Ilam and Shree Antu

Ilam is Nepal’s tea district: ridges at fifteen hundred to two thousand metres in the far east, covered in clipped green rows, twenty kilometres from Darjeeling across the border and growing much the same leaf in much the same conditions. It is cool, wet, green and completely unlike the Nepal most visitors see.

It also has a sunrise. From Shree Antu, on the ridge at the Indian border, Kanchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world, comes up out of the dark at close range, with the plains of Bengal on the other side.

The tea

The industry started here in the 1860s, at roughly the same time as Darjeeling and for the same reasons of altitude, rainfall and soil. Ilam Tea Estate, in the town, is one of the oldest in the country.

The gardens run over the ridges around the town in every direction. Walking through them is the main activity, and the good version of that is going in with someone who works there: what the flushes are, why the first one in spring is the expensive one, what two-leaves-and-a-bud means in practice when you are being paid by weight.

Nepali orthodox tea from Ilam has spent most of its history being sold into Darjeeling’s supply chain and blended away. Some estates now sell under their own name, and buying directly here is both cheaper and more honest than buying it in Kathmandu.

Factory visits are possible at several estates and depend on the season and on asking in advance.

Shree Antu

About two hours from Ilam town by road, at around 2,200 metres, on the ridge that is also the border. The sunrise view of Kanchenjunga is why people come, and unlike Nagarkot the mountain is close enough to fill the horizon rather than sit on it.

There is a small lake at the top with a story attached, tea gardens on the slopes, and a scatter of homestays. From the ridge you look down onto Indian tea country on one side and Nepali on the other.

The road up is rough and slow, and in the monsoon it is worse. Give it more time than the distance suggests.

The rest of the district

Mai Pokhari, a small forest lake at about 2,100 metres with nine corners, is a Ramsar site and a pilgrimage spot, surrounded by oak and rhododendron.

Kanyam and Fikkal are the roadside tea areas most visitors from Kathmandu photograph, on the highway before Ilam town.

Sandakphu, the highest point in West Bengal at 3,636 metres, is walkable from this side and gives a view of Everest and Kanchenjunga together. That crosses a border and needs proper arrangement.

Staying

Homestays through the tea villages, particularly around Shree Antu and Kanyam, plus simple hotels in Ilam town. This is a homestay district rather than a hotel one and the homestays are the better experience.

Food is eastern Nepali: more Limbu and Rai influence, more fermented things, and locally, kinema and gundruk.

Practical things

• Rain. Ilam is one of the wetter parts of Nepal, which is what the tea likes. Bring a waterproof in any season.
• The flight to Bhadrapur is about 50 minutes from Kathmandu; the road up from there takes three to four hours. Overland from Kathmandu is very long.
• The Indian border at Pashupatinagar is right there and is a functioning crossing, but do not wander across a ridge without a stamp.
• Cash. ATMs in Ilam town, nothing in the villages.