We passed beautiful hills unseen on the dirty, hot, flat lands. There were tea plantations everywhere… reminiscent of our visit to the Boh tea plantation in Malaysia (See: June 3, 2004) and the air was fresh and cool. We’d finally arrived in the peaceful, quiet, cool place that we had been trying to reach for so long and have been craving so strongly. Heide has been suffering from a cold, so for the first few days we’ve done little more than enjoy tea and cakes at Darjeeling’s poshest bakery, Glenarys, a wonderful place with beautiful views.

As many of you know, we had hoped to visit Nepal on this journey and had planned to spend 4 weeks there in conjunction with the Indian portion of our trip. However, due to the political situation with the Maoist and the State Department & Foreign Office warnings, we decided that the right decision for us at this time was avoid Nepal. It’s not so much that we are afraid of being in the wrong place at the wrong time… that can happen anywhere in the world. We were more fearful of the specific threats made towards Americans as a result of US foreign policy declaring the Maoists “Terrorists.” Nothing would be worse than being split up and/or singled out because Heide holds a US Passport and Mark holds a British one.

The Darjeeling area has mountains that are just as big and just as beautiful as those in Nepal. In fact we are told that from some of the high altitude treks in the area, we will be able to see Everest and many of the worlds largest peaks. We hope to organize a walk in the mountains over the next few days… and expect it to be just as great, if not better than, anything we could have done in Nepal. We are told that the small mountain villages are comprised of people of Nepali and Tibetan origin and that the treks here are less touristy than those in Nepal.

By the way, to those of you who are in the USA… Happy Thanksgiving!!! We sure would have LOVED a big Turkey with all the trimmings, but we had to settle for chicken momos and soup. It was actually pretty yummy and perhaps a bit closer to a traditional Thanksgiving than last year’s fare of fish and chips! (See: November 27, 2003)