Tuesday 15th Feb - Passage to India

Awoken by a rather strident announcement that we are 30 minutes out of Dubai. We have missed our original connection but there are greeters at arrivals who issue us with new boarding cards and we are on the 10.10 flight to Delhi. It is now 6.10 local so we head for the Emirates Lounge and a spot of brekker. It's reminiscent of a rather upmarket Students Union.

What with breakfasting and blogging and buying duty free the time flies by and flight EK516 for Delhi is ready to go. We settle in and after a short delay the plane is in the air. R has her first glass of champagne of the day. Her watch, still on UK time, says 7.10 a.m. Lunch soon follows along with our first view of the subcontinent.

By the time we get to Delhi the sun has disappeared and the weather is more what one would expect of Scotland than India. Thee immigration queue was not too bad and there was no queue at all at Thomas Cook's Foreign Exchange - no wonder as the rate they offered was miserly. We quickly found our driver and got loaded up in his Mercedes. He was unperturbed by the appalling driving that was being displayed by most drivers on the road. He told us that most people bribe the driving test wallahs. We were grateful to him for getting us to the hotel in one piece.

Check in went well and we were shown up to a very nice room on the 10th floor with views towards the city centre which was just about visible through the rain. The nice man told us that our room rate includes complimentary wifi, drinks and snacks in the club room and a bindi each from the nice young lady who leaves a large red spot on each of our foreheads.

We are feeling pretty grubby so a shower is first priority along with a trip to the nearby metro station for smart cards so we don't have to queue tomorrow. By the time this is done and we have checked the e-mails it is time to hit the club lounge. A couple of Kingfishers and a plate of pakoras hit the spot. Went to bed dog tired at 8 p.m. and wike awake at 11 p.m., just in time to see the most spectacular rain storm.

Monday 14th Feb - Under Way

Time to go. Everything that we need is packed (we hope!) Both of us woke up in the middle of the night remember things we that we had previously forgotten. Our resolution to pack light means that we are about 20 kilos lighter than our last big trip. I just hope that R doesn't regret not packing a ball gown this time. A quick scan of the news from Darjeeling on the net tells us that they are now into day 6 of a total shutdown. Goody.

The car arrives a few minutes early in the pouring rain so we wave cheerio to our younger daughter who can't wait for five weeks unrestricted use of her mother's car. The driver tells us that there has been snow on the M8 so we take the scenic route via Cumbernauld to the airport. We sail through check in and take up residence in the lounge. At 11.00 a.m. the flight is predicted to leave 10 minutes late at 13.15. At 17.00 we still don't know if the flight will leave today - a sensor is faulty and they are having to fly one up from Heathrow. Some of the punters are getting a bit cross but the Emirates staff do a decent job of informing us and cough for a £20 lunch voucher.

We board eventually and are airborne by 19.30. R extracts her revenge by attempting to drink all of the champagne on board. Even she has had enough when they attempt to refill her glass for the 4th time. The food is excellent and we watch the first half of Young Frankenstein, before getting our heads down.

11th February - Slightly Worrying News

We have been watching (and sometimes joining in with) the forum for the GCIRC - see link on the right. We have arranged to meet some of them for a beer when we get to Siliguri if their plan and ours hold together. This morning logged on to a couple of news links about problems in and around Darjeeling. It was easy enough to find more doom and gloom on the internet which suggests that a general strike has more or less shut everything.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office advise contacting your tour operator prior to travelling so we e-mailed Clive at Darjeeling Tours. His reply told us that they were hopeful that things will have settled down by the time that we get there and that the worst scenario was that we wouldn't be able to get to Darjeeling.

So that's alright then.

Two weeks to go

It's getting very close. Visas, rail tickets, hotel bookings, travellers cheques - all sorted You aren't allowed to take rupees out of India and therefore it is not possible to buy them in the UK - not officially anyway. Time to start on the anti-malaria tablets - they taste disgusting.