10/22/10

I'm in heaven. We are in Darjeeling now, after a somewhat hair-raising trip to get here. We had to drive down the mountain from Kalimpong to the Teesta River, then up the mountain to Darjeeling. The monsoon has been particularly bad this year, we have heard, so some of the road is washed away (this accounts for the bad roads we had between Bagdogra and Kalimpong. Also, the remnants of the monsoon are still with us, so it poured all night long and most of today. The result is that the clouds are low and since we are driving up the side of a mountain, it's pretty misty and foggy.

Having reached Darjeeling, we checked into the Windamere Hotel. The purpose of our stay here in Darjeeling is R&R and we need it. We've had a pretty heavy and full program since we arrived in India, meeting with people, learning about the situation here on so many different fronts that it's all pretty overwhelming. I don't think we could keep this pace up for a full three weeks. We need some time to rest and regroup, to reflect and talk about what paths to go down and what to do when we get back. The Windamere is our splurge, made possible by the generosity of Enos Das Pradhan, who paid for our hotel in Kalimpong and by the CNI who is allowing us to stay at the Bhawan for free. Anyway, the Windamere is a perfect place to do that. It was originally built as a series of houses meant for the English bachelors who came here to work in the tea industry. Now it's a lovely old hotel, still decorated in Victorian style and keeping to English traditions. The room rate includes 4 (count 'em) meals per day: breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner, so we're really getting our money's worth. We've only seen a little of Darjeeling because it was so misty, but it seems like an amazing place, perched up on the side of a mountain. If it's nice, in the morning you can see the highest peak in India (which starts with a K, but I don't know the spelling of the name).

We got here just in time for lunch, which had an English dish and an Indian dish plus dessert. Then we explored a little – trying to get on the internet, mainly – then it was time for tea. I just had a scone and tea. More exploring and then time for dinner. Now it's time for bed and then it will be time for breakfast. The staff put hot water bottles in our beds and turned down the bed for us while we were eating dinner. Tomorrow we start with the talking and figuring out what to do when we get back.