Dawn walk through Ilam Tea Estate

We meet at your guesthouse at about 6 am and walk five minutes downhill into the estate. The rows here are old, clipped to waist height, and laid along the contour so you can follow them like terraces, with shade trees standing over the bushes at intervals. On most mornings in spring and autumn a layer of kuhiro sits in the valley below, and the far ridges float on top of it. Our guide picks a route that keeps you on the main paths and away from areas being sprayed or pruned.

Pickers, almost all women, arrive around seven with baskets on their backs held by a namlo, the cloth strap across the forehead. Our guide explains the rule they work by, two leaves and a bud, and why the first flush in late March and April sells for more than the monsoon leaf. You learn how the day's leaf is weighed, how pickers are paid, and where it goes next. If the women are willing, you can try plucking for a few minutes under their eye.

We finish at a tea shop in the bazaar with two or three cups side by side: a light first or second flush, a darker autumn tea, and perhaps a green. It is the simplest way to learn what you like before you buy, and the shopkeepers enjoy the questions. Breakfast follows at a local eatery or back at your guesthouse, and you have the rest of the day free for Kanyam, Mai Pokhari or simply a slow afternoon in town.