There was even a local (weird) Darjeeling guy who joined us. The only issues with the night was I had to rush back to deal with some Darjeeling Duodenum*. If you are confused, Randy had some Kolkata Kolon* earlier in the trip (*Brought to you by Randy). This was a bit of a plague for a big part of Darjeeling resulting in many rushed returns to the room.

That night and the next morning at breakfast, we met two different sets of Israelis that invited us to a Seder they were planning. Including us, they had about 6-8 people. This was the day before the Seder. During the day, more people were informed of the Seder so by the time of our meeting in the afternoon, we had an estimated 15-20 people coming. We were all given different tasks and told to meet at 4PM the next day to help set up. We had planned on ordering food from local restaurants and getting as close to traditional foods as possible. We had really plain japathi for our matzah, soup, chicken, potatos, vegetables, and salad all without any bread products (as best we could).

We set up a small room in someones guest house which barely fit 20 people and certainly did not leave room for moving or even for other guests to move through. Our Seder consisted of Canadians, English, Spanish, and, of course, Israelis. We had a father with a daughter and a separate mother and Aunt with there daughter. It was full of different people from many different places and lives.

We had printed Haggadot for everyone. The Seder went fast with everyone reading around the room. Since it was mainly Israelis, most of the customs were Israeli and it was entirely in Hebrew. Probably the highlight was singing the Four Questions together. Everyone sang loud and boisterous. Soon enough, it was time to eat. We discovered that we had ordered way too much food. I don't even think we finished half of it. I think most of our leftovers were given to someone who needed it.

I think the final count was 23 people as some came late. It was a special Seder and a great connection to home despite being away. Unfortunately, we didn't continue the Seder after dinner but we did have lots to drink and a great time.

A lot of people from the Seder became regulars that I hung out with in Darjeeling and beyond.
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Beyond the Seder, we did some nice stuff in Darjeeling. We went to the nice Darjeeling zoo with many local animals with somewhat sizable cages/areas. This is where we probably saw the only tigers and leopards we are going to see. We also ventured out to this Tibetan Refugee Self-Help Centre which was a nice confusing walk from Darjeeling. They had some interesting workshops and a nice shops that sold all the products they made in the village. It was also fixed, reasonable prices so there was no haggling which was a nice change. The unfortunate part of this journey down to the Tibetan village was that this guy followed us (6 of us) the entire way. He was a local guy from a nearby village who we made the mistake of asking for directions. He was rip-roaringly drunk and most likely had some mental issues. He would not leave us alone despite many attempts to tell him to stay away. He followed us for a good 2-3 hours going from person to person trying to make conversation. It was extremely annoying and eventually the store that we were in began giving us advise. An somewhat humorous, although Randy might not agree, was this guy eventually began to hate Randy. Randy would ignore him or tell him to go away and eventually they guy started given stupid threats and making faces at him. Finally, right out of Seinfeld, he turned to Randy and in front of everyone shouted, "He is a very bad man, very bad!". I almost laughed but Randy got a bit spooked.

The locals in the village were very nice and got some people to somewhat physically remove this man from the village and arrange a taxi for us to take back to Darjeeling. While we waited, they even brought us tea. Good things can come of bad situations.

Anyway, we lived to tell the tale despite Randy saying he saw the guy again.

Next up: Trekking in Sikkim

Avidan