A quick update: we were picked up at 8:50 and driven to Bagdogra airport, near Siliguri, some 90km from Darjeeling, losing about 1800m in height and gaining about 25 degrees in temperature. This took until 12:00. Our flight was at 15:05. It took an hour of queuing to get our bags x-rayed and they insisted on putting the Sitar in the hold rather than in the cabin (mild panic). The plane left on time, and arrived over Delhi some 2.5 hours later. However, we didn't land, instead we gained height again and headed to Jaipur. "I abandoned our approach and we're just going to Jaipur to refuel" said the captain. Jaipur was another 30 mins flight. We landed... and... we waited... For over 4 hours. The weather was so bad over Delhi that flights were being diverted away... There was a thunderstorm at Jaipur too, and hailstones... Finally we took off back to Delhi, landed about 23:30 or so, and waited for the Sitar to come off the baggage belt. Eventually we found it dumped on the floor of the airport concourse (in the oversized baggage area, of course), fortunately in 1 piece. Then a prepaid cab to the hotel. We had to explain to the cabbie where the hotel was, naturally... Finally checked in about 01:30. Decent wifi at last :-)
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