Darjeeling. 2.185 m a.s.l.

So that was my last trip in India. It is Monaday and I spend the last two days here in Darjeeling. Tomorrow I will head home. This time it will be my very home.

The last two days here were just amazing. Unfortunately the internet connection here is too slow to upload pictures. I will do this when I am back home. On Saturday evening I arrived here after my plain had a two hours delay and our Jeep had a one hour brake down. The Jeep ride was quite exciting as they have no railings at the edges :) I also had to sit right in the middle of the first bench and had the gearshift lever right between my legs. So going in the second or forth gear wasn't really a pleasure, I can tell you :).

So yesterday I stood up at three o'clock in morning to see the sunrise. The reason for waking up so early was, that I went to a Hill called Tiger hill from were you have the best view over the whole Himalaya. It was really worth it. Unfortunately it was to cloudy in the direction of the Mt. Everest but you had a clear view to some other 7000's and of course the Kanchenjunga (8586 m). It was just amazing and freezing cold :)
Back in Darjeeling I searched my guest house for one hour as the streets here are so small and all the time there are stairs to take and it is just very confusing. I then went to the Mountaineering Institute to ask for climbing possibilities and of course to see the Mt. Everest Museum. Tenzing Norgay Sherpa the first man, who climbed the Mt. Everest (together with Sir Edmund Hillary) in 1953 used to live in Darjeeling and therefore, of course, the Mt. Everest is very famous here. The museum was just amazing and I would say that just to see this this trip was all worth it. I also visited the place were Tenzing was burnt to ashes.

After that I sneaked around the tea fields and had a few talks with the local people. The people over here are much more friendly then I ever experienced people in India and they seem just so satisfied. It was such a confortable atmosphere as I walked throught the little villages. I visted some temple then and finally went back to the city centre.

Today then I finally went for some climbing at the Mountaineering Institute and it was great fun. In the evening I visited a tea factory and saw the amazing process of making this famous tea. It was really interesting and all the mashines were over 150 years old.

So in a few hours I will go to bed and tomorrow I will see the sunrise one last time and say good bye to Kanchenjunga. Hopefully I will catch a Jeep then and be on time at the airport to make my way back to Delhi. In Delhi I will just pack my stuff, maybe go out with the french guys there and finally hopp on the plain to Germany at 3 o'clock in the morning.

So that was india but this is not the very last post ( ;) @ niki). I will write one more by the end of this week. So see you in Germany then.

bye