Caught in the clouds

Darjeeling is the quintessential Indian hill station perched on the steep Himalayan foothills. Hindu chants are carried on the same breeze that send the colorful Tibetan prayer flags fluttering. We arrived before the high season hit, and thus found the beautiful tea country to be enshrouded in clouds that swirled and played around the hills...but never revealed the snowcapped peaks that lay just beyond their cover. The cold that first delighted us, got down in our bones and chilled us to the core. Our wardrobe was a bit lacking for the high winds and cool temperatures of Darjeeling...and the several blankets on our beds still failed to warm us. So, we drank lots of the famed regional tea, ate delicious Tibetan soups, and outfitted ourselves with hats and scarves to fight off the cold. Unfortunately, we also had a stomach bug catch up with us and Tim and I spent the majority of our time in the charming town fighting over the frigid toilet (that inevitably brought a small scream everytime you sat on the ice cold seat!) We will have to return to Darjeeling in the summer months to really experience the beautiful town that is a world apart from the India we have seen so far.