Sorry for the delayed update - we will try to catch up! Our trip from New Delhi to Darjeeling included a 22 hour train ride, where they fed us almost every 2 hours, and a 4 1/2 hour bus ride. The train was uneventful and easy going; however, the bus ride was quite painful since the road to Darjeeling is not only very windy but full of pot holes. 
We finally arrived at about 6 pm and since it was raining we jumped into the first hotel we found. It was extremely noisy so we immediately changed hotels the next morning and moved closer to the central square, Chowasta. The atmosphere of Darjeeling is so much more relaxed and does not feel like a part of India; but it was great to see the various celebrations for Dwalai. It is influenced by Hinduism and Buddhism, and there is a place called Observatory Hill that is sacred to both religions. There are shrines for Hindu gods as well as monks walking around giving blessings and the hill is littered with monkeys - we took a video of them playing in the prayer flags that you can 
check out on our Flickr page - very cute. After so much hustle and bustle we took it easy in Darjeeling just taking in the beautiful views of the mountains. We went to the zoo, visited a tea plantation, the Tibetan Refugee Center (both were mainly shut down for Dwalai so we could not see anyone actually working), and went to Tiger Hill. Tiger Hill is a viewing spot for sunrise where you can see 4 of the 5 highest peaks in the world. We had to wake up at 3 am to catch a taxi there and it was very crowded but well worth it!! We walked half way back to Darjeeling to visit some Buddhist Temples on the way and when we stopped at one they were just sitting down to 
breakfast to celebrate the festival and invited us to join them for a cup of tea. Super friendly people and very willing to explain the things we were seeing around the temple and the festival.
The food of Darjeeling because it is a bit different than the rest of India and includes many more Tibetan dishes like Momos which are awsome - like fried or steamed dumplings and very addicitive; Thukpa - a soup with homemade noodle and rich broth; Tibetan Bread - more like a pie crust than bread it is flaky, full of butter and delicious! They also serve and drink tea everywhere as you can imagine from all the tea plantations around. Most of the shops sold the standard pashmina shawls, fans, Hindu paintings but also a lot of Tibetan artifacts. We were told that you could buy all of them in Nepal for cheaper so we did not buy anything except for some tea. We upgraded our hotel room for our last night and decided to have a bottle of wine (or 2) and watch the dance performances being put on by the local schools for the festival. It was hard to leave and a really nice relaxing few days before we left for Nepal.
We finally arrived at about 6 pm and since it was raining we jumped into the first hotel we found. It was extremely noisy so we immediately changed hotels the next morning and moved closer to the central square, Chowasta. The atmosphere of Darjeeling is so much more relaxed and does not feel like a part of India; but it was great to see the various celebrations for Dwalai. It is influenced by Hinduism and Buddhism, and there is a place called Observatory Hill that is sacred to both religions. There are shrines for Hindu gods as well as monks walking around giving blessings and the hill is littered with monkeys - we took a video of them playing in the prayer flags that you can 
check out on our Flickr page - very cute. After so much hustle and bustle we took it easy in Darjeeling just taking in the beautiful views of the mountains. We went to the zoo, visited a tea plantation, the Tibetan Refugee Center (both were mainly shut down for Dwalai so we could not see anyone actually working), and went to Tiger Hill. Tiger Hill is a viewing spot for sunrise where you can see 4 of the 5 highest peaks in the world. 
breakfast to celebrate the festival and invited us to join them for a cup of tea. Super friendly people and very willing to explain the things we were seeing around the temple and the festival. The food of Darjeeling because it is a bit different than the rest of India and includes many more Tibetan dishes like Momos which are awsome - like fried or steamed dumplings and very addicitive; Thukpa - a soup with homemade noodle and rich broth; Tibetan Bread - more like a pie crust than bread it is flaky, full of butter and delicious! They also serve and drink tea everywhere as you can imagine from all the tea plantations around. Most of the shops sold the standard pashmina shawls, fans, Hindu paintings but also a lot of Tibetan artifacts. We were told that you could buy all of them in Nepal for cheaper so we did not buy anything except for some tea. We upgraded our hotel room for our last night and decided to have a bottle of wine (or 2) and watch the dance performances being put on by the local schools for the festival. It was hard to leave and a really nice relaxing few days before we left for Nepal.
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