The Road To Darjeeling

I spent my last day and night in Kolkatta, three days is really enough. My train up north was scheduled to leave at 23:55 from just north of the river.
I had booked a 1st class AC sleeper and found myself on a "secret" train. It was a special so it was almost empty which was good. It was an extra on from the normal Darjeeling Mail train, and the last to run for this year. I shared the journey with an Austrian Professor of Physics (material science), called Gero I think or something like that. He was about 70 and very entertaining. I managed to sleep and all in all the journey was perfect. It took about 12hrs and we arrived in the junction town of Silguri at noon, where we negotiated with a German couple for a jeep to Darjeeling. As we climbed the hills into the mountain the view was amazing. Like an Alpine climb but with greener and more exotic vegetation.
The roads were random in their maintenance and often we got stuck behind an old fashioned steam-roller making repairs.
The people here are not what we would call Indian, they are more like Tibetan (close to the border).
We went for the jeep which took 3.5hrs as apposed to the British build "toy-train" that can take 7hrs as it winds though the mountains mainly along side the road. As we finally got the top the view of Darjeeling was incredible, how they can build a large town of 109,000 people on such steep slopes was amazing, it looks like it will be all washed away one day.
Gone were the beggars, gone where the open sewers and thankfully gone where the mozzies.
We walked up the winding roads inter-joined with many "secret" stairways till we found our hotel right on the very top of the hill.
It looks to the range of the Himalayas, and Everest can be seen on a clear day, though today the hills and mountains were filled with to much mist. The ranges could just be seen, but did not look like any other mountains I had seen, they are so high they look like they have been painted into the sky. With my new German friends (a couple from Munich) we checked in and I made my way to my room. No comparison to the windowless coffin of Calcutta. From my window I can step out and look at the whole range. It was AMAZING.
On the roof top is a 360 view. I plan on rising tomorrow at 5am to get the sunrise.

After a chat with the owner and some "real" Darjeeling tea with lemon, we walked down the street and I had my dinner at a traditional Tibetan cookery.
Here is is pic of the chef and his wife. The food was yummy in my tummy.
Over the next days I will plan and arrange a 8 day trek into the mountains with my new German friends into a region north called Sikkim. We need special permits for the trek and visas which will be sorted in the next few day (a bit of trouble where they don't want to be Indian) .
I will try and check in before I go off the radar for a week or so.
This is an India so different from where I have been already. The people friendly, the food great, the views and the clean air.

Lets hope I don't get struck my lightening on the way back to hotel paradise, which is incidental about 2squid 50 a night, they even through in a bucket of hot water.

Signing off.....truly happy, off to hunt a cold beer now after my 18hr journey.