Darjeeling Himalayan Railway

Okay, it's been awhile. Since the last time I wrote, I actually had a few beers and met an interesting Danish guy. This resulted in a late night black market beer run and my staying up until 3:30 AM. That made making the 9:00AM train somewhat of a challenge. The train ride is about 90km (and about 1800m down) and should take about 8 hours,which would have left enough time to go online. But this is India, and the trains are always late. So the internet cafes were closed when we got to Siliguri. The railway was built in the late 19th century to exploit a price difference in potatoes between Darjeeling and Siliguri. Or so they say. Sounds like a boondoggle to me. But it is a beautiful ride, if slow.

Down in Siliguri, I had to get some shipping supplies, which took about two hours. That night and the next morning, I spent another four hours packing everyone's tea. The limited supplies available made the packing a little questionable for transit by US mail, but still acceptable. But it wasn't acceptable to the Indian Postal Service. So we spent another three hours at the post office watching a guy sew cloth around all of the packages. Of course, that's not sufficient, either. The packages then had to be sealed with wax. And, of course, it was a holiday and the post office closed at 1:00 pm. So I got a few sealed and got to the desk before closing. Then Tamding brought me additional packages as they were sealed. This process allowed me to stay at the desk until 1:30 PM and I got them all shipped. Most will take 10-14 days, but I did send two of them via air mail, as they needed to get there by Christmas.

I would have liked to get on the internet after that, but we didn't have time. We had to catch a bus to Bodh Gaya. That was an adventure I will describe in about seven hours. Suffice it to say that I wouldn't recommend bus travel in India.