What a roller coaster ride!  From meltdown yesterday, to the best day ever today.

Since we were only planning to cover about 100km today, we allowed ourselves a bit of a sleep in.  Our hotel, Sinclairs Siliguri, was situated far enough from the main road that were were isolated from the usual trains, blaring horns and other chaotic morning sounds.  We have learned that in India, silence is a true luxury… so much so, that Jason had to be forcibly dragged from bed at 9am.  IMHO, he was a little hung over.

Adding to the treat of sleeping in, was the rare sit-down breakfast.  We don’t get those when we are departing at our usual sunrise.

The only challenge today was a rather hilly road… hair pin switchbacks, steep low-gear climbs, and brake-testing descents mixed with the usual buses, trucks, cows and a few evil-looking monkeys.  The challenge was worth it as we were treated to views of glacier-fed rivers (turquoise blue rather than poo brown), single-street villages clinging to lush green mountainsides, and temperatures that required breaking out the hoodies for the first time all trip.  There was no sweating today, other than for Hillary — who worked extremely hard, but once again delivered the goods.

The small West Bengali villages and their people were amazing.  At a stop to let the engine cool off, we came across a group of police who were up from Kolkata as reinforcements for the local elections (politics in West Bengal can get extremely violent).  While they looked a little scary as they approached carrying their rifles, the moment they realized what we were doing asked to shake hands, wanted to know where we were from, and spent several minutes taking turns posing for pictures with us.  The overwhelming experience here has been that you get back what you put out — we’ve approached every human encounter with a smile and a wave and that is exactly what we’ve received.

Another 50 yards down the road we made another stop.  While Jason sat for yet another street shave, I passed out squirt guns to the throng of kids that had gathered.  Mayhem!  The kids were thrilled, but the cranky old neighbor lady (there is one in every town) was a little miffed that some were using her stall as cover.

We arrived in Madhya Madari Hat about 3 in the afternoon.  Google Maps got us to town, but could not get us to the Mystic Forest Resort, where we were booked to stay.  We flagged down a local kid on a motorcycle to ask for directions, expecting him to perhaps lead us there for a fee.  While he did lead us directly to the spot (we would never have found it) he politely refused any payment, saying that it would be wrong for him to take anything for helping.  What an incredibly pleasant surprise.

The Mystic Forest is set in the Jayshree Tea Estate.  It is comprised of rustic bungalows with temperamental electricity, lizards on the wall and no wi-fi (thus the day-late post);  but its setting and its very eager-to-please staff made it one of our favorite places.  As the sun was sinking, we took Hillary out into the estate for some photos among the neat rows of tea plants.  Dinner was fantastic — we had no idea in advance what we were going to be served — and the staff made a special run to town to procure some Black Label Strong (the local beer).

We ended the night early, knowing that we had 350km to Guwahati to cover on Thursday, and a planned wake up time of 4:30am.

Cheers,
Brian and Jason