I felt, not surprisingly, bloody awful this morning, but received no sympathy at all from Val. Not only had she stayed relatively sober while I had over-indulged, giving her a smug sense of self-righteousness, but I had seriously disturbed her night’s sleep. She did, however, hand me the sweet tea provided by the lodge with a couple of veganin, after which I felt rather better.
For the second morning running it was a crack of dawn job, this time because we had to catch the bus back to Darjeeling. It left from the village 1 km further down the hill, so we all left together in what we thought was plenty of time. We had plodded along for 20 mins or so however, without spotting any place that looked likely, when we saw, still a long way below us, + approached by a steep side-track, a small collection of houses, + more important, a jeep/bus waiting there. Val + I were nearest to the path, some of the others having already gone past, so we took off down there at a fair lick, the others in pursuit. Having thus committed ourselves, we didn’t stop even when the jeep took off, but it still took a good time to get down, for it was a long way.
We decided when we got down there that we had probably come down to the wrong place, since it was too low + too far down, but it was still on the road, + we discovered that the bus came by, so there was no problem. The bus was modern + reasonably comfortable + still had enough seats for us all, which was good – as we went further down it soon filled further to a more normal Indian level. I think we were all surprised by the length of the journey. I at least thought it would be something like 2 – it was nearer 5. So we were more than pleased to crawl out at the other end, our Everest expedition over.
The climb up from the bus stn to the hotel was painful, + it was disappointing to find that our hotel was full. They had, in any case, just about doubled their prices. But the owner there got someone else to take us to another hotel, where Annabel, Val + I were able to get a room for the same price as before. It was nowhere near as nice, of course, much pokier, + worst of all was at the top of a 146 step staircase (it can’t have been far below the Youth Hostel), but it did the trick. D + S had become very friendly with J + J, so were looking for a room together – their room too had been taken. But they weren’t happy with what they were offered in any of the many hotels scattered up + down the stone staircase, so went off to search for better elsewhere. The people in our new hotel, the Himland, were nothing like as friendly as at the Capitol – we had a bit of a struggle to get them to fulfil the promises they had made in the first flush of selling their place, but eventually we were able to get buckets of hot water from them, + wash off the top 2 layers of travel dust. Having returned, however I was now feeling rather ill, tho’ not ill enough to prevent me feeding my face with various foods + drinks.
Come 5 o’clock, I went off alone to one of Darjeeling’s many video-cinemas. It’s a real growth industry in the town, for there are many of them. I imagine the one I visited was typical, a smallish room, longer than it was wide, with a television + VCR at one end, + otherwise furnished only with plain + rickety wooden benches. The room was dark, dank, dusty + low-ceilinged, + reminded me of some seedy porno movie-house in London or New York. No such fare for me tonight, however. I had been lured into the place to see “Gole”, the official film of the 82 World Cup, having missed the actual event, + thinking it unlikely that I’d get the chance to see this film again. There was a bonus, if you can call it that, of an episode of “The Benny Hill Show” lifted direct from ITV, adverts and all. The film was very good, both intelligent + well-filmed, + showed me a few of the incidents that previously I had only read about. By the time I emerged, however, I felt even worse. So much so that, returning to the hotel, I turned down V + A’s suggestion of getting hold of some BH for a smoke – for me, most unusual.
Back in Darjeeling, and ready now to be on our way again, which will mean our relatively happy band of brothers and sisters will split up. Probably just as well for it to come to an end before we fall out.
