Darjeeling

What a fantastic drive from Siliguri to Darjeeling. Winding up through the hills we didn't experience a straight bit of road longer than 500m.

The car performed perfectly except that the newly fitted radiator fan didn't work. As we climbed this morning it was running quite hot. Charlie soon spotted the problem, no earth to the relay and we have been running perfectly ever since. We might return to this at a later date.

Highlife of the day was probably elevenses which we had with Ines, Xavier, Kate, Dougie, Louise, Sophie, Chris and Salty at a spot on the Nepales border. We could order our momo in India and eat them in Nepal. They are the most delicious dumplings with a slightly spicy sauce. We motored with Ines and Xavier for the rest of the day, taking our time and enjoying being amongst some of the most charming and lovely people on the planet.

When india's central Government was in Calcutta the government would move up to Darjeeling during the heat of the summer. This was a long and slow trip until the steam train was built. It was also the Center of this area of the tea industry and a hill station administering this part of India. It is definitely cleaner here but just as busy and bustling as Siliguri or Kolkata.

We found Daka photography in Darjeeling which has been a family business for three generations. We met Mr Daka the proprietor and asked about photographs of British India. He has an index of all the portraits which were taken but has temporarily mislaid it. He promised to look up the names Odling (Alice's great-grandfather) and Cunningham when he finds it and email me if he finds anything. He is sure that he remembers the name Odling and that the name Cunningham was extremely common. I have left my email address and will keep my fingers crossed.

Then it was into Mr Chanderlal's pashmina shop. What business he did with me dragging in numerous rally members. He served us with saffron tea which was delicious and so business continued. I was officially confirmed as one of his cousins and his son became my godfather. No names or addresses were exchanged! We returned later with Mark and Davintra and purchased more kit and after a solid Scottish mugging from Paddy Mr Chanderlal dropped his prices further. "I promise that this is my cost price, you can see the invoices!" says Mr Chanderlal, "right" says Paddy "show me the invoices" and so the price went down. We never saw the invoices!

Then it was into the hat shop and I feel that we are fully accessorised for India. What Bhutan will bring remains to be seen.

Alastair ran out of petrol in the Porche, rooky mistake in our opinion. I promised not to mention it again.........

Our hotel tonight is an amazing throwback to the 1930's. The photographs on the walls are amazing of an era long gone recreated this afternoon with tea of cucumber sandwiches cake and scones! We could not have found it at home.

Tomorrow we are taking a diversion which will be quite exciting and Paddy has found a tea factory for us to visit.

On on to Bhutan, cannot wait.

Both of are well, fit and still chattering way!

RHC





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