Glenburn Tea Estate

The main purpose of my visit to India was to stay at the Glenburn Tea Estate. We have been selling tea from Glenburn for about a year, but I wanted to visit the garden and see for myself how things are done. Started by a Scottish tea company in 1859, Glenburn was bought in 2000 by one of India’s pioneering tea planting families – The Prakashes who also have an estate in Assam. Husna-Tara Prakash took on the roll of adapting the old managers house into a boutique hotel. 

This was my room on the first night. After staying in some sketchy places in Rajasthan this was like a vacation from the rest of the trip.

It was a little early in the season, but you can see this area outside my window will turn into a wonderful garden in a month or so.

First Day in Darjeeling

I took a flight from Delhi to Bagdogra airport which was a 3.5 hour drive from the tea estate in Darjeeling.

Luckily I have Ganesha to keep me company along the way!

By the time we got to the estate the sun way already setting.

These little houses are all along the road. Each worker on the estate is given a plot of land and a house.

Camel Safari Near Pakistan

Today I slept out in the desert with a camel. On the far west side of Rajasthan is a city named Jaisalmer, and about 20 miles from there is a small desert with sand dunes. On camel back on the way to the dunes I saw these woman collecting water from the local well.

Once out on the dunes there were children begging for money, they would do tricks in the sand if you gave them some money. Clearly one of these kids is more into it then the other!

After awhile the sun started to set.

Ranthambore National Park Tiger Safari

No tigers were seen! But I did see lots of people.

And birds:

So we drove around for about two hours and the closest thing we got to a tiger was a footprint. I did manage to see a nice sun rise though.

Taj Mahal

It is one of those places you have to go in India. I did go very early in the morning so there were not many people around, and the place was covered in fog, which I really liked.

This place is supposed to be really romantic beacuse a king built it for his dead wife... however, I learned that after the construction he gathered all 6,000 workers and had their right hand cut off so that another one could not be built.