Day Four at Glenburn, which is funny/wonderful, since we were supposed to
be in Gangtok this evening.
Glenburn is a once-in-a-lifetime experience (except that I/we will
return!) Destination crush turned into full-blown love affair, as it just
doesn't get more special than this. Glenburn was built around 1858 and has
been an operating 'Tea Garden'(as the owner Mr. Prakash calls it) ever
since. The tea trees are as old as the estate and are pruned to waist
height. I like tea, perhaps even loved it at times, but my appreciation
for it has forever changed.
It was an almost two hour drive here through tiny towns, roads crowded
with Buddhist processions celebrating their guy's birthday. The last half
hour or so was a filling-jarring trip down a one lane dirt and handmade
rock road through breathtaking hills terraced with tea trees. We came in
sight of the factory and the Burra Bungalow. Colonial splendour at its
best. It's temperate and incredibly green here, the gardens are immaculate
and the verandah beckons you to take a load off and never get up. Not that
you really have to, because you're descended upon by an army of attentive,
terribly polite servers bearing trays of, well, lemonade and iced tea to
greet you, hors d'oeuvres throughout the day or an ice cold beer, three
squares a day of remarkable cuisine from the world over, delicious baked
goods and desserts, on and on it goes. Our quarters were beyond
expectation, as is everything else here. The girls have a colonial
four-poster in the main room that really needs a step ladder to enter and
I had my own 'monastic cell', complete with stone floors and my own sun
porch sitting room overlooking the back lawn and gardens. Down the front
of the house is the flower gardens terraced down the hillside; the back
terrace holds the vegetable gardens filled with fresh herbs and lettuces.
Off in the distance are the Himalayas, dominated by Mt. Kanchenjunga, or
so they are in theory. This time of year, there's haze and cloud obscuring
the view, so they're our there, existing in potential. It's rained some
every day, at times very hard with lots of thunder and lightning, but
never more than a few hours.
There are only four official units in the Burra Bungalow and four in the
new building, so maximum occupancy is around twenty, with twenty-four
employees. All of the meals are at communal tables, with breakfast and
lunch in a few different locations, cocktails an hour before dinner and
dinner in the main dining room. At our first lunch, there was an
unassuming gent sitting at the head of the table. Lisa C. asked if he was
related to the guests flanking him, who said, "No, he's Mr. Prakash, the
owner." Mr. Prakash visits the garden once a month or so. He owns a number
of estates in Assam and here, purchasing Glenburn in 2002. He's a
third-generation tea man and the hospitality business is the brainchild of
his daughter in law. Prakash gave us a great introduction to tea and made
the parallel between single malt scotch and Glenburn Tea, as he is a
(relatively humble) connoisseur's grower.
His daughter in law got everything right here. The character of the place,
its setting and 150-year history are in perfect balance. It's elegant, but
in a total colonial, out in the country way: nothing is over the top.
Glenburn is home to 950 employees, including 500 pluckers. They live in
small villages built into the terraced hillsides and are very well
looked-after; sixty percent of the operating budget of Glenburn goes
towards the workers' welfare (food, schools, services, etc.) We were given
a factory tour on Day Two, which was remarkable. We know more about tea
than most now and are treated to 'first flush' brew many times a day. The
work is mostly done by hand and an entire day's production sits neatly in
six or so small piles on the floor. Silver Needle, which is made from the
top two leaves and a bud, costs around $300 a kilo and is delicious.
Many times a day, I say to our group, or our fellow guests, that we're the
most fortunate people on the planet, as are the people who have live and
worked here. On the morning of Day Two, a knock on our door awoke us
shortly after five, as the mountains had emerged. Wow. What a humbling and
awesome experience to see the Roof of the World from our front lawn. We
made fast friends with Ashok and Richa, a couple from Rajasthan. Ashok is
a devout photographer and was out with his camera and monopod. It's
another one of those moments for me when you just get IT and it washes
over you. (Then back to bed, because it is five in the morning, after
all).
Had the plantation tour, then a hike down to the camp on the River
Rungeet. Our guide (also named Prakash), is from here and knows just about
everything about flora and fauna (in an understated way). You hike
downhill for 2 ½ hours, surrounded the whole time by the tea garden and
jungle. The river is bouldered, a great trout stream when the water is up
during monsoon season. About an hour into the trek , Prakash pulls a tray
and glasses out of his backpack to serve up iced tea! The jeep follows as
a discreet distance (so we don't know we're being tailed) and by the time
we arrive at the camp, we're greeted with ice cold beer and fresh grilled
chicken and vegetable hors d'oeuvres as we wait for luncheon to be served.
Aah, this is the life!
In our retinue are Kelly, whose birthday we celebrated on Sunday, who just
got posted in Delhi by Bloomberg Philanthropies and Birgid, whose birthday
was a few days before, here from Dusseldorf. An Indian family of ten
arrived on Sunday as well, and the Prakash caravan (accompanied by the
head Tea Doctor) left yesterday. Another Indian family of six arrived
today, and two English newlyweds last night. Great conversations abound,
and we really connected with Ashok & Richa, who we have invited to SF and
want us to have an authentic Rajasthani experience by staying in their
home.
About our fourth night: since we had to scratch Varanasi off the agenda
due to lack of train, we booked two nights in Darjeeling instead. After
here, we had planned on one night in Darjeeling before Gangtok and our
Sikkim jeep tour. But we've had enough of Darjeeling and wanted to either
spend another night in Gangtok, or in accommodations near Rumtek
Monastery. There were landslides in Sikkim which stranded over a thousand
vacationers and we started to joke half-seriously with Neilu, our hostess
about being stranded here. She laughed nervously, as this place is at
capacity. This morning during breakfast, Neilu called around to our
potential lodgings with no luck and said they had a spot for us. We moved
down to Prakash and the Tea Doctor's. It's away from main bungalows, right
behind the tea factory and we have our own watchman. A slightly different
experience, just a touch more rustic, but with privacy we lacked at the
big house.
Just came back from our last evening, seated dinner for twenty-three with
the cuisine of Southern India (this, after Italian lunch). At dusk, we had
the clearest skies yet due to the rains and a group of us sat on the lawn
with Mt. Kanchenjunga and its sisters dominating the skyline. Sublime. My
pix can't really do it justice, but I'll share them anyway. Ashok and
Richa have 'made room in their heart' for our visit to Rajasthan, and us
for theirs to SF. What an experience!
More pix to come when we're back in Gangtok, then off the grid for five
days as we take the jeep tour to the far reaches of Sikkim.
