Let me start by saying that I contributed absolutely nothing to the organisation of this trip. A VSO couple, Ann and her Norwegian husband Bjort, had done pretty much everything and left me with the minor task of getting myself a visa for India. As an aside, while both Ann and Bjort applied to VSO, they found it nigh on impossible to get placed together. In the end they decided that Ann should be the one to work as it would be (and is) easier for Bjort as a man to have a social life in a muslim country like Bangladesh. Smart thinking on their behalf but rather sad that they were forced to make that decision given the number of placements still available even now.

(27/12) So, the day after Boxing day, Ann and Bjort (hereafter referred to as A and B), another VSO volunteer called Sarah and myself took a bus up to the north-west of Bangladesh where A and B live (Thakurgaon - less than 1 hour from me). That very evening we were invited to attend what I can only describe as the Death Party of A and B's boss's brother who had suddenly passed away before Christmas. When a hindu dies, and as far as I understand it, the family prays and fasts for several days before "celebrating" the person's life, and it was this final part we attended. The evening we spent was weird for 2 main reasons, but ultimately I believe it was this wierdness that enabled us to get through it.

First of all, while death is a very personal and private affair back home, here they seem to "share" the event with almost everyone. The day we were there they fed 700 people. Count them - 700 people! Secondly, despite the fact we were only there to pay our respects to the deceased (who we didn't actually know to be brutally honest) WE, and not the deceased, were by and large the focus of attention. Imagine attending a stranger's funeral and having the family asking you when everyone could eat! After the obligatory vegetarian meal I then found myself being asked by a hindu communist if I thought Tony Blair was a great man ("that's a complicated question" I replied) and then by a young lad if I thought Tony Blair was bad for peace ("Yes") and if Shakespeare was a great man ("!!"). Fortunately for us, the bengali tradition is to leave shortly after eating so I avoided other tricky questions and talked about cricket for the remaining moments before finding safety in the microbus home. We learnt the following day that everyone was glad we'd come, which sort of makes it wierder in a way.

(28/12) The following day we spent in and around Thakurgaon. Ann went off to her NGO in the morning to see how work was going but the rest of us had a lazy morning and met up with her towards midday. She had things she needed to do with her boss so the 3 of us headed off to a hindu temple about 30 minutes away called Kantanagar that dates back to 1752 and the time of the Mughal empire. It is apparently the most ornate in Bangladesh, and while it's not very big compared to Christian churches I'm told it is big as hindu temples go (see "Keri's placement - Local area information" for a photo). Apart from packing, and surviving an invitation to eat too many sweet things at A and B's neighbours, we didn't achieve much else that day. The latter though was no mean feat given the portions they forced upon us.

(29/12) The next morning we were up at a ridiculous hour as we wanted to get to the Indian border good and early just in case. We'd heard it took a while to get through, and weren't sure of the opening times, so were playing it safe. After 2-3 hours in a car we got to the border post, or should I say the first border post. In total we went in and out of 5 different border offices, filling in forms and / or signing ledgers in each one. It was all truly pointless and took over 2 hours, which is even worse than my doubtless outdated memories of US immigration. It was also the first time in my life I'd crossed a border on foot, and when I say border I mean a muddy road leading from one stretch of empty farmland to another. The stench of corruption was everywhere, and bribes were openly paid in front of us though none were asked of us. We were glad to get into India and find a taxi (HM Ambassador car like an ancient Morris Minor which had a front seat like a sofa for the driver and I) to take us to the next stage of our trip - Siliguri.

We arrived in town around lunchtime, and seeing as transport up to Darjeeling did not seem in short supply, we made straight for a nice looking hotel for lunch. What a difference a few hundred kilometers makes to the food! Bangladesh is all about rice and curried vegetables but has nothing that can rival a nice creamy chicken tikka masala and garlic nan bread - delicious! Once we'd found a car and agreed a good price to get to Darjeeling we spent 2-3 more hours winding our way up a narrow mountain road. The highlight was suddenly rising above the cloud and having a view you usually only get from an airplane window i.e. the sun setting over a sea of cloud. It was really quite impressive how the earth suddenly rose up into very steep mountains after being on a flat plain, and that feeling stayed with me throughout the trip. We found our hotel without too much trouble, were very pleased with how it turned out to be (lots of charm and run by a Tibetan couple) and after a wee rest went to one of the bars recommended in the Lonely Planet and drank beer and ate pizza until we started flagging. That sounds like a funny thing to do in India, but when you live in a country where bars don't exist and western bar food is expensive you tend to leap at the chance when it crops up.

Here's a bit of information about Darjeeling courtesy of Microsoft Encarta: Darjiling or Darjeeling is a town in north-eastern India, in West Bengal State. The town, near the border of Nepal and Sikkim, is in the lower Himalayas, on a ridge ranging from about 1,820 to 2,405 m (about 5,970 to 7,890 ft) above sea level. The climate is temperate, and the rainy season lasts from June to October. After the rains, the clear atmosphere permits the surrounding mountainous country to be seen, and many tourists frequent the resort city. From nearby points (especially Tiger Hill just outside town), two of the highest mountains in the world, Everest and Kanchenjunga, are visible.

Founded as a monastery (since gone) on Observatory Hill, Darjiling means "Place of the Thunderbolt". After it's discovery by 2 British soldiers the city was annexed by Britain in the mid-1800s, and was the capital of Bengal Province, British India. Troops came to the city for rest and relaxation, enjoying the therapeutic environment. At the close of the century, the growing tea industry spurred rapid development and launched a mass influx of Nepalese laborers (just outside town there's a Tibetan refugee self-help centre founded in October 1959 producing traditional arts and crafts for sale to tourists via their own shop or other local businesses in town). Over the course of the 20th century, Darjiling developed into a profitable resort town with flourishing tea, rice, and timber industries. However, the town did experience considerable political upheaval in the 1980s. Although the majority of the population speaks Nepali, the language remained unofficial, effectively barring most of the community from government positions. Riots in 1988 forced a resolution, and Darjiling was granted a Nepali administrative council and greater control of its own affairs, although it is still part of the state of West Bengal.

30/12) After all the travelling of the previous days we all just wanted a lazy day wandering around town. As a result we spent late morning and lunchtime sitting outside at one swanky hotel drinking Darjeeling tea and eating cake, and after a short stroll around town we spent the afternoon drinking beers outside at an even swankier hotel. The views down the valley and across to the Himalayas were of course incredible, and despite the cold we were all very comfortable outside in the late afternoon sun. Obviously exhausted by our exertions (!) we had dinner in a tibetan diner and went to bed early. Just for the record, I thoroughly recommend the little deep fried filled dumplins / ravioli things called momos the tibetans eat. Even the name "momo" sounds cool, but that's just my opinion.

(31/12) Thoroughly refreshed we got down to some serious sightseeing. Over a 3-hour walk we took in the Himilayan zoo (impressive siberian tigers, original looking red pandas and noisy Indian tourists), then the Mountaineering Institute and Everest museum. This latter one left quite an impression on all of us of the magnitude of these climber's achievement. What was funny was how the initial attempts to conquer Everest were all foreign (mostly British) due to the local belief that it was a sacred place hence stopping Nepalese climbers from trying. However, when Nepal did allow foreign groups in they insisted on having Nepalese guides with them. Incidently, did you know that Everest was named after Sir George Everest (1790-1866), British surveyor and administrator with the English East India Company, and for 20 years head of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India? His work developing surveying techniques enabled the first accurate estimation of the mountain's height, done at up to a distance of 260 km as they couldn't enter Nepal. Well I found that interesting anyway...

Seeing as it was New Year's Eve we had to go out and celebrate didn't we? Good bars are rather thin on the ground in Darjeeling (there are 2) so we kicked off with a good meal made very entertaining by the locals' attempts at karaoke. 3 of us were up for singing La Bamba (myself included) but we never quite made it to the microphone mercifully. After that it was a short walk downstairs to the bar for beers and dancing. There are photos of the latter part of the evening but I don't have them and so can't share them just yet. I know, I know, what a shame etc.

(1/1) New Year's Day was quite frankly a bit of a wash out, so no change there from standard operating procedure back home. We did however manage to venture out and visit a buddhist monastery. Now, most of you know that I'm not a religious man by any stretch of the imagination. I do always try to be respectful of religious sites and buildings though, and this was no exception. At first we weren't sure if we were allowed in as there weren't any monks about to ask. With growing confidence we made our way to the main building and there finally we were told that we could indeed come in. My knowledge of buddhism is nigh on zero, but I have since discovered (again courtesy of Microsoft Encarta) that it was founded by Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, who was born in Lumbini near the present Indian-Nepal border, the son of the ruler of a petty kingdom. At the core of the Buddha's enlightenment was the realization of the Four Noble Truths: (1) Life is suffering. This is more than a mere recognition of the presence of suffering in existence. It is a statement that, in its very nature, human existence is essentially painful from the moment of birth to the moment of death. Even death brings no relief, for the Buddha accepted the Hindu idea of life as cyclical, with death leading to further rebirth. (2) All suffering is caused by ignorance of the nature of reality and the craving, attachment, and grasping that result from such ignorance. (3) Suffering can be ended by overcoming ignorance and attachment. (4) The path to the suppression of suffering is the Noble Eightfold Path, which consists of right views, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right-mindedness, and right contemplation. These eight are usually divided into three categories that form the cornerstone of Buddhist faith: morality, wisdom, and samadhi, or concentration. Had I known all that then I probably wouldn't have spent my evening drinking beer and eating pasta. But I didn't so I did.

(2/1) For our last day in Darjeeling we thought we'd try the big trip available locally - Tiger Hill. This is a vantage point just outside town where on a clear day you can see Everest. We'd seen photos of what that looks like and Everest looked pretty tiny really. Instead, and this is why we got up at 4am, we wanted to see the sun rise over the Himalayas. Tiger Hill had been closed since we arrived as a recent snow fall had made the road too dangerous, but it was open this last day. We got into our microbus and set off, and after about 15 minutes got to a corner in a road where a huge 4x4 had stopped. The ice on the road was too much and the wheels just couldn't grip, so we got out and started pushing. This was not a resounding success, and at one point I ran out of mountain and fell off it. It was still dark, I couldn't see a damn thing, so when my feet failed to find the road again I fell 4 feet onto what felt like bramble bushes, rolled a bit and then thankfully came to a halt. It was quite easy getting back up again, I only grazed my ankle, and it was quite funny, but I suppose I was lucky I stopped rolling when I did. As I mentioned to Sarah, I really must stop these aborted suicide attempts, if only for the sake of my clothes.

Seeing as the microbus wasn't making any progress we got out our torches (preparation you see) and started walking. Estimates for the time it would take to reach the top varied from 15 minutes to 1 hour, so when our bus magically appeared behind us having got past the treacherous curve we gleefully jumped in. We got to the top with 40 minutes to spare before sunrise and settled into our chairs in the super deluxe observation lounge we'd paid 40 rupees for (including hot Darjeeling tea and 2 biscuits). I do have photos of the sunrise and the Himalayas so will share them rather than trying to describe it here, but suffice it to say it was well worth getting up that early in the cold to see. From where we were the Himalayas truly looked like an impenetrable natural wall, making me think of certain passages in the Lord of the Rings where the fellowship are confronted with something equally impassable. The rest of the day was spent back in bed in the morning, doing last minute shopping in the afternoon before a huge blow-out Indian meal in the evening. I ate far too much and had that Christmas Day feeling all night - not nice.

(3/1) What I've failed to mention so far is that orginally I'd planned on going back to BRIF on the 2nd for the workshop I was running on the 3rd. This wasn't convenient for the others as a) it meant less holiday, and b) there was to be a big general strike in Bangladesh (known as a hartel) on the 3rd effectively closing all shops and business. When I heard about the hartel I e-mailed Habib asking if the meeting was maintained, and after a few confused replies wishing me a merry Christmas but not actually addressing the question in hand he finally said that it had been postponed by a week. As a result, we had 2 extra days and could take the leisurely train ride back down the mountain back to Siliguri rather than a quick taxi. The train is known as the "Toy Train" as it's roughly half the size of a normal train, and riding in 1st class it was very comfortable despite the lack of heating. For the history buffs amongst you Sir Edmund Hilary took the same train on his Everest trips, as did Tenzing Norgay when he came to Darjeeling to find work. Back then you see, as Nepal and Tibet were closed, all Everest expeditions left from Darjeeling. The train takes over 7 hours to cover the 77 km, and the hotel owners had told us that even if we missed the departure we could just take a taxi and catch it up! The highlight for me of the descent was going past a colony of monkeys just sitting by the road side watching the train go by.

One funny thing about it all though happened coming into Siliguri. The countryside and people in West Bengal look to my untrained eye to be the same as in Bangladesh, but nothing like Darjeeling. Without really realising it, I had got used to having good varied food, drinking in bars, not being stared at, and the women could relax as well without being on their guard all the time. In short, we'd spent 6 days living much as we would back in Europe. Coming back down the mountain and seeing the start of Bangladeshi life brought this home to me. The key point here though is that I didn't feel this after a holiday in the UK, or France or Hong Kong. I felt this way after spending 6 days in India, poor and developing India, and that made it harder to bear I think. That feeling came and went that evening, and I certainly want to see more of India which wasn't really the case beforehand

The remained of the trip was just taxi's and more border checks, but the game of tabletop twister we played in the hotel in Siliguri on our last night was hilarious (another inspired birthday present from my Mum). All in all a cracking trip, and I thoroughly recommend Darjeeling as a relaxing destination.