Darjeeling

The way to Darjeeling was not easy as the toy train for which I had a ticket was not working and has not been for several weeks/ months (why was I able to book it then???). So I took a Jeep from Siliguri. The roads were very bad due to the monsoon and landslides. As the weather was cloudy and rainy, I tried to sleep as there was no view to miss. It was also definitely better than looking down the canyon next to my window.

The weather stayed cloudy the following days, so I was looking at the nearby sights instead of the mountains. First stop was the Japanese temple and the Peace Pagoda set up by a Japanese after 2nd World War.

From there we took a steep road down into the valley, passing a teagarden, to the Rockgarden and Summerfalls. A lovely place to spend the day and go walking a bit in the forest and lower hills. Amazing flowers were blossoming.

I visited also a small monastery in Ghoom with just 14 monks.

On the way to the next spot, I met the toy train on its joy ride trip around the upper hill villages.

Next was the zoo with bears, goats and a lot more and in the centre the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute that focuses on the climbing of the Mount Everest and the Himalayan Mountains. The had a great model there, so you could press a button and the mountain would light up on the model.

In the teagarden, I dressed up as a tea plucker girl and got some nice shots done, before I tried the local tea and bought some to bring home.

The last point was the Tibetan Help Centre where a lot of Tibetan people settled down after their exodus in the 1950s/60s.

The next morning, I picked up my saree from tailoring and then left by another jeep to Gangtok in Sikkim.