The little Darjeeling train

These days, when everything has to be fast, modernisation has also affected the little Darjeeling train. For one of the daily services, the steam train lets out a big sigh and takes a break to make way for a diesel engine, as we can see here. So this is a bit of progress to be avoided, unless the journey itself is not your aim and all that matters is to get there quickly.

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Tea pluckers at the Longview Tea Estate

These tea pluckers at the Longview Tea Estate (India) are laughing because I’ve brought them some photos I took of them several years earlier in the tea plantations. I like this way of connecting with people. I like going back to places I’ve been before, seeking out the same faces, giving them the photos I took. And then sitting down to enjoy them together.
We can make these kinds of connections on my blog, too. Do comment if you feel like it, tell me what you’ve enjoyed, or what you don’t like. Send me a few words from time to time, make yourselves known, it will give me a sense that you are there, that you are part of the journey!

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The « Toy Train » running from Jalpaiguri to Darjeeling

I like taking things slowly. I appreciate anything that takes its time. So you won’t be surprised to hear that my favourite train is one of the slowest in the world, perhaps the last steam train in operation in India. It is nicknamed the Toy Train and it runs between Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling, a distance of 80 km which takes it… 8 hours! It needs all its puff to climb 2,088 metres.

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Looking after babies in tea plantations

On the tea plantations in India, there is a system for looking after the babies and infants. The babies are placed in hanging cribs while their mothers pluck the tea leaves in the fields. There is no roof, just a canopy. The mothers take turns to look after the little ones, rocking them while they sing lullabies. As you walk around the tea plantations you often hear their gentle singing.

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A nursery for young tea plants

Sometimes you don’t even need a seed to produce a tea plant, in fact it’s very common not to. Instead, you take cuttings from a carefully chosen parent plant. You remove one tea leaf together with a few centimetres of the shoot, and plant the whole thing in compost. The roots then form and the shoot grows into a mature tea plant. The covered area where these young shoots grow is called a nursery. Photo taken in Darjeeling, India.

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