Darjeeling
Written by matt + jen on September 17th, 2008
The journey from Siliguri was like driving into the sky – Darjeeling’s about 2150m above sea level. Ben Nevis is about 1344m.
We also saw someone carrying a full size sofa like this up a huge hill.
Darjeeling seems so relaxed after all the cities we’ve been to, eveyone just sits around chatting and nobody hassles you except to ask if you’re lost.
Sunset over the Himalayas.
A huge Tibetan breakfast. That’s tea made with salt and butter, mmmm, with deep fried tibetan bread. It was nice but so buttery, Matt was almost sick afterwards.
That’s a leopard in the zoo.
Jenny – a lazy moon bear.
Clouds come down really fast so suddenly you can’t see anything.
Sunrise, sort of. We got up at 3.30 am to get a jeep to this special viewpoint (Tiger Hill) but this was the only shot through the clouds.
We weren’t the only ones, and there were lots of local ladies selling sweet coffee. It was freezing (well probably about 15C).
Scrolls in Yiga-Choling Gompa Buddhist monastery in Ghoom.
The tea shop before Jenny bought it all.
A nice Nepalese man who showed us round the gardens.
24
PM
Hi Matt and Jen. Wow the trip looks like it gets better and better. Yeah we went to France, will tell you about it when your back. The Himalayas look amazing; what was the highest you were at? Ok have fun, bye
26
PM
Hey JaM, no update for a while
Are the internet cafes a bit sparse in the east or are you in meditative bliss after hanging out with the Buddhists? Hope you’re enjoying it still. When are you back? (not that I expect you to be thinking of it coming to an end!). Can’t wait to hear more.
Alice xx
PS Those moon bears, so lazy!!
27
PM
Hi guys,
The highest we were at was about 2600m (8500 ft). Jen found it quite hard to breathe for a while and couldn’t walk for more than about 100m without a break!
We got a little bit ill so didn’t get to see as much of the Himalayas as we wanted to (and none of Calcutta), but was still really cool. That’s also why we didn’t post for a while – plus the internet gets a bit slow up there!
We got back on Thursday – have just been sleeping (after a 51 hour journey!) and trying to sort out our thousands of photos.
Will be in touch properly soon.