Darjeeling, India...

Yearning for some fresh air and a break from the heat and chaos of Northern India we headed next to the Indian hill station of Darjeeling way up in the Himalayas. After catching an overnight train from Varanasi to the closest train station, New Jaipalguri we were faced with two choices to reach our final destination. 1) The incredibly scenic Himalayan railway or 'Toy train,' which costs 700 rupees and takes 8 hours to chug 88km up into the mountains on the world's narrowest track. Or 2) A bumpy, 3 hour white-knuckle shared jeep journey along narrow, winding, sheer-drop roads for 100 rupees. In desperate need of some sleep and a shower we opted for the jeep (you just listen out for men shouting 'Darjeeling, DarjEELING, DARJEEEEEELING!') and waited an hour or so for it to fill up before we were on our way.

The change that took place in those three hours was staggering. New Jaipalguri was hot, dirty and quintessentially Indian, while up in the mountains the air became cooler and fresher with every passing kilometre. Foreign tourists seemed to be non-existent, and the faces of the people changed entirely from dark skinned and Indian, to the pale and more 'Chinese' features of the Tibetan and Nepalese. Young school girls wore jeans and hoodies, and women threw chunky cardigans over their sarees and salwar suits to keep out the cold. The winding roads were clean and tidy, with pretty and immaculately manicured pastel-coloured houses lining them. Signs of 'We want Gorkhaland' and 'Welcome to Gorkhaland' are everywhere - Nepalese Gurkhas have been campaigning for a separate state of Gorkhaland since the 1980s.

After hiking (there are no tuk tuks up there) through the ridiculously steep, winding streets with our enormous packs, and adjusting to the thin air at such high altitude, all with the help of a very friendly 10 year old schoolboy, we finally found a bed on the sixth try, and enjoyed a hot shower and a nap before heading out. We had dinner at Danfay Munal, a little family run place that served excellent Tibetan momo's (dumplings) and much needed cockle-warming tea.

The next morning was the earliest (and possibly the coldest) start we've had in the last six months, but we couldn't miss it. Every morning at 4am jeeps leave for the 11km drive to Tiger Hill, where as the sun rises you can view a spectacular 250km of himalayan mountain range including the mighty Khangchendzonga, whose snowy peak looks over Darjeeling (I believe it's the fourth highest mountain in the world) as well as 20 other mountains including, on a clear day, Everest. Wrapped up in blankets and sipping sweet coffee we watched as the sky turned from pitch black and starry to a beautiful blazing blue offsetting the white peaks. It was so beautiful and felt like such a privilege to see it I even got a little choked up.

The rest of the day was spent checking out the toy train, eating and shopping for Darjeeling tea at 80-year-old family run tea experts Nathmulls (I'm now well versed in plantations, flushes, soil types, brews and flavours) where you can buy the champagne of teas (apparently it's the best tea in the world) for 1400 rupees. As a budget traveller I settled for a 500 rupee package, but it's still the best tea I've ever tasted. Unfortunately the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoo, which houses India's only collection of Siberian tigers, was closed that day, so we set to the task of figuring out one of our biggest challenges yet... Working out how to get from the Himalayas, to our next stop, Kerala, the very Southernmost tip of India...