tea anyone?

we're in darjeeling - it’s a surprise to us too, and a complete last-minute change to our itinerary. trying to beat the heat, we left varanasi and took a northbound 12 hour overnight train that somehow turned into a 24 hour whole-day train!? following that, a three hour jeep ride up the mountains deposited us at the beautiful hill station of darjeeling. at over 6,000 feet elevation and nestled in between nepal, tibet, and bhutan, we're enjoying the 65 degree temperature (a 40 degree drop), and our lungs appreciate the fresh air. surrounded by mountains, tea estates (yes…darjeeling tea), and smiling tibetan people, its really the perfect place to recover. unfortunately, we're on the mend from the dysentery we both acquired while in varanasi. there's nothing like a good food borne illness to shave off those few unwanted pounds…luckily, we are armed with antibiotics from the travel doctor in hawaii and hopefully the nasty critter is dead. we're both feeling much better…and looking rather trim…

for (only) the second time in india, we actually have access to wifi and are able to upload photos and bring the blog up to date. check out flickr for new india pics. i've really only spent time in the room for the last three days - so i don't have much to say about darjeeling, nor do we have any photos yet… i can say that the view from our corner suite at the rustic bellevue hotel is absolutely magnificent. we're here for a few more days and do plan to get out to see some sights…so we'll keep you posted!

alina