Darjeeling

After a 26 hour door-to-door trip involving a night train, three taxi journeys and a 4 hour white knuckle ride through the mountains in a jeep, we arrived in the mist-shrouded darkness of Darjeeling. There was little to do upon arrival than eat some well earned food in the restaurant and then hit the sack. Unfortunately our slumber was interrupted at the hour of 6am by a member of the ridiculously friendly family who own the Aliment Guesthouse, rapping on our door to inform us that the sky was clear and the mountains were visible from the roof (a relative rarity in Darjeeling). Despite his good intentions, I managed to refrain from throttling him Homer Simpson style, politely declined his invitation and went back to sleep for three hours. Fortunately, we were treated to a pretty good view of the mountains today, which include 4 of the worlds 5 highest peaks (or something like that).

Yesterday we visited the Happy Valley Tea Plantation in the morning for a brief tour of the plantation and a tasting of their finest blend. Afterwards we headed up to the Windamere Hotel for afternoon tea. Although ridiculously expensive, it was worth it to see the splendid colonial buildings where you can easily imagine fat, moustached, umbrella-touting Victorians enjoying a cucumber sandwich and a pot of Darjeeling tea on the veranda. In the afternoon we made the long, complicated walk down to the Tibetan Refugees' Self Help Centre only to find it closed for the day. Today we plan to book tickets on the Toy Train for the journey back down to New Jalpaiguri on Monday as we missed it on the way up due to the delayed night train from Calcutta.

The "hanger on" in the photos is Steve, a homeless Tibetan we have befriended ;o)