Back to Kolkata & onwards to Darjeeling

We had hoped that we would have a different driver taking us back to Kolkata, but no we had the man on a mission again; this time he did manage to drive a lot slower which was much better for our nerves. We got in to Kolkata for around 2pm, a few hours rest, sort out a new set of clothes for our back-packs, store the two large bags, drop off a large laundry bag and we were off again to catch the 22:15 overnight "Darjeeling mail train". Kolkata station was huge, one of the biggest stations I have ever seen, the pavements outside the station were packed, with travellers and road side food and drink, the noise was incredible. Our guide took us to our carriage eventually after marching us to the wrong end of the platform only to realise our carriage was actually one of the first-- where we entered the station!

We had decided to splash out and had reserved 2 berths in first class air conditioned carriage, no expense spared; I think it was around $25! As you can imagine this was no flying Scotsman, 4 berths in a closed carriage, a fresh set of bedding and that was all you got.

To ensure the carriage was clean a young man came to all the carriages wth his mop and insecticide spray and cleaned there and then, oh I could get used to this 4 * treatment.

Our travelling companions were an elderly Indian couple who spoke very little english and were more intent on getting themselves settled, this was a shame as it would have been good to interact with the locals, but never mind. We made our beds and settled down for the night; the journey was quite comfortable but you couldn't really get a good nights sleep, but we did manage a few hours. Fortunately as we were in first class there were 4 washrooms between about 8 cabins so it was easy to get to use the English style, relatively clean toilet, always a bonus!

8:30am came and we drew up to new JP station to start the next leg, a 4 hour car ride to Darjeeling; as the train pulled in we were met by our guide, "Wang", which was just as well as there were hundreads of people moving around the station it would have been so easy to get lost.

Wang's origins were from Tibet so he did have the look of an oriental about him rather than Indian, a local, in safe hands! Wang promptly got us lost turning the wrong way after a flight of steps and over many rail tracks before realising, then back tracking a hundred yards back to the top of the stairs. Anyway, after finding the parked car, he introduced us to our driver and off we went on our journey to Darjeeling. The roads were very busy and very noisy, all the drivers were honking horns. We passed small villages and towns which clung on to mountains some houses looked like they would fall straight into the ravine but many of the housing stock in these areas were actually quite nice; houses were made mainly of brick, very brightly coloured in oranges and yellow and had small balcony gardens which they had made very attctive with potted marigolds, roses and geraniums. They love their gardens almost as much as the British.

After a short while we stopped for tea, (Darjeeling of course) and a photo opportunity of the surrendering tea plantations. We arrived at our hotel in Darjeeling around 1pm. Darjeeling being a hill top town meant that most hotels had many, many, many steps - we would certainly be keeping very fit walking up and down ours. The hotel was named the Deckeling and is just a little way from the town square, the main attraction of this hotel was the magnificant view..., the panoramic loung with a backdrop of the himalayan mountains. The hotel was fine, pretty non-descriptive, quite basic but we were not expecting anything better.

After a quick wash we met our guide for an orientation tour of the town, its a big noisy bustling town with many markets and tourists; Indians often come t0 Darjeeling for a restful few days away from the noisy cities where they live!!

Our time here in Darjeeling was spent with early morning view of the Himalayas, it looked quite amazing once the sun had just set, giving the tops of the mountains a warm glow around them. Geoff managed to take many great photos and even managed to see Everest, a really

great highlight.., clouds usually hide out the more distant mountains.

During our visit we also visited a tea production plant, where their main job was to sell you tea; we had seen this operation before in the south of India four years ago so it wasn't much of a wow for us in fact, I was a little disappointed, as the trip had been advertised as visiting a tea estate, I really thought we would get the oppportuity to see the pickers in the field and machinery working.

Besides being famous for tea Darjeeling is also renowned for its toy train which carries out rides from Darjeeling and surrounding towns; we were really looking forward to this and arrived at a nearby station for our trip; the carriages were very tired but it was really all about the steam engine. Wang and our driver had left us at the station and would be meeting us at the end of our journey; they had sped off quite hastily as they expected to meet lots of traffic and, ideally

wanted to make sure they arrived at the station before the train did. On reflection it might have been a good idea to make sure that we did get on board the train before speeding off as unfortunately, the engine developed a fault and wasn't going anywhere, we were now stranded without a train and without a guide and car! Fortunately we were able to make contact with our main guide in Kolkata who was able to contact Wang who, with the driver had to come back and pick us up, meanwhile, of course, the engineer had fixed the fault and the train went on its merry way with no passengers.

Once we were reunited with Wang and our car we were off to see a Buddhist monastery an then returned to our hotel. That evening, as we had felt a bit cheated not having our train ride we returned to the station to look at the engine shed and view the various trains as they came in after completing their days wor, luckily we managed to get some great photos.

The following day or trip continued with a trip to the mountaineering museum which was really asinating, it told the story of many mountain expeditions, clothes were and techniques used,

One of the facts we learnt was that Sir Everest managed to upset the Indians by discovering that Kanchenjunga is not the highest mountain in the world; also, Sir Edmund Hilary used Darjeeling as the setting out point after waiting many weeks for visas to cross into Tibet and conquer Everest. However, in these parts, the sherpa, Tanseng is the local hero and Hilary a mere passenger.

The next trip was to Tibetan refugee camp which had been set up in the late 50's for those Tibetand fleeing the hash regimes in China following their leader the Dali Lama. This site was set up so that they had refuge and work, you can watch the ladies spinning wool, to be used on the many jumpers and hats made which they sell in there local on site shop.

There was a fascinating photo gallery telling the story of how the Tibetan people were victimised in China and also told the story of how the present Dali Lama came to India.

Our time in Darjeeling was short but interesting and it wasn't long before we were heading to the nearby town of Bagdogra to catch a fight back to Kolkata. Our driver knew the roads were going to be crowded and instead of using the main roads used the local roads; we were so glad he did as we passed many tea estates, but, this time we could see the ladies picking in the fields, we were able to stop awhile and take in the views and take photos, the ladies smiled and waved at us and giggled between themselves as we took photos. This was one of the highlights of our trip.

We reached the airport, said our farewells to Wang as we headed back to Kolkata to begin our group holiday.