大象传媒

The train was no different from other trains and only took about 4 hours. The plan was to get a taxi up to the hotel. We had been able to leave our tin trunks at the room in Calcutta and only had a suitcase and a bedroll each.
Yes, there was a taxi, but they couldn鈥檛 take us to Kalimpong as the road was not passable due to the fact that some of it had slid into the river after one of the last storms. He offered to take us to Darjeeling, we could probably get another taxi from there. Half way there, a train passed us coming down the lines as rail and road ran along side each other. One of its wheels was on fire, but nobody seemed to mind. I think it was the brakes.
We did find another taxi, but it was in bits. Lots of them all over the ground. Not to be done out of an unexpected fare, the owner said he would have it ready in two hours. The time we killed by getting lunch, belated, and a short walk around the area. Amazingly, the man was as good as his word and we piled ourselves in after asking the price.
Our route took us through tea plantations and at times hair-raising gradients. In one place we went down a steep hill, under a bridge, turned left and up and over the bridge we just went under! Up a steep hill, we arrived very quickly at our hotel. As we got out of the taxi, it was like magic. The sun came out and in front of us was the world鈥檚 third highest mountain Kanchenjunga, floating above a line of cloud, right across a blue sky. Who could ask for anything more for a honeymoon?
Our bedroom looked out on a large Camellia tree in full flower. The hotel was run by a family of sisters. It was mostly open in Summer time as there was an English school in the area and families could come and stay near the children. Also, the parents could get a break from the heat of Calcutta.
The local population were the nearest to the border of Tibet we had been and there were a lot of Tibetans bringing turquoise and cheese (lovely mixture) to sell. They wore large pieces of turquoise in their ears and thick clothes made from skins with the fur inside. David had been given a film for a wedding present and we carefully chose how to use it all the week.
Butterflies were all over very colourful and always could be found along every hedge. We took pictures of them. The film was very precious. It had been given to him by a jeweller in Calcutta who was serving as an army photographer. There were no films on sale anywhere. We took the best pictures we could, but didn鈥檛 have time in the week to get the film developed, so had to take them back with us to Calcutta undeveloped.
One particularly bright spot was a discovery that a very good friend of mine (Loys) who I first met in Headington, Oxford, where we were both training at the orthopaedic hospital was in the area near Bombay. She had married a Dr Saudek. When he was called up, she volunteered and joined him in the army quarter. She had originally come from Canada to see her English cousins. Loys became a very good friend and we went to Bart鈥檚 together. I vowed to see her as we would have to be repatriated via Dulali, very near Bombay, on our way home. By this time they had a baby boy.
The day came when we had to go back to Calcutta. Another officer was going back as well and it was arranged that we would share a taxi. The other man was married and had been on leave with his family. He had done the trip many times and knew it well.
The road that we had tried to come up was still blocked. In fact, it had disappeared into the river running beside it. We were told that we would have to walk over the break and another taxi would meet us the other side. We piled into the taxi, all 3 of us, me in the middle, and got to the break in the road. Of course, the local people had known about the break and were eagerly awaiting some cash for carrying the luggage. This involved climbing up the high side of the road and the only way to do that was up a very wet waterfall to it鈥檚 top (it was raining hard all the way) so we got soaked and very cold. Before we could get across to the road on the other side, David said he had always wanted to sit under a waterfall and he couldn鈥檛 be any wetter, so he did just that. We, of course, had to pay our impromptu porters while they waited for more victims.
The other officer was very smug. He had a waterproof coat and found himself very much dryer than we were. However, it was not possible for him to get away from me, still in the middle in the taxi. When we got to the station the men took their belongings with them to their changing room and I went to the Ladies. I opened my bedroll and got out dry clothes and afterwards found out that David did the same. Mr know-it-all had allowed his helper to carry it with the end upwards and as it is the shape of a Swiss roll, the water had gone right down the centre and everything was soaked. We didn鈥檛 sit in the same carriage in the train on the way back to Calcutta. We never saw him again.
On reporting to our separate units we were told we might have at least another 2 weeks to wait for a boat home, but we could go back together and would be issued with instructions as soon as possible. During this time we began to realise that our surname was so like the City name that the bearers always had to check up on us and we were kept waiting after ordering a meal. Meals were ordered by name and the names put on the bill. These bills accumulated and were paid at the end of the week. It would be by sea from Bombay and we would go from Dulali family camp which was near Bombay.
We were now free to buy things that we would want when we got back to England. Cutlery was easy to pack. Towels were also a good buy, also rugs. Dressed as civilians we bargained for these sitting on the floor of the market shops. David was very good at Urdu, the universally understood local language, as he had passed an army exam in it when he first arrived in India. This is why we got a lot of what we bought to take home at a very reasonable price. The shop owners thought we were civilians.
David had travelled out there as a territorial Sgt and been promoted to Captain by the time I met him. I like the story that when he had taken the exams for promotion, he found himself in Frontier Force Regiment, as transport officer. Well, that was good, but almost all the transport was mules. No petrol need and no free rides.
Orders came through and the train back to Bombay and the Dulali camp. I contacted Loys and went and saw them at the first opportunity. It was wonderful. They had a bungalow and we had a good natter. We were introduced to the baby. He was standing in his drop-sided cot, walking around saying what sounded like 鈥渂ugger, bugger, bugger鈥�. His parents were very embarrassed. Loys was very insistent that he had not learned it from them.
When I got back to our room in the camp I found the film that we had taken when we honeymooned had vanished. I had intended to get it developed the next day. We never found it and it was no use to anyone else. Sickening.

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