"When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers... what is man that You take thought of him?"

"When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers... what is man that You take thought of him?"

Psalms 8:3,4

   Darjeeling was INCREDIBLE! It was truly awe inspiring. It is definitely a place everyone should experience if they get the chance! The majestic beauty of the surrounding area of Darjeeling is  indescribable; it will make you question how anyone could not believe in God after seeing something like that. It will also make you question how the God that created something of that magnitude and beauty could ever take a personal interest in a single man. I wish my pictures could do it justice but they don't. They can give you a glimpse but they do nothing to show the absolute splendor and magnitude of the mountains we got to see.

   Amanda and I set off Thursday night from the BMS. We were supposed to have a car from the BMS take us to the train station but that was apparently miscommunication because there was no car for us. Fortunately, one of the guards and our friends that live on the street in front of the BMS helped us get a cab for a reasonable price (there was a taxi strike so getting a cab for a reasonable price as fast as we did was great!). We made it to train station and found our platform without too much trouble. While we were waiting for a train to arrive we noticed these couriers carrying multiple, large suitcases on their heads. We were somewhat fascinated at the skill they displayed carrying all the bags while we were struggling with our backpacks and duffles. The train was nice enough, much smaller than I was expecting but it was comfortable. We think that we shared our bunk area with one of the district managers. Whoever he was, he was important enough to have assistances bring in his luggage and make his bed and set out his dinner before he even got into the bunk area. The "district manager" and his assistant were nice and spoke English fairly well so we had some nice conversations with them. I slept ok. Just like on airplanes where turbulence   will occasionally wake you up, the train shaking occasionally woke us up.

   Once we arrived in Silliguri at the NJP station, we were met by Amanda's contact who had arranged a ride up the mountain to Darjeeling for us. Since there was a strike going on there, we were  once again lucky to get a ride when we did and for the price that we did. The ride up there was beautiful and absolutely as bumpy and curvy as it could have possibly been. As lame as it sounds, once we neared Darjeeling, it was like were driving into the sky because the clouds just enveloped everything around us.

   We didn't feel well once we had arrived at our hotel so we rested for a while and then went exploring after we had gotten ready. We were amazed at how different Darjeeling is from Kolkata. It's hard to comprehend that both cities are in the same country. Kolkata is a bustling city with everything that comes with a crowded city while Darjeeling was a peaceful mountain town thats only disturbance was the diesel sounding engines of the all terrain vehicles bringing people up the mountain. We ate at a Thai restaurant and watched 27 Dresses as we ate our steaming mushroom soup, fried rice and naan. We found the trekking/hiking travel agency that had been recommended in our travel book and arranged to take a guided hike to Tiger Hill, a couple monasteries and to Happy Valley Tea Estate. We went shopping and bought a couple shaws afterwards because we were so cold.

   We woke up to a very disappointing rain shower. Our guide met us at our hotel and told us that we could call him once the rain let up enough that we felt like we could enjoy our hike. So we went to a cute restaurant and had honey toast and tea for breakfast after which we went to an internet cafe to try to wait out the rain. Around 10:30 we called Sanjay our guide because the rain had pretty much stopped. We decided that since it was as late as it was that is was probably best if we changed our itinerary some. So we decided to go to the tea estate and then to a botanical garden and to the market. 

   Our walk/hike was beautiful!! (I'll let the pictures do most of the describing on this). Sanjay spoke English very well and was well versed in the history of Darjeeling - so I had a great time listening to him tell us about everything that we were walking/hiking passed.

   By the time we had finished everything we had discussed doing, Amanda and I were both fairly tired and ready for a shower. Amanda was nice enough to let me take the first shower. She was being a nicer than she realized because about half way through my shower our hot water cut off and never came back on. This was only made worse by the fact that we didn't have any heat in our hotel (the lows in Darjeeling while we were there were in the 40's). We went out and explored a little more after we rested and showered but everything closed after we ate dinner so we were forced to go back to our hotel earlier than planned.

   We woke up fairly earlier again so we could get the most out of our last day. I was feeling really under weather and Amanda wasn't feeling great either so we were a little sluggish but we got breakfast, lunch and a snack at a bakery and explored a little more before going back to the hotel so we could pack.

  The trip back down the mountain and back to Sealdah station in Kolkata was fairly uneventful, which great anywhere but especially here.

   The trip as a whole, even though there were strikes and we were sick was absolutely amazing! I'm honestly already wishing I could go back!