In Darjeeling

Our team arrived in Darjeeling yesterday. I'm glad to be here, just getting away from Kolkata is enough to boost my spirits. Since Darjeeling is way up in the mountains, we couldn't take a train all of the way here. We hired a jeep to drive us from the train station to our hotel. The drive up the mountain was gorgeous, although a little unnerving when we had to pass other vehicles on a road that seemed almost too small just for us. At least once we had to back up to a wider part of the road to let others drive by. When we got into town, the driver stopped somewhere that wasn't at our hotel. He told us that the road our hotel is on is closed to traffic. This seems to be true of many roads in Darjeeling. They found a man to guide us to our hotel, then turned around and drove off. As we started to walk with all of our luggage, it started raining heavily. We hurried on, certain that our hotel couldn't be too much further away. After our guide stopped to ask for directions for a third time, we decided to try our luck using a map in a Lonely Planet guidebook. It turned out that we had been going in a sort of wrong direction, although our "guide" hadn't taken us too much off course. Eventually we did find our hotel and checked in. We hung our clothes to dry, putting on whatever seemed to be the driest. It wasn't the best way to start our trip, but I'm glad we're here. From now on I'm going to listen to my Mother's advice and take the time to pack in plastic bags when it is important for my clothes to be dry on arrival.