darjeeling/it's a small world after all.

it was quite the adventure getting back into india after our little bout in nepal.. we got on the bus around 4pm and rode it through the treacherous mountainside roads for almost 15 hours.. at 7am, tired and grumpy, we grabbed our bags and took a rikshaw a kilometer down the sandy road to the boats.. [i think a dam broke?] seemed so absurd because the only thing you could see for miles was sand, and then there was this huge river with a strong current where the road used to be.. so we loaded up these wooden tubs and slowly made our way across.. the engine choked out a few times and i was pretty sure we weren't going to make it. on the other side, we got another rikshaw and went another kilo down the road where we caught our next bus which we rode until 12:30. then changing to a jeep at 2:30. then another jeep at 4pm to cross over the border and arrive in darjeeling at 8pm..

so we're waiting for our final jeep at this little border town, about to walk through the immigration office for a stamp when who do we run into? wilf and laura olson, ray and ellen mcmillan, and their two grandchildren, august and andrew. talk about a small world. i had wanted to get up to guwahati to visit with them and it just didn't work out with our time frame, and voila. our paths crossed. caught up for a few minutes before parting ways.. after 2 days travel, i'm sure i didn't smell very pretty, but they didn't resist any hugs. it was so nice to see them.

went on the infamous 'toy train' for a joy ride to see the sights.. it was quite the disappointment! it's in a book titled '1000 things to do before you die' - i plan on writing a strongly worded letter. although, it is the oldest and second highest train station in the world.. 7047 ft up.. guess it just takes a lot more to impress me these days, so spoilt.

yesterday was mike's birthday, as well as his last day with us. he heads off to calcutta this afternoon to catch a plane. so last night we went out to a little pub down the street to celebrate, and we ended up running into this guy, drew, that we met on our boat cruise in halong bay! two months and three countries later.. and here we all are. smallll world.