Mmmm... Momos

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Darjeeling is amazing. It's a little town built into the side of a mountain. The houses and buildings look like little Lego structures stuck the face of the hill. And there are tea plantations everywhere. It doesn't really seem like India at all - people dress western, and there's a mix of Nepalese, Bengali, Chinese, Tibetan all living there. It's just a happy place. One night, we went to a traditional folk dance in the park. A bunch of Nepalese kids grabbed me and forced me to dance with them. Anyone that's seen me dance knows that's not a pretty sight.

We checked out the sunrise at Tiger Hill, from where you can see 4 of the 5 tallest mountains in the world. Mount Khangchendzonga dominates the skyline at 8600 m. Everest is just a tiny spec from there, but it's still visible. You can't describe it in words. Hopefully I'll get the pics up today or tomorrow. The view made the 3:30am wakeup call to get out there worth it. We then took the Toy Train to a town called Ghoom. The train moves at about 5 km/hr. I actually got sprayed with steam and soot, cuz I got off the train and had the catch up to it.

We went the Tibetan Self Help Centre, which is for
Tibetan refugees. They make carpets, woodcarvings, and all sorts of
stuff to support themselves. It's unreal... They're really ingenious.
They make tools out of bicycle wheels, bamboo shoots, wires, anything
they've got. The master woodcarver named Esring gave us a quick demo. He took a wire, then used a chisel to make little saw teeth in the
wire. Then he mounted it into a piece of curved bamboo, and, tada, in
5 minutes he had made his own saw. He let me use it to cut some wood- he makes it so easy, but I was flailing around. He's also in charge of their basketball club, The Yaks. My aunt and uncle had given me some money as a gift, so I donated it the BBall team. Gotta help out
the ballaz all over the world. The only bad thing was that neither me nor my sis had our cameras with us that day! So stupid...

Our last day, we checked out a tea plantation. Our guide was great; he knew all the ins and outs of the tea biz. He even quizzed us at the end to make sure we were paying attention.

Visiting that place was pretty awe inspiring. We bought a ton of
gifts for our family in India from their shop. And they sell a lot - if
you order a carpet today, they won't get around to making it until
Dec. 2006! So apparently business is good, which is nice to hear.

Well, it's back to Kolkata from here, which means no more Momos for a while.

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Photos

Mt. Khangchendzonga
Mt. Khangchendzonga (which is Nepalese for big ass mountain), at sunrise

Everest
Everest, the tiny speck of a mountain on the left

Sunrise over Tiger Hill
Everest, the tiny speck of a mountain on the left