Sonada

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Had a fab time NEAR Darjeeling. NEAR being the key word because half way up from Siliguri, where the train stops, the bus I was in gave up because of bad weather. So I quickly got myself (being very cold) into a jeep where I met a French and Aussie girl... and we got about 10km further before, again, we could go no further because of snowdrifts.
Our driver was a crazy 'no fear' guy but still he got scared as it's really easy for the jeeps to slip off the side of the mountain. So instead he focused on having a snowball fight, and by good fortune, two buddhist monks were in the jeep and were kind enough to invite us all to stay with one of their relatives in a village near Darjeeling called Sonada. It was unbelievably cold (did I mention that?!).. the worst snow they've had in 15 years, so you can imagine how grateful we were when we were offered steaming momos and hot water bottles to curl up with.
And, even though we didn't end up reaching our destination as the weather got even worse, the hospitality of the tibetan and nepali people we stayed with was unbelievable. We had a really amazing time. I was really lucky to meet both Sonam and Pema as they are both the kindest, fun and generous guys you could imagine.

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Photos

Sonada - Sonam, his brother in law and niece
Namaste!