I was thoroughly 'Varansi'd' y the time I got to Kolkata...caught what I think was acute giardia- tinidazole worked remarkably well, and I'm amost totally recovered by now...end result was I have no clue what kolkata is like cos I did not manage much sightseeing at all, and was that close to calling my darjeeling trip off. Somehow, I'm here on the southeastern edge of the Himalayas, the sky is blue, the sun is shining out there and it feels crisp and cold (temp in the morning was 3 degs, and now about 13), and....above all my appetite is back (had not eaten virtually anything for 3 days!). Apprently, as a deserved welcome, the skies decided to clear up today, after a week of gloomy cloud-covered skies with a visibility of a few hundred metres, and my hotel owner kindly knocked at my door at 6am to announce that 'the mountain was visible'. I lazily crept out from under my duvet (there's no heating in the room and it was freezing) after my 14 hour slumber (i've never slept so much, but then I'd not felt as tired as the night before at any point of my trip in India).What he meant was that the whole snow-peaked range, of which mt kanchenjunga, the world's 3rd highest peak at 8588m (ie 250m less than Everest) is part of, was being lit up into an orange pink by the sun rising above the hills in the east- an awesome view from the hotel's top viewing platform.
I had some very English breakfast at Glenary's on the Mall, includng Darjeeilng tea of course, felt rejuvenated and went off for a hike to ghoom, 7km from here. Walking through the inhabited areas revealed a whole new life up here in the mountains, with a majority of Nepalis- one would hardly say I was in India!! I'm hoping to stay in Darjeeling at least one more day, and then off to the North to Sikkim, where the landscape and people are much the same, but much less populated with even better views of the mountains. I don;t think i've got ebough reserve for a 5-6 day trek, but I'll see how I feel. Have certainly started to gulp down again, which should help!!