The best laid plans...

I seem to remember that the novelty of the cold and rain in Darjeeling did wear off. - although sitting here in Kolkata , dripping with sweat, I can hardly imagine it being anything but wonderful. Kolkata is hot in a different way to other places we've been. The temperature is lower, howver the humidity is such that the local weather forecast desribes it as 'sultry and uncomfortable'. I actually found salt crystals on my arm today after sitting in a air conditioned room for a few minutes.

Darjeeling was truly a beautiful place. Surrounded by towering mountains, including Katchenjunga (some of which we caught a glimpse of. I think. Although it could have been clouds), it is just so completely different to anything else we have seen and experienced in India. There is a real mix of people living here - Nepalese, Tibetan, Indian and attitudes towards Westerners seem very different. Nobody, NOBODY asked us to buy anything. Or go anywhere. Or stay at their hotel. Nobody tried to take surreptitious photos of me as I passed or stared fixated at me. We were given thick, brown, wholemeal bread with our breakfast and ate cake and hot chocolate. Rumour has it there was even a shop selling bacon - although we never found it.

After a happy few days visiting the zoo and the mountaineering institute, wandering the streets and sampling the cakes we were all set to jump in a shared Jeep to the Nepalese border. As mentioned in the previous post, this was not to be. Once we had come to terms with this change of plans, we decided to head to Kolkata so we could get visas and flights to China. There was just enough time for a day of white water rafting. A great example of Indian health and safety. As we sat by the side of a mountain road with a flat tire, the raft tied to the top with 3 people having been travelling on it (there was just no way to squeeze us all inside the vehicle) we just hoped the raft was more reliable than the jeep. Well, it lasted the trip. We even got helmets and life jackets, although Kev rejected his helmet as he claimed his ears were too big for it...

The rafting itself was great fun, with the men being given the hard work with the oars and the ladies trusting them with our lives. I spent most of the trip leaning over the very front of the boat, which resulted in getting very, very, very wet. The rapids ranged in difficulty, perhaps reaching 3.5 - plenty scary enough for beginners. Of course, Kev fell overboard and lost his oar. The best part for me was being able to jump out of the boat and swim down one of the rapids. Photos to follow - one of the girl's on the trip had an underwater camera so there should be some great ones.

So now we're in Kolkata, where we are eagerly awaiting our visas when we make our third trip to the Chinese embassy tomorrow. I really hope they give them to us. I'm ready to move on to a new adventure on Tuesday night when we fly to Cheng du, and (hopefully) into Tibet. Just don't tell the embassy. Before that we have a trip to a tiger reserve booked for Saturday. Fingers crossed for a sighting!