Our earliest wake up call yet, 3:30, uggh, that part of the trip is getting old, for the trip to Tiger Hill for sunrise and maybe a peak at a few Himalayan giants on the horizon. As our car climbed in the fog I saw more cars than I could have ever imagined at that time of the morning. All I could think is that the only thing in the states that w...

Finally we have made it to darjeeling. Moaist strikes had prevented our original plan of seeing Darjeeling. Now that those pesky Moaists have been given back their right to the luxury government valet system all is well in Darjeeling again- people are eating, people are accessing there tea estates, money is available at banks, public transportat...

... After crossing the border into India, we decided that the ideal way to spend the festive season would be to find ourselves a nice secluded self catering establishment away from the madness for a couple of days - burn some food, drink some wine, and reeeellllaaaaxx (aahh). The first choice was a jewel of a hill station called Mirik, between t...

While the original plan was to carry on along the ridge to Phalut (also around 3,600m), the thought of another miserably cold night and more inclement weather made me decide to follow Richard and Rakesh down to Rimbick. Besides, that morning we were finally treated to the sight that I had come this way to see--looming in the distance about a 160...

First we took a local jeep from Yuksom to Jorethang. The driver seems to know everyone in all the little villages on the way. In Jorethang we took another jeep to Darjeeling. That was unbelievable. They actually managed to squeeze 15 people in a jeep the size of a Suzuki Vitara. What's more the jeep had to stop every 10 minutes and the driver ha...