You Never Know What’s Going To Happen

Yesterday we flew all the way across twice, and then half way again one more time to get up North to the Darjeeling region. We spent the night in a small, highway wayside town specifically to take the Toy Train into Darjeeling. The Toy Train, or the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, is an historic rail line, with diesel and steam engines that runs up the mountains into the Himalayas. It is by far the most well known and popular of all of the attractions in this region, and came highly by everyone we know, and pretty much everyone on the internet. We booked tickets two nights ago, which took about an hour. To make an online payment, many Indian companies require you chose a payment processor, which may, or may not, actually work with your credit card. So about 8 tries, and 3 different credit cards later, we made our purchase of 2 tickets for a grand total of about $8.

So back to staying the night in this crappy town. We stayed up late, and woke up early, mostly to avoid spending too much time in the beds, which were a little suspect. (Luckily we both bring our sleeping bag liners everywhere, so we just used those and not the linens on the bed.) We skipped breakfast, because the train was supposed to have a great catering service, and hauled ass over the station first thing in the morning. AND….no train. Apparently there was a landslide. A month ago. And no train. You just never know….

So instead of leisurely putt-putting our way up the mountain, with regular stops, full service catering, and awesome, large, reclining seats, we end up barreling straight up the side of the mountain in a jeep, with about 6-9 other passengers, depending on the stops. (Insert Pic) Andy and I were both in the front, squished in by the driver, who had to reach between Andy’s legs to shift gears. We thought that was pretty extreme, till we stopped to pick up a lady and her baby. They passed the kid to a stranger in the back somewhere, but the lady got right in between Andy and driver, who then had to reach over this lady, and between Andy’s legs to shift. Little bit of a squeeze there.

I personally believe that the driver was drinking, Andy was arguing this point, but at one of the tea stops I saw the tea lady pour him a couple of fingers of something under the counter, which he took like a shot. I know for a fact, that while driving up a cliff, avoiding people, animals, other drivers, and washed out roads, the guy was talking on his cell phone, texting, and shifting gears. I was impressed, and very anxious, at the same time.

We get into the town, spend some considerable amount of time and effort finding our hotel. When we get there, the front desk insists we have the wrong place. Since we made a reservation online, we were pretty sure we had it right. Nope, turns out the owner owns ANOTHER hotel, with the same name, halfway across town. You just NEVER know.

We got some great snacks and tea, which was awesome, since we hadn’t eaten all day, then went to walk around town and check things out. Really enjoyed watching the fog roll in and out over the mountains, it was just gorgeous. This is not a picture of the large mountains, just the hills and mountains right around the town.

When we started walking back up towards town, we saw a cute little monkey, just sitting in the middle of the road. Andy stopped to take a picture of me with the monkey, at which point, the monkey started running straight towards our left-overs, which Andy was carrying.

Every time Andy stopped running this stupid monkey would charge him, and was definitely going for the hand with the food. You just never know....... This also freaked me out a little bit, cause a monkey bite =rabies shots= very painful.

After all this, we decided to go the famous old British hotel for a nice relaxing afternoon tea to end our day. The waitress showed me to the bathroom, which was full of old-time charm, and had a huge open window. Wide open. But just looking out into the bushes, good green screen. I thought about it for a sec, then figured if the window was open it was supposed to be open. this has been the fanciest place in Darjeeling for over 150 years, things oughtta be pretty perfect. Nope. The minute I sit down, some maintenance guy walks right by, makes total eye contact, and runs off. Seriously, YOU NEVER KNOW.

So after our first day in Darjeeling, we are now de-sensitized to the ridiculous, and determined to be prepared mentally for any situation for the rest for the week. Stay tuned for updates. ;)

Ok, P.S.- the internet is apparently out in our hotel due to a storm, we can't go to an internet cafe, because there is a nightly power outage, and the generators wont support the computers, and we were able to use laptop tethered to the iphone, but then the laptop just broke.