Darjeeling Gymkhana Resort

Well, we squeezed ourselves into the back of a fully loaded jeep and got on the road to Darjeeling! 4 in the front seat, 4 and 2 kids in the middle and 5 in the boot! Breath in!<br>What a road- it's full of potholes, landslides, rocks and ruts! So we bounced our way up hill and arrived to the bustling town centre before a long uphill walk to our guesthouse of choice! Unfortunately it was closed up when we got there but we found a nice on next door!<br ...

Today, we traveled to another city called Darjeeling which was about a 3 hour jeep ride. This city is one where many people from all over the world come seeking a higher truth, and they say that all four major religions (Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam) coexist here peacefully. We ...

We awoke to a loud knocking on the bedroom window at about 5.30am. A quick memory search later and I remembered that James had said he would wake us up early if there was a view. A few minutes later we were all out the door and looking to the horizon. Yeah mountains, yeah the sun and yeah the third tallest mountain in the world - . In fact not all of us were in attendance for this moment &#8211; where was Dean?! It seems the Brandy at altitude had taken it's toll and it ...

... yaks wool socks, pyamas, jumper, yaks wool beanie, gloves, scarf and hot water bottle. If it wasn't dark I could see the beautiful town of Darjeeling spread below my hotel window, with the mountains being delightfully picturesque in the background. It's quiet and calm and my tourist guide promises me lots of sights to fill my days. I promise myself I will have pancakes for breakfast and go to sleep believing that coming to Darjeeling was a very very good decision.

... journey up the hill is like, without having to spend 8 hours crammed into the little carriages. The track is on 2 feet wide and mainly follows the route of the road, often crossing over from side to side and at times passing ridiculously close to people's houses and shops. It's certainly a unique experience! By the third night in the hotel we had taken advantage of their offer of a hot water bottle, quite why it took us so long I don't know, the ...

... let's face it: we basically get stared out pretty much all the time. The stares are friendly and when we smile or speak, people generally smile back. People will stop us to have their pictures taken with us and we are both flattered by this and find it funny and interesting. Gabe, in particularly, is quite the celebrity as his height is such an extreme by comparison to those around us. Many ask us where we are from, usually with some difficulty getting the words out but as I was ...

... overloaded Jeep climbed into the hills around Darjeeling. Kolkata itself was more enjoyable that I thought it might be. After the past three months in the quiet, friendly and increasingly familiar atmosphere of Rayenda, the through of spending time in a loud, massive, polluted city holed up in a backpacker ghetto was enough to make me want to vomit. To my relief, Kolkata wasn't nearly as bad as I expected it to be, even the tourist ...

... the letter to get past. At one point the military stopped us and sent us a different way cos they were in a "conflict with rebels". The new way took us down through a Cardamon plantation and the Ghorkha heartland. When we reached Siliguri The 2 Polish girls, the American and I decided to jump on the overnight train to Kolkata. We managed to book tickets, it was a bit of a mission, then find food and find our train on time. We had sleeper car so our names ...

... to see the sunrise from around the city (without the Himalayas) on a different day. There are nice restaurants here one of the reason why I came here for Christmas. I had breakfast with a view of the mountains every morning before it covered up around lunch time. I went to the zoo to see the lovely red pandas (did you know that they sleep with their tail wrapped around their head!) and inside the zoo is the ...

... Kolkata far exceeded my expectations. The bus ride from Siliguri, a 15-hour, pothole filled, non-air-conditioned, sleepless ride, was made bearable by the fact that I met a nice British girl named Sarah, who was in the seat next to me. We ended up hanging out in Kolkata and having a blast. My stay there was accented by the ending of the festival of Durga Puja, and in Kolkata, they go crazier than anyone else in India for their festivals. There were about 1200 "pandals" built ...