Getting to Dharamsala before the luggage

This is the view from the hotel room I have just checked in to, overlooking Dharamsala. From the balcony, I can see the HPCA Stadium, a ground I have seen countless times on TV back home and longed to visit. The man at reception lamented to me that the clouds are blocking the view of the Himalayas this afternoon. How will I cope?

The drive from Kangra Airport is beyond spectacular. My taxi driver took me up a single-lane bypass, hurtling through the forest, before rejoining the trail of hairpin bends which climb through the countryside and towards the town itself. The landscape is lush and verdant, and there is a constant hum from insects outside.

My room is modest but I have just about everything I need: bottled water, a kettle, wifi that seems largely functional, and even access to Pakistan vs Netherlands on my TV (albeit only the Hindi channel, which is putting my language skills to the test). There is just one catch: my luggage is still in Delhi, and won't arrive until tomorrow morning at the earliest.

It is 3pm as I write this - Pakistan are wobbling at 67 for 3 - but it has already been a long day. The drubbing that New Zealand inflicted on England meant that the opening match of the tournament was a relatively early finish in Ahmedabad last night, but the 4.30am alarm to get to the airport still came as a jolt.

I sensed something might be up when, crammed into the back row of an 80-seater plane - one carrying three ex-England captains, and the travelling press pack - we spent half an hour on the tarmac in Delhi before the connecting flight to Dharamsala took off. After a bumpy landing two hours later, it turned out the airline had offloaded at least a dozen bags, since the plane was heavier than usual.

No matter. Once I have picked the bones out of England's defeat, I will head into town and try to source some clean clothes that I can wear to Afghanistan vs Bangladesh tomorrow, the World Cup's first day game. Later, I'll have my first beer of the trip after four nights in the dry state of Gujarat - and will toast to the good health of my suitcase, wherever it may be.