Darjeeling, India, April 2017

We've been in India for close to two years, but haven't spent much time in the mountains. We had a four-day weekend, so decided to head up to Darjeeling, which is a high mountain town in Indian Himalayan foothills (i.e., 7000 feet). It was originally in the kingdom of Sikkim in the 1600's, and in the 1820's was taken over by the British for use as a hill station (bascially, a weekend getaway from Calcutta).

It's still small geographically, although the narrow mountain roads mountainsides are packed with traffic these days. The awesome Darjeeling Himalayan Railway still runs -- tourists take a short loop, but it makes long daily trips into the flatlands for locals as well. Other attractions include a lot of tea plantations, and a long history of mountaineering.

Slideshow (old-style, all photos on one long page)

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