Today was a lovely day in Darjeeling. I'd put pictures up of the views I awoke to, but unfortunately that will have to wait until I'm out of Darjeeling and have a bit better internet connection.

I made friends yesterday with another traveler named Maggie, and so today we went to visit a nearby Buddhist temple (unfortunately it was closed, but apparently it houses the original tibetan book of the dead), the Tibetan refugee self-help center, where we got to see wood carving, weaving, spinning, and knitting all being done (and did a bit of shopping), then on the the Happy Valley tea plantation and a short tour of tea processing, on to the botanical gardens, and up a lot of stairs and hills to where our hotels are. Lots of walking, and I loved it. You don't really get to do that at all in Delhi.

I am very much enjoying Darjeeling, for the walking, the friendliness of the people, the ability to wear a sweatshirt and scarf, and the momos. Its also fun to meet other people traveling through. I'm lucky in that my hotel has a little common room where its easy to meet people (at breakfast today I met an australian who lives in Bejing who actually pulled out two tubes of vegemite, I was in awe). Its much more pleasant to travel around with someone, especially when your directions lead you down winding alleys/lanes/into people's backyards/across trash rivers, and then you end up where you needed to go. Its the kind of thing I would have turned around thinking I was going the wrong way, but with someone else you feel a lot more comfortable going on. I'll get used to it, and people here are very helpful with directions.

Well, I am going to try to wake up at 3:45 in the morning (again), this time to see the sunrise over the himalayas. And then more Buddhist temples/monasteries... we shall see.