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Old bungalows converted into luxury lodges for tourists

Santanu Sanyal

Two leaves and a bud, acres and acres of rolling hills covered with tea bushes, evergreen forest, exotic flowers, gurgling streams, waterfalls, a house on a hill top, the sunrise and, capping it all, the sound of silence.

The cool, fertile hills of the Himalayas grow some of the world’s finest and therefore, the most prized teas.

But some of the tea estates in West Bengal, particularly in Darjeeling district, and Assam are now converting their British-built old bungalows into luxury lodgings, catering to a select, but growing, band of people who wouldn’t mind paying handsomely while sipping what is called Champagne of teas (if it is Darjeeling tea) or Cognac of teas (if it is the Assam variety) amidst sylvan surrounding. Paying handsomely? Yes. Goods things in life do not always come cheap.

But, then, it will be wrong to presume one has to pay handsomely only for tasting tea and sleeping in a four-bedroom wooden (or stone) house which is 100-year-old.

If one visits a tea garden in West Bengal or Assam in March, when the tea harvest begins, one can see the first flush, the youngest and fragrant tips being plucked by workers from slopes as steep as 80 degrees, talk to the local people and learn about the fascinating bush to cup story, i.e., the whole process of how a tea leaf makes it to a tea cup -- from bush to factory and then to the tea cup.

One can also witness the tea tasting session, which can be a unique experience.

One can even hike through rain forests in search of animals, opt for rafting or fishing in the hilly rivers that flow in every way they please, climb the hills or just sit in one corner of the verandah of the bungalow, breathe fresh air, watch the majestic Kanchenjunga and enjoy the serenity.

Tea tourism, though a new concept, is fast catching on with more and more tourists making their way to the lush green tea estates.

Particularly among the foreigners, whose fathers, grandfathers and even great grandfathers spent their lives in the tea gardens in India.

Many of those who spent their early days in the tea gardens, but are now settled in their own countries, have fond memories.

A few days stay in tea gardens is like a journey down the memory lane.

Those who did not grow up in the gardens but heard stories from their fathers and grandfathers too, are keen to have first-hand knowledge of what life is like for a planter.

In fact, there is a directory called “Koi Hai” on British tea planters in India.

There is still another group of foreigners who prefer to spend a few days in tea gardens when they come to visit the old British cemeteries spread all over the North-East.

A large number of white men died here fighting unsuccessfully either malaria in the marshy lands of the then undivided Assam or the Japanese attack in the hills of Arakan.

Tea tourism, it is often said, is answer to what Europe calls wine tourism where the visitors stay in the vineyards, observe wine-making process, taste the wine, shop for wine and local crafts and produce.

“We found the whole experience educational and very interesting, and this inspired us to open our own tea estate for tourists who may be interested in knowing about tea,” observes Ms Husna-Tara Prakash of Glenburn Tea Estate of Darjeeling.

“On my first visit to Glenburn, I decided this was the place for such an experience, which I would like call The Tea Experience, as it was simply the most heavenly place.

“In addition to the Tea Experience, we could also offer the guests the other experience, the walking experience, as Glenburn remains perhaps the only destination in the country where you can walk all day and return to luxury at night to savour the mouth-watering dishes prepared with fresh herbs, spices and vegetables we grow ourselves.”

The Tea Board of India, according to its Chairman, Mr Basudeb Bandopadhyaya, welcomes the tea tourism initiative.

“We ourselves from the Tea Board do not promote tea tourism per se because this is not our core area but we always welcome gardens promoting it as revenue-earning drive,” Mr Bandopadhyaya observes.

“We also participate in joint programmes organised by others for promotion of tea tourism”.

For example, as he points out, recently the Tea Board participated in tourism promotion programme organised by the West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation in Las Vegas in the US and it was a success.

Tea Board, he said, has asked from the industry a list of gardens which have been identified for purpose of tourism promotion.

Tea tourism, the Tea Board Chairman feels, helps the industry in two ways. First, it helps them develop an alternative revenue stream.

Tea, being an agricultural commodity, is subject to cyclical fluctuations and there are times when the gardens are hard hit by falling international prices, vagaries of weather and labour troubles and various other factors and experience shows that in such difficult times, the promotion of tourism helps gardens overcome their crisis, if not wholly, at least partially.

But more important, according to him, is that tourism helps generate greater awareness among people about tea, particularly good tea and this helps the industry.

Mr C.S. Bedi, Chairman of Tea Research Association, firmly believes in promotion of tea tourism which though does not come directly under the normal operation of TRA.

But then TRA being a 100-year-old tea research institution, the only of its kind in the world, any tea tourism package could include a visit to it.

Being a veteran tea person having spent long years in tea gardens, Mr Bedi strongly feels that the success of tea tourism depends on proper packaging of the tour programme.

For example, the package for a visit to a tea garden in Assam perhaps, should include a visit to Kaziranga National Park, famous world-over for its one-horned rhinos.

But the problem is that Kaziranga remains closed to traffic from May to October, which is also the period when activity in tea gardens is at its peak.

During the tea season, i.e., from April to December, the managers of the gardens remain so preoccupied with the entire process of tea production, from the plucking of leaves to preparation of made teas and despatches that they will not have much time left to attend to the tourists.

There are other issues such as proper local infrastructure, secure environment which deserve careful consideration at the time of preparation of the package, observes Mr Bedi.

The tea tourism, it is felt, can hope to succeed if the garden-owners also take adequate care to train the local estate workers in hospitality skills, maintenance of conservation practices by creating bio-diversity areas within the estates, preservation of plastic-free environment and, most important, never forgetting to give the impression that they all belong to one big happy family within the plantation.

Tea tourism in India can indeed be a very fine experience.

If the gardens are located in the foothills of the Himalayas, one can see the wonderful mountain range from the rooms or can relax sitting in a garden chair surrounded by tea bushes, watch the greeneries, look at the beautiful slopes of the mountains which look like huge green carpets and enjoy the serenity of the wonderful atmosphere.

Or one can take a walk through the gardens, see local men and women working, plucking leaves and buds in huge cane baskets.

If on the other hand one is in a tea garden in South India, one can indulge in watching elephant graze, verdant slopes punctuated by waterfalls, delight at the joy of boating across a lake, trek a mountain path, play a game of table tennis, support the cause of the endangered Lion-tailed Macaque, walk across acres and acres of endless beauty or read a book of one’s choice sitting on a water edge.

But no matter whether one is in the North or in the South, one should never forget to taste the local tea during the stay in the tea garden because this is something without which tea tourism will remain incomplete.

The tea break, one will feel, has never been so exotic.

More Stories on : Tourism | Tea | West Bengal

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