Tea Gardens and Himalayan Views in Darjeeling

The toy train up to Darjeeling took most of a day and was worth every slow, chugging hour of it, tea gardens rolling past the window in every direction. We woke at 4am to catch the sunrise from Tiger Hill, and when the clouds finally cleared, Kanchenjunga appeared all at once, enormous and pink in the early light.

We spent an afternoon walking through a working tea estate, learning how the leaves get picked and processed, and left with more tea in our luggage than we probably needed.