Hello my Darjeelings

After a long sleep last night, an upgraded hotel (paying an extra $3 each) and a chance to explore Darjeeling today as well as plan in more detail our final 10 days in India we have come to be quite fond of Darjeeling. The Chinese and Tibetan influence, not quite as obvious as in Leh, I think has some sort of calming influence as the Tibetan/Chinese men don't stare as intently and the women actually smile and say Hello when they pass you in a lane.

Photos are up of Amritsar, Delhi, Agra and Darjeeling.

We had a morning of talking to Jeep drivers and buying (just in time) our train ticket from New Jalpaiguri (next to Siliguri) to Kolkata on the 6th of November. Actually adds an extra day to our time to visit Sikkim (which sounds even more Tibetan and has the 8500m Kangchengdongza to marvel at).

During the afternoon we strolled though Happy Valley Tea Gardens and sampled their best Superfine Tippy Flowery Golden Orange Pico One - arguably the best tea in the world - argued by the fine men and women of Darjeeling of course - only takes 5 seconds of brewing for a tasty cuppa. We got lost on our way to the tea plantation and ended up eating Dhiwali sweets (bangle-sweetbreads) with a family who have a house on the slopes next to the plantation - the owner, Uday, promised to be our agent to organise accommodation for any future visits to Darjeeling.

Following the tea we walked (panting) up so Observatory Hill and had an afternoon looking at prayer flags, a shared Tibetan/Hindu Gompa, and the funniest tribe of monkeys I've ever seen. Not much to add other than that. Just thought I'd stick another post up to calm any concerns that we were about to throw ourselves off the edge of a Darjeeling cliff.

Oh, and we met a French-Canadian man named Cosmos - wandering about India in his suit educating universities on proper medical practice and also how to be more environmentally friendly. Good work Cosmos.