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After the roasting hot temperatures we were used to in the plains of India, Darjeeling was cold. Not only that but everyone in town had a cold! We also picked up colds and coughs, which lasted for about two weeks.

Darjeeling has a beautiful setting, surrounded by mountains and forests. We arrived during the festival of Durga Puja, which is a local holiday and we struggled to find a room for the night. We ended up in the government run tourist lodge. We had a cavernous room which was dull and stunk of mustiness, although it was clean. The meals were inclusive and there was no choice. The food was quite good though, and we were given a Western-style breakfast.

The next day we checked out and found a very cheap and clean room at Andy's Guesthouse. On the roof of the guesthouse you had a 360 degree panoramic view of all the mountains and on a clear day you can see Kanchenjunga.

Having left my one and only fleece on the aeroplane from Heathrow I (Gerry)was freezing, especially at night. So I bought myself a locally-made, very colourful Tibetan jacket. I felt (and was) totally unique as that night I counted 20 tourists all of them wearing very drab, foreign-made fleeces!

After a few nights we moved to the Classic Guesthouse, which has stunning views (and a balcony) over the mountains. Way below we could hear a familiar refrain from the Assemblies of God choir singing gospel choruses in competetion with the Hindu loudspeaker celebrating Shiva's triumph over the demons, and the Buddhist's repetitive chants. Darjeeling is a mixed fruit shake of many different varieties.

As that place was a bit expensive, and still feeling the cold we were tempted to another hotel which offered a log fire in the bedroom. This was no ordinary log fire. It was an iron monstrosity, with a huge pipe leading to a hole in the window. The logs were fed into what looked like an oversized charcoal iron, the type which we used to use for ironing our clothes in Uganda. Anyway it worked, and after recovering from the belching smoke we had a hot night!

Talking about fires, another day we paid a visit to the wonderfully old colonial hotel, the Windermere. I'm sure it hasn't changed in over a 100 years! We went for high tea in the sitting room with a log fire comforting us. It cost the earth and was rubbish, but it was worth it for the 4 hours of heat we managed to extract from the occassion!

After Darjeeling it was back down to the welcome inferno of Kolkata for one night prior to flying off to Singapore. Singapore here we come!!!


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