Darjeeling

This is heaven on earth. Lush beautiful land all around, the heavy scent of tea thick in the air. It's about 30 degrees cooler here than Varanasi and beggars don't seem to exist. Everyone is so nice, very few seem to be on the take.

We found our hotel after searching for about a 1/2 hour. This is a hill town which means everything is up or down, nothing straight across, and lugging a backpack around is a bit rough. I felt better though when the young boys who attached themselves to us temporarily were huffing and puffing way more than me and they were only carrying jackets.

The hotel is pretty simple, no running water so everything is done by bucket. This morning when I woke up the owner already had water boiling on the stove so I was able to take a hot bucket shower. It sounds primitive but when you're washing the pollution and a day's worth of gross travel out of your hair, it's absolute bliss. It's not just the hotel that does this, it seems to be much of Darjeeling. Walked to the outer deck to see the view, breathtaking with the mountains all around, flags flying everywhere in the city.

The views are spectacular and tomorrow morning I'll be up at 4am to catch the sunrise and a view of the mountains. I'm fairly certain this place will be the highlight of the trip.