3rd Day Darjeeling

or, "How to Improve Your Life w/ Plastic!"

Well, things have improved! Mostly because I finally did what I threatened all along: I whipped out my Visa card!

Before I even got out of bed this morning at The Heritage, I could tell it was another hugely cloudy day. When the sun himself wakes you up, he commands a certain amount of attention; especially if your curtains don't completely cover windows. But the milky white light entering the room had such little force, I just rolled over. But by 8:00 I couldn't sleep anymore. I had to get up. First to the bathroom - still no water, not hot, not cold, nothing. Couldn't even brush my teeth...

So after breakfast, with rain coming down and a misplaced rain jacket, I set off in search of a new hotel. I kind of like looking around at the hotels, but it gets tedious after awhile, especially in the rain. I managed to buy an umbrella, though, and kept hoofing it up the many stairs of Darjeeling. (For those of you who haven't been here or heard about it, the whole town sits on the western slope of a steep ridge. We're not talking about 5-6 stories from the bottom to the top; we're talking about street after street of 5-6 story buildings, each sitting on top of the next!) Anyway, I finally settled on a US$ 40 a night place. That may sound inexpensive to Americans, but it's pretty fancy by local standards. I now have consistent hot water, a room heater, a view (of about 20 ft. to where the cloud still hangs low over Darjeeling), and, unbelievably, in-room Internet! Plus they have a nice restaurant downstairs that's not too expensive, and I can eat there OR have it delivered to the room.

So I'm good - thanks to all who have been thinking or praying about me! The only downside is that my new room at the "Hotel Shangri-La" is only available for 2 nights, and he doesn't have any more! My little piece of paradise may be short-lived!!

Oh, I booked a ticket on the "Toy Train" (it's real) for tomorrow at 1:30pm, so I'll let you know how that goes. All for now,

Larry