Darjeeling is an old British hill station, back in the olden days when we owned India the Brits used to come up here to escape the heat of the Indian summer. At an altitude of over 2000 metres the views are quite spectacular, tea plantations, green hills and the Himalayan mountains in the distance.

I arrived here on the 10th April and the weather was terrible. I came by bus from Siliguri (about 35c) to Darjeeling which was about 10c, misty and raining. I was wearing thin Indian trousers and a t-shirt and very cold. I found a hotel (Morning Dew Hotel) with a balcony view over the hills (and two double beds!) for 250rs/night, dumped my stuff, put some warm clothes on and went out for tea at The Park Restaurant.

The Park is a nice classy place serving Indian and some Thai food. Alcohol is easily available in Darjeeling so I treat myself to a bottle of Cobra in celebration of Lucy's birthday (happy birthday Lucy!).

There's a three screen cinema here, one of the screens is devoted to English language films and shows roughly 5 a day. I saw one called The Marine on Wednesday (11th), it wasn't very good but did have lots of guns and a few big explosions.

Most of the tourist spots around here are weather dependent so I've not seen much with all the mist around, the weather has been getting nicer day by day and by Friday (13th) there was even some sun. There is a bar here called Buzz that seems to have live bands most nights. I've met a few other travelers and we seem to frequent this bar most nights.

I moved hotel on the 13th to a nice little place called The Grace Inn, the place looks like a ski lodge with a good amount of wood paneling. It's a very friendly place seemingly run by three lads who just sit around listening to music. The room has a hot shower (the Morning Dew didn't, just buckets of hot water available on request) and a real toilet and is only 200rs. It's right at the top of town but that's no problem to a young fit lad like me.

I started feeling a bit ill on Saturday (14th) night and then spent Sunday and Monday in bed suffering from manflu, only venturing out to get supplies of fruit juice and snacks.

I'm semi recovered now (enough to enable me to leave the hotel) although still not amazing. I'm gonna get some food and take it easy for the rest of the day.

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