KOLKATA - DARJEELING AND ALL THE WAY BACK AGAIN! So…. After a few hiccups trying to book travel to get us to Darjeeling, Steve, Jo, James and myself left Kolkata for an early morning flight to Bagdogra airport. The taxi there was as entertaining as ever, hearts in our mouths the whole way, each of us pressing the invisible break peddle by our feet. Even after being in India a month, being in lots of traffic where you have taxis, buses, trams, auto rickshaws, cycleshaws, the odd cow, dog and goat thrown in to the mix and then all of them converging into one big overtaking, horn blowing frenzy - it still seems utter madness! You gotta laugh, but only after you have been safely deposited at your destination and had a breather for a few momemts. Anyway, I digress… sorry dear reader! Got to Bagdogra airpot and James was immediately handed a comments/feedback form on the flight over, state of the toilets and the aiport itself - he quickly filled it in, but pointed out in his comments that the whole airport could be improved should they change the curtains - watch this space… at the moment they are blue and a bit haggered… should you ever find youself in Bagdogra let us know if they have changed! The littlest Nepalese man in the biggest jeep ever was our driver up to Darjeeling and just as we were enjoying the different scenery that Siliguri and the surrounding area had to offer - he turned into a madman. The road going up up up up to Darjeeling is very steep and every 200 yards or so there was another hair pin bend, that he would quite happily speed around and even try and overtake!!!!! Getting higher and higher, the views were truly awesome and when not shutting our eyes with fear James and I tried to take some pictures. Passed through some beautiful towns, Kurseong and Ghoom - although by the time we got to them it was quite foggy, what we did see looked amazing. There is a train line that runs up the mountain - (which people call the toy train) when we got to Ghoom, the train sign was exactly the same as that of the tube logo! Brillaint! By the time we got to our destination it was a wee bit colder than when had landed, so we pilled on the layers! Had a wander around the town and were totally swept away with how friendly the people were and how quaint the it all was. Most of Darjeeling is inhabited by Nepalese people and they truly are the most welcoming, freindliest people EVER! The place where we were staying was like a ski chalet (not as fancy as yours I expect Matt and Ella! :0) Had a gorgeous reception room, where the travellers could sit and chill out by the fire. Bliss! Neaxt day, the weather couldn't have been any more different, was sunny as you like. Took a trip to the Happy Valley Tea Estate where funnily enough they make tea. A little lady called Flora came running out of her house/shop called the Happy Golden Café and asked us if we would want a demonstration of the making tea process and to sample a cup of the 'Happy' stuff itself. Not ones to refuse a cup of tea, we went in and she introduced us to a tea called: Super fine tippy golden flowery orange picco one! Honestly! She pointed out the leaves on the tea plant and how best to brew a … well a good brew. Bought a stack of tea, so all are welcome for a sample of the Happy goodness on our return! Went up to a rather posh places called the Elgin for High Tea, think they only let us ragger muffins in as it was off season, but hey ho… we sat in a very quaint room, and were served tea and cake - ya ya… how posh are we! As we sat talking about our plans for the next few days an American woman (okay - she may have been Canadian Jo!) asked if we had heard about the strike. STRIKE? WHAT STRIKE? She informed us that as of the following day the inhabitants of Darjeeling would be going on general strike (no water, power, services and most importantly no taxis to take people back down the mountain! This is because The GJM, which is fighting for a separate state of Gorkhaland, is agitating against the introduction of the sixth schedule status for the Darjeeling hills and removal of GNLF chief Subash Ghising from the Gorkha Hill Council.). Basically the Ghorka's who inhabit most of Darjeeling, Sikkem etc are being under represented by their political representative, and have been for decades, thay've had enough, and after a violent struggle throughout the 60s-80s they are now ploughing a peaceful path to indiependence. A b***** for us, but there was no way we could grumble about a little inconvienice for us when it means so very much for them. Good on them. We hope they get what they want. (It was sweet how appologetic some of the locals were when we told them we were leaving!) This concerned Steve and Jo more as they had to leave in a few days time - James and I had planned to stay for a weeks rest. We might not have been so worried, until the hotel owner said that the last strike had lasted 40 days! With that we made a sharp exit! Next hour was like a Benny Hill sketch - running round like crazy, trying to check out of the hotel, pick up still wet washing and book a taxi to get us back. Even managed to pack the rucksacks in about 10 minutes - a feat which up until then had taken a good half hour of head scratching trying to work out how to get everything in - amazing what panic can make you achieve! So, an hour later (the sun was gone and was now hailing!), the 4 of us were bundled into a taxi, a bit shell shocked and thinking what the hell had just happened! Only a couple of hours before we had been sipping tea leisurely and then there we are dashing away from the beutifulness that is Darjeeling. b*****! Was quite cool going down the mountain though - for every taxi taking tourists away about another 10 were going up - literally full with people to fight the cause! Was amazing to see. Made it down to Siliguri - a place quite awful, but was nearest to the airport. The hotel we were dropped off at kindly helped us book flights back to Kolkata for the next afternoon so all we had to do was kill some time there. Had a few fruit based drinks for the ladies and beers for the men that night I can tell you! :0) So off we flew back to Kolkata and although we had liked it first time round I think we resented coming back early - so we maybe had a long face on us for a day or so, well that and saying goodbye to Steve and Jo! sniff sniff.... and then there were 2!! Bought forward our flight to Bangkok by a week as by now we are feeling a bit India-erd out and are looking forward to a change. Bring on Thailand and the land of Happy endings! More when there's more! JnJ xx