A New Horizon

We are in Darjeeling! And thank the gods for that! Blue sky, clean air, we can see the sun - life couldn't be better. It is a bit on the chilly side and we are all wrapped up in our icebreakers but that is just reminding us of home. None of us have ever been here and that makes this leg of the tour particularly exciting with a couple of big days planned for our time in the Himalayas. Speaking of exciting, we want to wish a big Himalayan happy birthday to Nick Lindberg (Sam and Ollie's cousin) today. Hope you had a ripper day mate.

We hope you are enjoying the honesty and candour of the blog thus far. Expect more blogs and emails to be coming your way from the boys over the next couple of days as we anticipate more downtime after a hectic week in Kolkata. In the meantime, you'll have to put up with my version of events:

Monday 11 December

Sickness Update - All appear to be well recovered (or is it just the Imodium they took for the train journey?) except Michael and Ryan. Michael is in good spirits and came to dinner tonight; Ryan preferred to sleep but hopefully both will be right tomorrow and we will be back with our full complement. Will Pretty has developed a head-cold which isn't excluding him from anything but is understandably frustrating.

8am - I begrudgingly woke up to the Padatik Express' breakfast-walla chirping "breaaaaakfaaaaaaast, naaaaastaaa, bread omelette." (The wallas who walk up and down the train carriages selling food, chai tea, and other drinks are a memorable feature of all train journeys here in India.) Miller Hawkesby was brave (hungry) enough to give the bread omelette a crack - good on the man, throwing himself into everything!

9.30am - Staff woke everyone else up in anticipation of a 10am arrival at New Jalpaiguri (NJP) station and we all enjoyed a bit of traditional Indian music (pan flutes and tablas) from our mates in the cabin next door.

11.10am - Actual arrival at NJP, only 2 hours late. Pretty good from Indian Railways, especially considering we initially thought we would be over 3 hours late due to a diversion. Nanda and Roshan - two leaders from the Jungle Crows - met us at NJP and sussed a convoy of minivans to take us from the station (which is in a township 

called Siliguri) up the mountain range to Darjeeling.

12.40pm - Having travelled most of the way out of Siliguri, we paused for a brunch of momos (like dumplings, a Himalayan favourite).

1.30pm - By this time our minivan drivers had gotten impatient and rushed us out of the restaurant to continue our journey - despite there being no rush at the start of the trip when they stopped for 15 minutes to buy tobacco to chew on for the drive. Please, let me reflect on this ride for my heart rate still hasn't recovered. If India is a land of contrast, this car journey was a ride of contrast. On the one hand, we had incredible views over the Himalayan mountain range which grew in beauty and vastness as we climbed; snow-capped mountains sitting atop the snaking green valley that Darjeeling overlooks. On the other hand, more of us were concerned with what was directly in front of us as our drivers flung us round corners so blind they had to use their horns to let oncoming traffic know they were round the bend. Fortunately, they knew what they were doing better than we did and we are all good. Frightening but exhilaratingly beautiful.

4pm - Arrival at our hotel in Darjeeling, The Bellevue Hotel, which - in the words of Mr Crook - is more reminiscent of a Swiss Alps chateau than anything you'd expect from India. The boys were placed on 'lockdown' and not allowed to leave the hotel for a couple of hours as they were in need of a bit of R&R. Naps, showers, and time to blog were appreciated.

6.30pm - An amazing dinner at the Shangri-La Restaurant and Bar with pakoras (spiced and deep fried paneer and vegetables) and a variety of chicken curries served. Dress code was 'your finest Indian attire' which saw the boys turn up in shiny 'silk' Ali Baba pants, kaftans, and sunnies. Roni Chapman gave an incredibly comprehensive Experts in the Field presentation on Darjeeling, paying particular attention to the current desire of the city to separate from the state of West Bengal, whereby it would become part of a new state called Ghorkaland with the rest of the hill district. Well done, Roni, great work!

8pm - We returned to the hotel for our final debrief within our current debrief groups, a bit of an emotional occasion. We talked through our final impressions of Kolkata and the interactions that will stick with us from our time here. The boys paid attention to the interactions that they had with the people - the heart of the city - pointing out that these were the light in an otherwise pretty dark place.

9pm - Early bedtime ahead of a 4am start tomorrow - to be explained in tomorrow's blog!

Thought - We are incredibly small. In a country of 1.2 billion and while interacting with thousands of people a day in this crazy place, it readily becomes apparent that we are a mere speck in a much, much larger picture. It certainly felt like that as we looked up at some of the tallest peaks in the world today. So, how do we find meaning in our otherwise meaningless life? We fill it. The challenge befalls us to fill our lives with as much vibrancy and significance as we can. By travelling to new places, understanding new cultures, conversing with new people and hearing their stories, we are enlarging our experience and adding detail and colour to the tiny speck in that big picture.

MVP - Michael Derevianko, Kalcaius to his friends, is without doubt an immensely intelligent young man. Some on this trip have even labelled him the messiah of the blog after his writing's likeness to a Dr Richard's English lesson. However, that is all irrelevant as Michael's latest demonstration of street smarts and preparedness has blown all his other great qualities out of the water. Dr D (as he was affectionately known by the Hotel Emirates staff... and now by us) has been battling the infamous Delhi Belly of late and this was of some concern heading into the train journey last night. Fortunately he - or at least his mum, Tatiana - had the forethought to pack a certain item to help him through this dark time (you'll have to ask him what it is!) I think it's genius and it's already been added to the gear list for next time so he is well-deserving of today's MVP.

Tom