Day 131 (Wed 15 Nov) - Darjeeling / Siliguri

Had our customary breakfast at Glenarys and then wandered back to our hotel to play with Chapati and Pakora. Disco had been saving her sausages for the dogs for which they were evidently grateful.

Packed our gear and walked to the tourist office to get our jeep that would take us to New Jalpaguiri at about 1pm. As we passed through Darjeeling we were forced to stop to allow the toy train to pass across us.

On the way back we stopped off at the Makaibari tea factory. Quite fascinating as we walked round the factory, looking at machines that were the best part of a century old still working. Even the final sifting of the tea leaves is done by hand by women.

We all bought some tea and then continued on our way to NJP as the afternoon light bathed the beautiful countryside in a rich warm glow. It was breathtaking.

We decided to stop off at Siliguri instead of NJP as there seemed to be even less in NJP and we had a few hours to kill.

At Siliguri we headed to Yatri's where he had a few beers (one too many in Sarb's case) before heading off to NJP.

At NJP train station we were forced to split up. The only seats that we could reserve were two in 3A and one in 2A. Sarb got the 2A slot whilst Jo and Disco went off to their 3A carriage.

Sarb had quite a pleasant time chatting to the locals sharing his berth, to the extent that they were probably quite relieved when the lights went out.

Sarb slept quite well as opposed to Disco and Jo.

The train pulled into Kolkata at 7am.