Breakfast in Ghorkaland
on Richard Johnson (India), 28/Oct/2010 03:47, 34 days ago
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Greetings from Ghorkaland. Land of the Ghorkas, mountain men and women of the Himalaya, so famed for their ferocity as soldiers that the British military dubbed them a "warrior race" and conscripted as many as possible to fight their battles (even as recently as theFalkland War). Quipped one British field marshal, "If a man says he is not afraid of dying, he is either lying or is a Gorkha."And what does a warrior race eat for breakfast? Not sure; probably something like oats and blood. (Actual Ghorkhas enjoy potatoes, garbanzo curry and dumplings.) But what does a visitor to Ghorkaland eat for breakfast, a visitor who's eaten naught but scrawny fish and sickly chicken, when any meat at all, for eight months?Meat. (That's 3 kinds of pork on the plate above; you know, for those of you who keep score of these things.)But I digress.Ghorkalandis thesemi-autonomous, proudly quasi-independent region of northernWest Bengalwhose unofficial capital city is the idyllic hillstation ofDarjeeling, non-quasi-official global capital of tea, where our holiday began after a 27-hour train ride and a 3-hour 4x4 jeep ride.The tea was okay, the meat was delicious, and the views at breakfast were divine.