Hi All

Wednesday February 13th. We got up early again to catch our flight to Bagdoga. Since I had only four weeks here and the buses and trains are fairly slow (there was a train derailment yesterday) we decided to fly. The local carriers are Jet Airways,Sahara airways and Air India. The next part of the trip was a quick tour through Darjeeling, Gangtok and Kalimpong. This area is a small spit of India that is in the Himalaya foothills surrounded by Nepal,China (Tibet) and Bhutan. We had to travel into the state of Sikkim which required a permit that we had to carry around all the time.

In Darjeeling we stayed in a nice hotel built in 1907, the Fortune Central. It too had a fire place. We saw a number of Buddist temples and a tea plantation. The first night in town we found a pub called Joeys and met a bunch of local backpackers who had either been here for awhile or just arrived. One guy, Kevin, we are suppose to meet up with in Nepal later. Next morning we got up at 4am and got a ride to Tiger Hill to watch the sun come up. In view of Darjeeling, and Tiger Hill, is the 3rd highest peak in the Himalayas. At tiger hill we watched as sunrise exposed the mountain all the while being pestered to buy coffee.If you looked very hard you could also see the peak of Everest.We actually saw the whole range when we flew in and were able to pick out Everest from all the peaks. We were also lucky it was a clear day as the valley is pretty hazy from all the burning of wood and car/truck pollution. That night we met up with Jamie (who I'm pretty sure was a heroin addict) and went to a localTtibetin guys small cafe where we had a local beer ala moonshine brewing technique. It's a type of fermented millet that you drink out of a bamboo mug by adding hot water. Tasted like the bruised part of an apple, but you get used to it.

The next day we went to Gangtok up the valley and into Sikkim.Total time to travel 158Km, 5-6 hours. The valley drive was really nice, but we had an extra 2 hours added to the trip waiting for a military truck to be pulled from the side of the road. It had gone over the edge but not to far and nobody was hurt. Phil took lots of pictures. The drive took us into the state of Sikkim. Sikkim is known for their beer and liquor production. There was an alcohol store just passed the border. Sikkim state is also fairly well off. It was in Gangtok that I saw my first sewage treatment plant. Needless to say that was a surprise. Again saw lots of Buddist temples. The town is on the crest of a mountain ridge and so there was alot of up and down walking. We eventually found all the cool shortcuts that took us up 200 foot heigh 4 foot wide alleyways.

Sunday we got up late and made our way to Kalimpong. The next day tour of Kalimpong inluded the water resevoir ( a great hang gliding launch site) and (yawn) more buddist temples. At least when we visited the smaller one in town they were in prayer and so we saw the chanting and the playing of their instruments.

The first day in Kalimpong we arrived early and ate lunch in a small hole in the wall restaurant that only served momos and beer. It was here that Phil saw the rat scurry off into a hole in the wall. It was also that evening I decided the imodium wasn't cutting it and it was time for the Cipro. Took one that night and one in the morning. Needless to say it worked well, a little too well. It would be three more days before life would return to normal.

Martin