Have you ever seen or heard of people watching a football match, the entire 90 minutes… sitting in fog so dense that you cannot see the person next to you? Well, I have and it happens only in Darjeeling!
Spectators watching a match and this is just 50% foggy 😀 Pic courtesy: Google images
Darjeeling is a tiny hill town on the foothills of the mountains in the northern part of West Bengal. It is famous for several things- its beauty, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway(DHR) also called the toy train and tea to name a few, but of late also for the fervor with which the FIFA World Cup is celebrated there.
The hills are gripped in a frenzy and abuzz with talks about the matches. The town is painted in the colours of the participating nations… quite literally, as no wall is left empty during this season. Artists lend their talent and time to bring these walls alive with their graffiti. There are banners and festoons bearing the flags of nations strung everywhere on the main roads, in streets and every nook and corner. Houses, cars, buses and motorbikes put up flags of their favourite nations for the entire duration of the tournament. Restaurants are decorated in the theme and some even offer ‘world cup’ discounts. Road side shops flourish as they sell football goodies like badges, caps, stickers etc.
People go crazy throughout the tournament and as the finals approach, they don their respective team jerseys, paint their faces, wear flags like cloaks or carry them and rally on bikes, cars and foot shouting slogans for their favourite teams. As a little kid I remember the town buzzing with Argentinaaaaaa!!! Maradonaaaaaa!!! Maybe most people back then were Argentina fans😉
A glimpse
*Trivia😊*: We used to play football chittha(lucky draw) daily back in those days. It was organized by young adults. So you pick one chit from a lot with the name of a player of the participating teams of that day written inside it, and if you are lucky, that player scores and you win money… yipeeee! I used to win a lot, even when I picked a defense or a midfielder’s name😀
On 20th Nov 2022(1st Day of the World Cup), there was an epic opening ceremony rally in Darjeeling that heralded the actual opening ceremony in Qatar that day. The procession where even the police band played and participated culminated in Chowrasta (which is a place where the town folks gather and where major open air events happen). This was followed by several musical events and dance performances.
The rally with the police band
Senior citizens, adults, youngsters, kids, all came together to celebrate the spirit of sportsmanship and cheer for their respective teams. This fever will climax on the day of the final, December 18, with a Mega event in Chowrasta where along with music and dance performances by popular artists, matches(semifinal onwards) will be screened open air on a huge LED screen… brrrr!!! it’s going to be very cold in the night, but nothing will come in the way of the fans and they will throng the venue for sure.😊
Chowrasta on the 20th
Right now, many locals who reside in other cities and countries must be missing the festivities and longing to be there… I am too.
In Darjeeling it doesn’t matter if you are not a football fan… the fever is of such magnitude and is so contagious that you get soaked into it and you become one. It’s no wonder that apart from ‘The Queen of Hills,’ my hometown is also called ‘Darjeeling – The World Cup Town!’
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P.S: My #1 favourite team is Brazil so naturally I will be rooting for them. My 2nd favorite is Germany(if not equally, I am a fraction less emotional about them). But this time, deep inside, I want Messi to win… he truly deserves one World Cup victory!🏆
‘Sometimes, the journey is more beautiful than the destination.’
I don’t know who said it but they said it right. The road to Thimphu is such… too gorgeous for words! Albeit, let me try. The roads are wide and broad carved out of gigantic hills that give you a feeling of being miniatures, the pristine river flowing on the left with pine trees dotting its banks, the green hills with clusters of pine trees adding to their greenery, small quaint monasteries perched on the hills lending their share to the picturesque effect and then the blue sky making it all the more surreal. I can go on and on describing the beauty much like I wanted to go on and on travelling on that road.
We stopped to visit a monastery, it looked quite old and straight out of a scenic calendar. We had to cross an old bridge and walk uphill(steep) to enjoy the 360 degree view and the openness… it was mind blowing! After soaking in the serenity and feeling on top of the world and taking a lot of pictures, we were on our way again.
Must watch video
Our next stop was the Geyal Lhendup Handloom Centre. We watched the weavers, all women, work on the loom and we found out that a single kira(dress worn by Bhutanese women) takes about nine months to complete(the occasional kind, not the daily wear). If this intrigued me, what lay in store on the first floor took my breath away… the display of the finished products. I have never seen an array of anything so rich, captivating and attractive. Everything I set my eyes on from table mats, to runners, to materials for kira, to scraves, to purses, to carpets, all were attractive. The price too was attractive by the way… I literally had to hold my breath from breaking out into an audible sigh; very expensive and way out of my budget. And why not, the weavers put so much of their time and effort into each product. It is worth every penny.
I am asking her how much it costs and she’s saying she doesn’t know 😀Materials for kira, the one’s they are weaving in the video
It was lunch time by the time we reached Thimphu so we headed straight to a popular and authentic bhutanese restaurant called The Folk Heritage Restaurant. It is a part of an art and craft school which is again a good place to visit. The lunch spread was awesome. Dorji 1(I hope you remember him from my previous post) joined us for lunch.
Yummy😋
Thimphu is the capital of Bhutan hence the most populous city too. If not for the uniform colour of the houses, it would look like a normal hustling bustling place, but the colour coding makes all the difference. It looks beautiful on the contrary. There isn’t anything much to see in the city except some tourist spots like this huge statue of The Buddha on a hill overlooking the whole city(we skipped this one) and some old monasteries. For party people, there are many discos and pubs that open till 12a.m. We went to the zoo that houses very few animals, one is their national animal, the Takin. After a leisurely walk and photographs we returned only stopping at a view point for pictures.
TakinThat’s Thimphu down belowThimphu city square by night from our hotel room
The boys left us for the day and after freshning up, we went out, strolled along the streets of Thimphu, had coffee at a charming place and then went to Thimphu Club. My husband’s school friend Karma runs this place and he lured us by saying, “This one is going to be a surprise.” The surprise was quite a big one, it is an LGBT friendly pub, goes without saying that some of the staff there were members of the community. Initially I felt out of place and awkward… it’s only natural I guess but after sometime it was fine. The club has an open stage where the staff perform songs and dances, guests are welcome to dance and do the karaoke(we did too 😊). We got to watch some really talented dancers, have yummy starters and I had soju for the first time. However, the best part of the night was our encounter with a wonderful lady Dechen Selden. Karma told us that Dechen was among the first transgenders of Bhutan to have come out of the closet and fought for her rights. She is a celebrity figure and an inspiration to all in the country. I became a fan of her too. I was awed by her grace, her composure, the way she carried herself and not to forget, her dance.
Dechen dancing to a popular Nepali song at Thimphu Club
Karma walked with us to our hotel after midnight and bid us goodbye. The next morning we were on our way to:
Punakha
We hadn’t had breakfast so we stopped at a huge Cafe cum restaurant. It was really cold there and my husband said I looked funny as I was wearing shorts below and a fleece jacket on top. We had plans to do white water rafting in Punakha so the shorts, but we didn’t as the white water wasn’t as white for my husband… hahaha… this was one reason, the other was that the rapid wasn’t that great.
Karaoke on our way
We got to see a war memorial of a 108 mini stupas built in circles. It was an enchanting sight.
The 108 stupas from one angle
Apart from its natural beauty, Punakha(the erstwhile captial city) is popular for four things, the Punakha Dzong(fortress), the fertility temple where childless couples supposedly get blessed with offsprings, the longest suspension bridge in the country and white water rafting.
The longest suspension bridgePunakha Dzong
After sight seeing and late lunch we returned to Thimphu where we spent half the night watching a local band perfom in a pub. This was our last night in Bhutan and with memories of a beautiful stay we made our way back to India by road the next day accompanied by Dorji 1.
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Some trivia and some interesting facts about Bhutan:
– There is only one traffic signal in the whole of Bhutan, in the main road in Thimphu. – It is mandatory for Bhutanese to wear the traditional outfit that is called kira(girls) and gho(boys) for all official purposes(on a work day). School uniforms are the same too. – There are several pubs, karaoke bars and discos in Thimphu and Paro and night life is quite happening. – Bhutanese people chew pan the whole day, it is not the regular one, it’s just the leaf, chuna, kathha and some kind of foul smelling raw supari. So if you think your guide or driver is smelly, it’s the pan, not them😅
The infamous pan
– South Indian movies, esp. Telegu trend in Bhutan. Dorji 1’s favorite actress is Rashmika Mandana, it was Anushka Sharma earlier but when I asked him why not now, he said, “Cuz she got married”… hahaha! – In theaters, apart from Bhutanese movies, no other language movies are screened. So, movie watching happens only on TV and other gadgets. – Fortresses in Bhutan are beautiful and sprawling so many people mistake them for palaces. On the contrary, the Royals reside in smaller, more modest palaces. – For a country as secluded and as traditional, the phallus holds a huge religious significance (because of it’s association with the fertility temple), so don’t be surprised to see it in curio shops across the country, esp. in Punakha. The reception of hotels and restaurants have that as decor, standing tall and erect, they flank doors and windows of houses and shops, they are painted on walls in every size and colour. It is everywhere! Infact, there is a whole gallery(souvenir shop) of it in Punakha.
My husband is asking Dorji 1 to say something, check out his answer😂
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Information for tourists visiting Bhutan(current):
– Every tourist from India, Bangladesh and Maldives needs to pay a sustainable development fee(SDF)of INR 1200/night. For all other Nations it is USD200. – Dzongkha is the national language but every second person speaks Nepali. English and Hindi are widely spoken too. – Hiring a guide(for bikers and cyclists too) from the time you step into the country till the time you step out is mandatory, wherever you go! The charge is INR 1500/day. – For Indian tourists travelling by road and in their own vehicles, the vehicle charge is INR 4500/night. It is the same for two wheelers too. – The Ngultrum(Bhutanase Currency) is equivalent to the Indian Rupee so foreign exchange isn’t necessary. INR is accepted everywhere in Bhutan. – For Indians, although having a passport is easier, it isn’t mandatory, a voter ID will do(not pan, adhaar or DL). – Almost every tourist spot has an entry fee and is mostly on the higher side. Tiger’s Nest is INR 2000/head. – Accommodation for tourists is allowed only in 3 Star hotels and above. – It is mandatory for tourists to stay at hotels and eat at restaurants that have been certified by the tourism board.
Pensamientos 