sometimes it pays to be a tourist

jojo and i started making big plans to go to darjeeling, but when we contacted the travel agent, they told us that every train was booked until the end of the month. then we asked about dharamsala, but that was booked too. sarnath is a great place, but it's so tiny that i really wanted to get out of here for our break next week. i was kind of bummed about not being able to go anywhere, and mad at myself for not thinking about this ahead of time.

then we discovered the greatest thing ever: the foreign tourist quota. apparently all trains in india have a limited number of seats reserved for foreigners. all we had to do was go to the train station, fill out a form (in the separate, air-conditioned tourist section of the station), and BINGO. instant ticket.

so now, jojo and i are going to darjeeling. our train leaves thursday evening and gets in on friday. we're going to take an extra 2 days off of school to spend a full 8 days there. we're hopefully going to get permits to go to sikkim while we're up there, too. jojo is contacting our friend ashok, who is some high-ranking official in the indian army. he said that he can get us military escorts anywhere... maybe we'll be able to get into northern sikkim, closer to bhutan, nepal, or even tibet.

also, today i bought half a kilo of pomegranates for $0.45.