Day 14: After a wonderful morning of classes we board jeeps and head off to the Happy Valley tea estate. A half hour later, after making our way through narrow streets, alleyways and cliffside roads we pull up on this estate.
A guide takes us on an informative tour of how the tea leaves are processed then packed and shipped around the world. This estate supplies tea for the famed Harrods in London.
After the tour of the manufacturing plant we wandered out into the plantation. Tea plants as far as the eye can see. We walked along narrow dirt paths between the tea plants watching tea pickers go about their day. A lot of hard work goes into the cup of tea we enjoy.
Our guide holds up a tea leaf. You'll see a close up of it on Dawn's camera to the bottom left of the photo.
Drying the tea. Hot air is blown in from the adjacent room by giant fans.
Collecting the dried tea.
Piles of tea ready to be packaged.
The plantation is beautiful. Set on rolling hills, surrounded by the Himalayas with flowering plants here and there, it was an absolute joy to stroll through this tea estate.
We realized after being here how much hard work is involved in picking and transporting tea from one end of the plantation to another at this altitude.
There is always time to take a break from work and SMS a friend.
Mandi has a go at carring a tea picking basket.
A lot of the streets in Darjeeling are narrow and steep allowing access only to pedestrians. These very strong men carry unimaginable amount of goods on them as they slowly but surely, at this high altitude, transport goods from one location to another.
Another wonderful morning in Darjeeling or what many of the locals would like to call their home land "Gorkhaland".
