Jeff & Chris travel east

After school was out, we spent a week catching up on email and connections, then took a taxi down to DehraDun. We stopped off at President Travel to book a plane flight for the end of our upcoming long voyage, so that we could meet Barb and Cole's flight arriving from New York!
We went to the DehraDun InterState Bus Terminal (called "ISBT) on the far side of town, waited for the A/C bus. It was surprisingly nice and easy -- the bus suspension protected us from the potholes and rough roads and sudden stops. Except for a few traffic jams right in Delhi, the ride was smooth -- we stopped a couple of times for tea. Arrived in Delhi late, about 10pm, took an auto-rickshaw to the New City Palace Hotel, near the main mosque. What a claustrophobic hotel! but the room was air-conditioned, and we slept fine, waking early for the 6:40 departure of the Mahananda Express from Old Delhi Train Station. A cycle-rickshaw found us right outside the hotel, and managed to pedal and push us to the station -- we were a heavy load, what with backpacks and all.
The train was fine -- the car was recently renovated, so everything worked well. But there was not much in the way of food service, so we jumped out at a few stations to buy chips and cookies and bread. We met a few friendly people on the train-- an army captain on leave, and a young scientist in the Indian space program, on his summer vacation also. Our colleagues from Woodstock phoned to let us know where they were staying in Darjeeling--they reserved us a room there as well, so we had a confirmed destination!
After 32 hours onboard, we alighted at Siliguri junction, amidst the heat and humidity and bustle of the lowlands in mid-monsoon... we bought a train ticket for a later portion of the trip, then asked around to find that the last bus for Darjeeling had left. So we asked around for a shared-jeep, found that across a very busy road-- Rs164 got us a couple of seats in an SUV (Tata Sumo) for a fast bumpy curvy 4-hour ride up to Darjeeling at 2100meters elevation.
Then a friendly drunkard met us, escorted us up to the Hotel Broadway (really! the nearby tourist-policeman vouched for him), where the management had a room waiting for us. And, fortunately, though the mist closed in at dusk, we have not yet had to walk in the rain.
Darjeeling is a much older, more developed town than Mussoorie...at least it seems so, with many more mountain/tourist touches.
Today we attempted to get a ticket on the "toy train", but it is booked up for days, so we revert to the cyber cafe, and then to the nearby tea plantation for the obligatory Darjeeling Tea investigation.
More later...