Our first ride on an Indian train begins at the cheery hour of 6 am. We are sharing our cozy cabin with a soon-to-be grandmother, an engineering student and…a tiny mouse! Between the sonorous voices of the Chai men constantly strolling the corridors with their big silver kettles, the clackety-clack of the tracks, the tantalizing scenery (tea plantations!), tasty vegetarian meals, naps, and Satyajit Ray’s Childhood Days, the seven-hour journey (okay, nine-hour journey… yes… there are a few delays….) flies by in a heartbeat. Then a just slightly harrowing 3-hour taxi-ride on the narrowest of roads up up up to the top of the world and here we are at last… Darjeeling: The Queen of Hills!
I think you two should enter the “Great Race” contest after you rest up from this
little jaunt.