Darjeeling

No pix, I'm afraid, because the cybercafe we're using won't allow them. But we're now in Darjeeling in the rather misty Himalayas - mountain views but only sporadically. We're staying at a very Raj style hotel called the Windamere (sic) , which serves aft ernoon tea, has coal fires and hot water bottles! Very welcome after a night on the sleeper from Kolkata, hours wait for the Toy train which takes you very slowly up to Darjeeling and in practice fell off the track half way up. No great problem though - they just got lifting equipment, put it back on and set off again and we got here eventually.

We spent today looking round Bu ddhist monasteries, which are likely to be in short supply later on our trip and generally feeling nostalgic about Nepal, which this a rea resembles - to the extent that the strongest political party round here (and the noisiest) is the Gurkha Liberation front. However, what really turns the Darjeelingites on is the Voice of India competition (a sort of sub-teenage Indian Pop Idol) in which they're rooting for the local girl, Prakriti Giri " dragon of the hills", who's about 10 years old.