Leaving Darjeeling

We planned to have breakfast next door, but when we got outside it wasn't open, so we decided to eat at the place across the road. We had a great cooked breakfast. I have also become a fan of ginger, lemon and honey tea. We had to catch a train from NJP at 2:40 pm, and it was a 3 to 3.5 hour trip , so we had to get moving. We packed and checked out of the hotel, carried our bags about half a kilometer down to the taxi area and arranged for a taxi to take us down to the station for 2000 Rs. and Paula stayed there with our bags while we went down to the markets to see about suits. We told them that we couldn't rearrange any plans and that we had to leave to catch the train. Bridget arranged with Rohini to come in and pick them up and post them to Australia. He asked us to wait a few minutes while he called the tailor, who then came and delivered the completed vests which matched the pants and jackets we already had. With that organised we heade back and got the taxi down from the mountains. It was a shame again about the view, but we could only seeabout a kilometer because of the low cloud. We drove through tea estates, and a military area, before arriving at the staion with enough time to find the correct platform and carriage. We had 2AC, which meant that we were in a second class, airconditioned sleeper carriage. The carriage had open compartments with 2 sleeper beds on each side of the compartment, one above the other. On the other window there were another 2 sleepers, one at seat level with a window view, and the other above. The bottom sleeper converted to 2 seats if you wanted to sit. We were again provided with a pillow, sheets and a blanket, and we settled in for a 500 km, 14.5 hr trip to Patna, where we were supposed to arrive at 5 am. Before we left the station there were train empleyees going through the carriages aking if we wanted to order lunch, or dinner. We ordered both which came a few mintes later in foil containers. Both meals were the same - rice, potato, and dahl. The trip was fine, but we arrived late.