Himalayas

We have survived our first week in India!! We flew into Kolkatta and then directly onto Bagdogra (north of Kolkatta), and then hopped on a "shared jeep" (which is code word for "a jeep with as many people as possible crammed into and onto it") to Darjeeling--home of Darjeeling tea. Darjeeling is a cute mountain city nestled into Northern India near the Himalayas and Nepal border. Supposedly you can see Mt. Kanchengjunga (the world's third tallest mountain at 8598meters---we like to call it K3) on a clear day. All we have seen from Darjeeling is clouds. But it is still a cute city and few have enjoyed a few days here.

We took a crazy (as in bumby and scary corners with tires nearly sliding off the edge of the cliff) landrover ride up (as in straight up...took 4 hours to go 20 miles!) a mountain to one of the best viewpoints of the Himalays from this region. On a clear day you can see 5 of the worlds 6 tallest mountain (including Everest!). We think we saw them all, but Everest was a long way off and looks very small from this view point. :) We stayed 3 nights in the mountains and had beautiful vies for about 5-6 hours every morning. We woke up at 5am for sunrise, put on 42 layers of clothing, and then spent the next 6 hours staring at the mountains and taking tons of photos...for 3 days in a row. The afternoons and evenings were often cloudy and stormy and COLD. But we enjoyed our time and met many neat people. Then we spent 2 days hiking down the beautiful hillsides. Today we are back in Darjeeling and trying to plan our journey onward!