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Published: September 21st 2008
Happy autumn! We are a bit soggy in Darjeeling. It is still the tail end of the monsoon and so pours a few times a day and we are lost in the fog much of the rest of the time.
The 24 hour journey to India was hard on the body! Arriving in Kolkata at 2 am was okay. In fact, relatively quiet and not as hot as it could have been. The hotel room was vile, however, and unfortunately for Matt, once the city woke up around 6 or 7 am, I was done with sleep. We booked an overnight train ticket for that night and spent the day getting oriented and taking in the "sites" of Kolkata. Not much to see - a crowded, dirty, steamy Indian city.
We made our way to the train station and desparately tried to stay awake until we boarded our train at 7:30 pm, made our bunks up and CRASHED (well, as best we could on jerky train) until 5 in the morning. The train dumped us at 7 am in a sad, hot little place called Siliguri where we arranged a share-taxi (or should I say sardine tin) ride up into the hills of Darjeeling.
Both carsick and not having eaten since the afternoon before, we arrived and found the first restaurant and pigged out on North Indian cuisine and chai.
So we are thoroughly enjoying the friendly, mild-temperature town of Darjeeling. We also got very lucky this morning as it was quite clear at sunrise and we got a great look at Khangchendzonga, 3rd highest mountain in the world, that dominates the northern horizon here.
We will be headed further north to the province of Sikkim in a couple more days.
Sorry about no pics, we have not found wireless yet. Don't worry, we're getting some good ones!
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eveline
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Hi Laura, another great adventure? I enjoy being a passive traveller on your fabulous treks. Thanks for including me on your list. I look forward to the emails.