Heather (left) and Monica after their arrest. File picture

Siliguri, June 24: Heather Bond came to India to gather information for a travel agency she plans to open back home in Santa Barbara, California. She will return to the US tomorrow with snapshots not found in the scrapbook of a tourist — including close-ups of the turmoil in the Darjeeling hills and of prison cells in Siliguri.

Heather and her mother Monica talked to The Telegraph last night about their eventful trip that had its highs as well as lows.

The two had arrived in Delhi on March 24. “We visited Ranthambore, Jaipur and Jaisalmer, enjoying a camel safari in the desert. Then we came back to Delhi and boarded a flight to Bagdogra to visit Darjeeling,” Heather said. “Our plan was to go to some popular destinations in India before I start my travel agency.”

However, the plan went awry when they were arrested on April 14 at Bagdogra Airport on their way back to Delhi after security officials of a private airline found 11 bullets and the magazine of a 9mm pistol inside Heather’s backpack that had been checked in.

The two said they had brought the bullets from the US by mistake. They were produced in court on April 15, and sent to jail custody. “It was a tough experience,” said Heather about their stay at Siliguri Special Jail. “Although our lawyers tried their best to comfort us, the very thought of staying behind bars left us depressed,” added Monica.

Finally, on April 30, they were granted bail, but denied access to their passports and visas. “So we stayed in Siliguri. I have never watched as much television as I did here,” Monica said.

“We used to roam around, take photographs, go to Hongkong Market and enjoy various cuisines. We also spent time calling up my father, boyfriend and relatives, sending them e-mails and doing exercise,” said Heather.

The two went to Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary and spent a week in Calcutta. “We enjoyed the elephant safari in Jaldapara,” said Heather.

By the time they returned to Siliguri, the situation had turned volatile following the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s indefinite bandh in the hills and retaliation by a section of plains people.

“In the morning, everything was closed and in the afternoon, vehicles carrying men in fatigues (SSB) entered the town. We also saw hundreds of tourists (turned out of the hills by the Morcha) pouring into our hotel, asking for rooms,” Heather said.

Monica said she hoped things would return to normal soon. “Darjeeling does not need any extra promotion in the international tourist circuit. We expect that normality would be restored soon.”

Both acknowledged the initiative taken by the US Consul General’s office in Calcutta and Milan Sarkar, a Siliguri lawyer, to get them out of jail. On June 20, a Siliguri court allowed them to withdraw their passports and visas for three months so that they could fly back to the US and be with Heather’s father, who is ill. “We plan to fly to Delhi tomorrow and board a flight to Los Angeles on Wednesday,” said Heather last night.

“They have been asked to re-submit their passports and visas by September 20,”said Abhaypada Chatterjee, one of their lawyers.