Brrrr... its cold up here! but at least its not Indian!

Prayer flags at a Buddhist Temple

Drinking Tumba

Tea Picker in Darjeeling

Khangchendzonga Peak at Sunrise, from Tiger Hill

My first time travelling on sleeper class (dirty and crowded) but I guess it wasn’t so bad. There is no direct train between Calcutta and Darjeeling, so we had to take a jeep from NJP station up the hills. Once we got there, we were all too overwhelmed by the cold to pay any attention to the beautiful landscapes surrounding us. We quickly equipped ourselves with wool socks, hats, long underwear and big blankets (all of which we wore the entire time we were there).
Darjeeling is different from the rest of India in everyway possible; the climate, the landscape, the people, the food, the clothing… such a wonderful feeling to be leave India behind for one week. The majority of the inhabitants come from either a Nepal or Tibet, bringing along their culture, including food, dress and religion. As a result, we spent the days exploring Buddhist monasteries (Ghompas) and visited the Tibetan Refugee Self Help Center, where Tibetans sustain a livelihood by producing traditional crafts. We ate delicious momo’s (very similar to the dumplings you get in Shanghai), bowls of Tenthuk soups and drinking lots of hot tea to keep us warm.
Being the troopers that we were, we managed to drag our asses out of bed at 4am one morning to see the sunrise from Tiger Hill. As the sun rose, we admired the beauty of the Himalayas as the sunlight reflected off the Khangchendzonga peak, while feeling a bit nauseous from sleep deprivation and the bumpy ride up.
Andrea and Naomi planned to do an 8 day snow trek up in Sikkim. Being relatively less diehard about the cold, Sara and I decided that this is where our paths split, so the two of us made arrangements to go to Varanasi instead. We spent our last night together at a small teahouse, drinking Tomba, a hot drink of fermented barley. The shopkeeper was the sweetest lady who told us a sad story of her childhood. It was a wonderful way to say goodbye to Darjeeling and to our friends. *single tear*