Darjeeling & Varanasi

Our second stop of our Indian odyssey was Darjeeling, which turned out to be my favorite city of the entire trip. I can't begin to describe the beauty of the Himalayas and the kindness of the people there. We drank tea around the clock. Almost every shop and restaurant boasted an astonishing view of the mountains and valleys below since the city is built on a mountainside. I loved the smell of the mountain air, tea bushes and clouds.

After Darjeeling, we went up to Gangtok for a few days. Then we went to Varanasi for 5 days... we actually got stuck there after two failed attempts at getting a train. Varanasi's largest festival happened while we were there and it was nearly impossible to get out of town without hiring a car. We wound up shelling out extra cash for a flight to New Delhi and had to cross Udaipur off our itinerary. From there, we went to Agra and Jaipur and then returned to Delhi for our flight to Paris.

Look. Drawings.