Everybody* has been telling me what a great time they had reading about the Darjeeling Zoo, so I thought I’d follow it up with another. Same time. Same place. All new animals. (Except the grumpy red panda. I’ve decided he’s the Unofficial Spokesman of the Darjeeling Zoo. His motto: “Leave the popcorn bag and get out.”)
* (Not everybody, exactly.)**
** (Nobody, really. I just wanted to do another zoo post.)
Here’s a better picture of the Bengal Tiger.
Looks like another life-endangering selfie doesn’t it? That blur is me running away. I am just kidding you. This is a stuffed tiger they have on display. He’s not alive anymore – which explains why I still am.
There are some very rare Himalayan animals to be seen here but they tend to move by the time I get my camera out.
Here are the rear ends of the Himalayan Yak.
And the rear end of the Himalayan Langur.
Here’s a Green Bird.
And a Red One. (Sorry, I lost my notes.) But enough animal pictures.
What? You want more?
Okay. Here’s a cool Himalayan Wolf.
And a cool Himalayan Leopard.
Here’s a cool Himalayan White Bird with a Red Head. (Boy, I wish I had those notes.)
Another fun fact I learned is this: See that red, yellow and black banded snake coming at you? Lookout! Poison snake!
No wait. Look at the order of the colors on its body. They’re not red, yellow, black, yellow, red bands, they’re red, black, yellow, black, red bands. Silly me. He’s harmless, you can pat him.
Okay, last animal. The Himalayan Lady Bug. This one isn’t a zoo animal technically. It was in my hotel room. But I think it deserves a place in the zoo. How many of you agree? Come on! Just look at that ferocious face.
Speaking of the Himalayas. Two of the three largest mountains in the world can be seen from Darjeeling. The third tallest is Kanchenjunga which is very close by – and fun to say. An interesting discovery my friend Daniel and I made in exploring the zoo is that it’s connected to a couple other museums – one of which is dedicated to the conquest of Mount Everest.
We westerners like to make a fuss about Sir Edmund Hillary. A well-deserved fuss considering how excruciatingly cold and difficult that first climb must have been in 1950’s technology thermal wear (wool). But my vote for Most Fuss-Worthy goes to this guy.
Tensing Norgay was Hillary’s Sherpa guide. He not only had to endure the same winds, temperatures and lack of oxygen as Sir Edmund but he’d done it many times before just wearing his everyday mountain guy clothes. Sherpas frequently had to carry the oxygen tanks for their less adapted climbers. A Sherpa’s mitochondria is different from low-landers (I just read).
The museum itself contains photos, artifacts and the actual gear the climbers wore. Plus a huge replica of that area of the Himalayas that was fascinating to stare at. I would have taken a picture of it except for the sign that said TAKE ABSOLUTELY NO PICTURES OF IT. That plus there was a security guy watching me fingering my camera while I was watching him fingering his holster. But here’s something very like it.
I think we’re done now. Is it time for the Taj Mahal?