If we don't return, it's because we decided to stay in Darjeeling and become tea farmers.

Seriously, this is the greatest town. If you were worried about us having a hard time in India (especially me), you can be assured that we have found a place we feel very comfortable in. Darjeeling is a great little hill town, not far from Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan. There are Buddhists, Hindu, Siikks, Muslims and just a great melting pot of cultures. The Tibetan food is great. We love momos and yak cheese is so great in omelettes.

We took an overnight train from Calcutta to New Jalpaiguri (10 hours) and then crammed into a share jeep up these crazy insane thin roads up to Darjeeling (3 hours). At some points, the road had fallen down and at others we backed up so oncoming traffic could get by. It was a bit scary. We followed the toy train tracks all the way up and have booked a ticket to go back down on the train. The Darjeeling Toy Train is one of the most scenic in India and has been in continuous use since the 1800s. It will take us 7 hours instead of the 3 by jeep, but we are doing it for the siteseing and my nerves!

In Darjeeling, we found a cute guest house. The water is scarce unless you stay in the nicer hotels, so we get buckets of hot water. We are still getting used to the squat toilets too, but the view is fantastic. From our room and the balcony, we can see the valley and mountains and we occassionally get ingulfed in a huge cloud. Last night, we watched the moon peak out from the clouds as they moved very parallel to us, almost as if we were in the same plane. We had dinner at a Tibetan place that was great. They use yak cheese, which seems to have a swiss cheese taste when cooked and is fabulous as were the dumplings (momos). We also shopped and weren't attacked as we were in the rest of India. Looking is ok and the prices are fair, actually very fair as in most cities they elevate the prices for foreigners. We bought some material and a silk shirt at a government run village based co-op shop and saw some of the most beautiful saris ever there.

Today we learned about tea and bought some. We saw the plantations and learned proper seeping methodss. We alos wondered through the market and saw a glodsmith make a gold chain. We have a lot more to do here and tomorrow we wake up to go to Tiger Hill to watch the sun rise from the highest mountain in India. We will be able to see Everest if it is clear. More to come...but in case you were worrying about us...we have found our favorite Indian city. Cheers and Namaste.