Darjeeling

Oh yeah! This place is LUSH! Darjeeling is everything we'd hoped it would be and we've just finished the BEST cup of tea we've had since we've been in India - and why not? We're at the very heart of tea production in the world!

But, before I go into that, I have to tell you guys what an absolute nightmare we had getting here. Lucky it's worth it!

We left Varanasi on Sunday, heading to the Mughal Sarai train station, 12km from Varanasi city, in a autorickshaw. As the city of Varanasi fell behind us, we thought for sure that we were going to be taken out to the middle of nowhere and robbed, but he delivered us to the station no problems. Although by that time, we were sweaty, covered in dust and car fumes, and felt dreadful to start a 17 hour train trip to New Jaipalguri, the station closest to Darjeeling. The train was 2 hrs and 15 minutes late (we're getting used to that) so didn't leave til after 11pm at night. And when it DID arrive, we found a carriage full to the brim of Indian people, obviously without tickets, and several of them laying in our berths. After much confusion, shouting, and general rowdiness, a kind Indian man spoke to us in English, and told the offending members to get off our damn beds. The trip that followed didn't get much better. It was roasting hot, the windows were open wide to all sorts of insects and dust and grime, and the lights stayed on all night.

I slept. Tom didn't.

Waking at 7am, after not the best sleep ever, but at least some, I stayed in bed, pretending to sleep for another hour or so before nature called (i was so hoping it wouldn't - if you can imagine a carriage with over 200 people in it all using the same loo, you can imagine what the filth!)

Tom finally dropped off at about 6am and slept til 11am, so i read my book, looked out the window at the amazing wetlands for hours on end, and spoke to a lovely Nepalese man returning to his family after 9 mths having not seen him.

Tom woke when the train had emptied quite a lot, so we were both a lot more calm.

Anyway, we made it to NJP station, 4 hours late, and had to find a jeep going to Darjeeling. A local man helped us and we heaved our backpacks on to the roof and we got in. Opposite, a drunk man with a massive knife handle sticking out of his backpack, tried to converse with us in Hindi, and regardless of the fact that we repeatedly told him Australian/English, he continued babbling. The jeep, a normal sized jeep mind you, had 11 people in it. We were jammed in like sardines. Uncomfortable to say the least.

It was dark by the time we started climbing the hill to Darjeeling, and a massive thunderstorm broke, during which our driver pulled the car over at a tea stall, we all piled out, and had a cup of tea. TOm and I were smirking to each other over the weirdness of the situation, and we tried to avoid drunken knife man at all costs.

The storm subsided, we all piled back in, and further up the mountain we went. By this time I was glad it was dark, because, although I glimpsed the danger of the jeep driving over what seemed to be landslides, I pretended I couldn't see anything.

We made it, at 9.30pm we finally got here, and found everything shut. The rest of India doesn't even eat dinner til 10pm, and here we were, starving, exhausted, and so keen to find our hotel, and we couldn't find a soul to tell us where the hell it was. Finally a kindly soul was found, pointed the way, and we made it!

HOTEL FULL.

No f%#$ing way. I made a BOOKING for this one!

So I knocked, a room was found and it was lovely and exactly what we needed after 24 hours of travelling.

And now we're here. We love Darjeeling. It's our favourite place so far.

And in two days, we're heading on a trek to the Himalayan foothills to see some snow capped mountains. SHould be fun.... No updates for a while - maybe mid next week.