Little Yap Yap goes travelling: Darjeeling

Darjeeling straddles a ridge 2200m up in the Himalayas. It is beautiful here and was worth the 38.5 hrs to get here! It is also completely different to the crazy, chaotic plains of India. I don't feel like I'm in India anymore. With the considerable Tibetan presence there are numerous working Buddhist monastaries here. Of course I need to mention the tea plantations - Darjeeling is famous for it's tea and there are many tea plantations around and yes the Chai is lovely!
However, even with all this beauty there are acute water shortages, daily rolling electricity cuts (good thing I got a torch as a leaving present as it's pretty scary stumbling around in the dark alleyways and with loads of stray dogs breeding all over the place! - thanks Sam & Prit) and political upheaval. It sure is cold up in the mountains and jumping from the 30 degrees C plains of India down to 5 degree C in the mountains it has been a bit of a shock to the system and heating is non existent so it is a bit of an endurance test at night.. Since I only packed for warm weather conditions, I have purchased some warm clothes and am now sporting a very fetching Tibetan inspired ensemble :-) (Sorry Adrian...unfortuneatly they don't sell Yak hair jumpers here, which I'm completely gutted about).

I am staying at Cozy Nest Guesthouse (www.thecozynest.hostel.com), which is run by a lovely Tibetan man called Wangchuck. I actually feel like I'm staying in someone's home and completely recommend coming to Darjeeling just to stay here! He brings us breakfast and tea in bed! There is another Brit staying here who I met in Varanasi so we've been kicking about together. We both woke up today at 3:30am to go see the sunrise at a place called Tiger Hill, which is a hill station not far from Darjeeling. I thought I was going to pass out with tiredness, but the sunrise was amazing and the distant view of Kanchenjunga (the third highest mountain in the world) was definitely worth the early wake up.

Happy Valley Tea Plantation

Lady carrying tea strapped to her head

Everyone uses gas here so you see these guys transport actual gas cylinders strapped to their heads and carry them up and down the steep hills in Darjeeling! - do you know how heavy a single gas cylinder weighs??