3 days of trains and Aaron and I are at 7,000 ft in the tea center of the world at Darjeeling. Monsoon is still here, so it rains for all but two hours of the day. It cleared up a little last night and we were able to see the start of the peaks around us. Everest and Kangchenjunga (3rd highest) are both visible from Tiger Hill, a short drive from town.
Last night (9/18) we explored the Mall area a little before getting some noodles at a tiny Chinese place down the road. Halfway through around 6:10pm IST, a relatively big earthquake hit and everything started shaking, so we had to run out into the street, as far away from the buildings as possible.
Talking to a connected hotel manager later, he said the tremors lasted two minutes and the epicenter was in Sikkim. He had family all across the range who all reported it to him. Magnitude 6.8, according to him. We haven’t seen any buildings down, but the power was out last night. This is a first for Darjeeling.
The tea is excellent, here. I haven’t missed the highly sweetened, creamy chai yet.
Future plans: We have been given about 2 weeks to travel before work really starts and we don’t have any more free time. Might as well spend it up in the north, around Darjeeling and Sikkim, where we aren’t sweating buckets for once.
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