Darjeeling to Napa

This weekend was quite delightful, with a welcome break from the rain and storm. The sun was bright, with patches of white clouds painting the blue sky. Although the temperature was on the colder side, still couldn't ask for a better or brighter weekend. To grab what the weather gods had to offer, B & I drove to Napa on Saturday to indulge into our favorite hobby, photography. Unlike our usual long drives, we did not turn on the music in the car. We commenced the 1.5 hour drive by digging out some really old memories and sharing them with each other. During the conversation, i drifted and plunged into one such sweet travel memory with my parents.

The travel destination was Darjeeling, which is the highest hill station in India, and extremely picturesque. The year was 1997 I think. The four of us ( my parents, brother and me) were staying in a beautiful cottage. I still remember the breathtaking views of the lush green hills, the widespread tea gardens, the clouds looming over the valley below us! Everything around was so beautiful. Not sure, if you have felt it while traveling to a hill station, but your metabolism becomes really aggressive at higher altitudes, since the oxygen levels are not extremely high. The result is , the insatiable hunger :-), which gets further aggravated by climbing the slopes up and down to get around the hill station. I remember being hungry all the time. That time, there were not very many North Indian restaurants in Darjeeling especially within walking distance of our cottage. However, we finally stumbled upon this place called Hasty tasty (almost 90% sure about the name, since its been so many years can't trust my memory completely :-) ). They used to have chole bathure. All 4 of us used to eat 1 plate each every day in lunch, and it used to cost 25 Rs per plate. The amusing part was, we all used to be hungry even after finishing it, but used to tell each other that we are full. Since the food was so expensive (100 Rs for a meal in those days was a lot of money! ), we all used to repeat the act of lying (to our stomachs :-) )every afternoon. Now, if i look back it seems so amusing. We even visited the Pashupati market (again 90% sure of the name) on the Nepal border on this trip. The views were amazing. Dad & I used to get ready at 4am, that would have happened couple of times, to go for sunrise to Tiger Hill. However, the funny part was that it used to start raining even before we would hop on to the jeep to get there, and we would end up going back to bed. I guess my mom and brother were smart enough, to not even attempt waking at 4am , only to go back to sleep half an hour later. They used to ridicule us every time. This whole trip has many precious little memory associated to it.

So, just sharing some fun stories like this, 1.5 hrs dissolved into nowhere, and we were in Napa amidst the green vineyards.