We decided to stay in the Darjeeling Planters Club – a remnant from the colonial hey-day.  Our hotel was somewhat unchanged over the last 90 years or so – the curved concrete facade and wooden balconies wouldn’t look out of place on a Victorian sea-front.  The drafty club was packed to the rafters with all kinds of curious- a WW1 machine gun, oxygen tanks from Everest ascents, stuffed animals, heads of bears, tigers and deer – an entire leopard hung above the open fire in the bar.  Our bedroom was up the wide, creaky wooden staircase and situated on the first floor balcony.  The room was huge, and full of character – this place seems unchanged since in opened in the late 19th century.  It’s easy to imagine tea planters gathering here of an evening discussing tea and hunting whilst whaff-whaffing over a G&T.  Splendid my dear boy.

The weather in Darjeeling made out stay a little difficult – due to our altitude the whole of Darjeeling remained lost in the thick misty cloud cover for the few days that we were there.  Visibility was 10 meters at best, much less at times.  We got horribly lost in the mist one day whilst searching for a Buddhist temple.  We did however make it to the zoo (yes, a zoo in the clouds) where we spotted loads of native animals – including red pandas, tigers and leopards.  We also visited the Himalayan Mountain Institute – which includes a great museum dedicated to those who’ve ascended Everest.  It has a load of tatty exhibits on show, including Hillary and Norgay’s kit from the first successful ascent in 1952.  Later that afternoon we took high tea a the New Elgin – a very posh institution on the hills of Darjeeling.  We chatted about our plans for Nepal – the weather was poor, a bridge was down, an airport shut and a couple of borders closed.  We decided to head to Thailand instead, and booked a couple of flights.

 

The following day we boarded the toy train for our 70km, 7 hour, 2100m descent back down to Siliguri, where we would get out connection for the flights to Thailand.  The train was tiny – it has four coaches of 33 people and a small diesel engine.  For the most part the track runs alongside, and occasionally weaves over the busy mountain road.  We passed within inches of peoples homes and shops – kids ran alongside the train and hopped on.  As the train chugged further down the mountain we were rewarded with stunning views of Darjeelings vast tea terraces – thick blankets of bright green tea bushes were crammed into every spare inch of hillside.  As we broke the cloud cover the views were even more magnificent.  As we arrived into Siliguri the train ran alongside the main road – car drivers, motorbikes and even cyclists pulled alongside to wave and take photos of the train.  We arrived in Siliguri bang on time and caught our 12 hour bus to Kalkutta.