Darjeeling

After Assam, I headed for Darjeeling. This was my first "traveling" experience in India, where I had to figure everything out on my own. I boarded the correct plane, arrived safely, and took an airport cab up to Darjeeling. Darjeeling, known for it's tea, is a small town on the side of a hill. It is literally sprawled on the side of the hill/mountain, no flattening anything. The ride up is not for the weak at heart, as is no ride or transportation in India. But the ride was absolutely breathtaking and we proceeded up the windy road passing through beautiful, lush, tropical scenery with waterfalls, and the higher we went the more exposed the view of the valley became. It was on and off raining and it felt like we were climbing into the clouds. The one lane road was filled with two-way traffic and thoughts of slipping down off the road were blocked from my mind, which was filled with the impressive landscape. Upon arrival, I was dropped off at the taxi area. I had picked a guesthouse out of my "bible", the lonely planet, and basically just asked around. Everyone was super friendly, and the police handed my a not-s0-legible map of Darjeeling. I hiked up and around the road in the light mist and found my guesthouse without trouble, other than my lungs' acknowledgement of the altitude. I arrived in the guesthouse, checked into my tiny, but quaint and very inexpensive room. I headed to the restaurant on the top of the guesthouse, had some tea and food and retired for the night. In the morning, I scanned the Darjeeling chapter in the lonely planet and decided some of the sights that I might want to see. I'm not too good at finding things, and I didn't want to walk around with my giant lonely planet in my hand, so I basically just started walking. I noticed the tibetan influence of this city right away and found a certain comfort in the familiarity of Mongolia. I was walking around with no direction and decided I'd start with seeing a monastery. I had no idea that Darjeeling is filled with Monasteries. I just asked a guy on the street where's the nearest monastery, and followed the school children down a narrow path until I eventually found one. It was closed. I walked around and noticed the 2 other foreigners taking pictures. They left. There was a monk making prayers in the 2nd floor of the monastery. I looked up, trying to figure out where it was coming from, and found the monk looking out the window at me. He invited me up. I found my way up the stairs and entered his tiny room, sans the shoes. I sat in silence as I watched and listened to his prayers, mantra, and drums. It again reminded me of Mongolia. Some of the men in the Monastery even kind of looked Mongolian. Monks would peer into the room, I assumed from seeing the foreigners shoes outside. They'd smile and disappear. When the meditation was over, I thanked the monk, who didnt speak any English and got lost finding my way back up towards where I was staying. I loved my short time in Darjeeling, but I'd heard its a lot like Nepal and it reminded me a lot of Mongolia. I planned to head out and my last day, I made some tourist friends and directed them to the tibetan refugee center, which I'd hiked to the day before. Me and one other guy headed for the zoo. The zoo had some interesting animals, but I'm not the hugest fan of animals in cages. What was cool was the Everest mountaineering museum. I am absolutely impressed by the people who climb Everest and the museum helped me gain an understanding of the Himalayas, which in a better time of year are viewable from my guesthouse. I hope to do some hiking around the base of some of these impressive mountains.