From Siliguri to Darjeeling
We had booked a vehicle to drive us up the mountain. We took
a quick detour to a guest house;
refreshed ourselves and proceeded with our journey. By the time we started, it started to rain and before we knew we were driving with water flooding all around us.
The drive took us cutting across the Sepoy Dhura tea garden and Sukna forest. The army has a huge contingent situated inside the periphery of the forest area.
The roads were newly laid and we had no problems traversing through the winding roads of the forest. The vehicle drivers’ seem to know every turn as vehicles just miss few inches as they pass across. With the rain, winding roads and vehicles screeching along the national highway 110, we have to keep ourselves alert and awake. We just had our cameras ready for any action that we may encounter and we were not going to miss the moments. I was ready with my osmo and Deepa was ready with her canon.
refreshed ourselves and proceeded with our journey. By the time we started, it started to rain and before we knew we were driving with water flooding all around us.
The drive took us cutting across the Sepoy Dhura tea garden and Sukna forest. The army has a huge contingent situated inside the periphery of the forest area.
The roads were newly laid and we had no problems traversing through the winding roads of the forest. The vehicle drivers’ seem to know every turn as vehicles just miss few inches as they pass across. With the rain, winding roads and vehicles screeching along the national highway 110, we have to keep ourselves alert and awake. We just had our cameras ready for any action that we may encounter and we were not going to miss the moments. I was ready with my osmo and Deepa was ready with her canon.
We had to reach Darjeeling by the evening and our travel
time was around 3-4 hours. We decided to take the trip via Mirik which extended
our travel time to another hour. But Mirik is a beautiful valley town nestled
amidst the green mountains surrounded by buildings with traditional
architecture. The entire area was picturesque. We just couldn’t stop clicking
photos as every shot of ours was a postcard picture. Just as the rain stopped,
adults and children started pouring in from every direction.
The river was cutting across the valley with boats and horses entertaining the crowd. The bridge across the river reminded me of the photos of British era. We took a stroll along the pathway. The soil was still wet with horse’s foot marks. We just took couple of photo shots and proceeded back to our vehicle to proceed to Darjeeling.On the way we stumbled upon small villages and finally we just crisscrossed Nepal border. We reached the summit – Simana view point. The view was breath taking. The air was crisp and fresh. We found shanties selling trinkets and few eateries. We decided to have our quick lunch. We ordered maggi noodles and vegetable momos. The interesting thing was the people were all Nepalese. That is when we found out that we were just on the border town of Nepal.
Our driver was also receiving signal from Nepal telecom services. We finally had our stomach full and started to drive up.
Finally at around 4pm, we were about 7kms from Darjeeling. Suddenly the entire traffic came to a halt. We decided to walk instead of sitting in the car. Suddenly we heard a loud train horn. We spotted the toy train which was majestically chucking its way through the narrow gauge tracks. It was a sight not to be missed. Since the tracks were crisscrossing on the road, the entire traffic came to a halt on both the sides. Finally we reached the base of a monestry and we were shook with another loud sound of train. This time it was a steam toy train chucking its way along the tracks. People from outside taking photos of the train and people from inside taking photos of the traffic. It was quite a sight.
Finally after two hours we reached the market place but we couldn’t find our guest house. After making couple of U-turns in the crowded market place, we nailed the route to our guest house. We were put up in one of the forest guest houses of W.Bengal which was situated inside the Lloyd botanical gardens. By the time we reached the main gate, the garden was closed for the public and we ended up waiting outside for sometime before we were let in. It usually takes 3-4 hours from Siliguri to Darjeeling.
The river was cutting across the valley with boats and horses entertaining the crowd. The bridge across the river reminded me of the photos of British era. We took a stroll along the pathway. The soil was still wet with horse’s foot marks. We just took couple of photo shots and proceeded back to our vehicle to proceed to Darjeeling.On the way we stumbled upon small villages and finally we just crisscrossed Nepal border. We reached the summit – Simana view point. The view was breath taking. The air was crisp and fresh. We found shanties selling trinkets and few eateries. We decided to have our quick lunch. We ordered maggi noodles and vegetable momos. The interesting thing was the people were all Nepalese. That is when we found out that we were just on the border town of Nepal.
Our driver was also receiving signal from Nepal telecom services. We finally had our stomach full and started to drive up.
Finally at around 4pm, we were about 7kms from Darjeeling. Suddenly the entire traffic came to a halt. We decided to walk instead of sitting in the car. Suddenly we heard a loud train horn. We spotted the toy train which was majestically chucking its way through the narrow gauge tracks. It was a sight not to be missed. Since the tracks were crisscrossing on the road, the entire traffic came to a halt on both the sides. Finally we reached the base of a monestry and we were shook with another loud sound of train. This time it was a steam toy train chucking its way along the tracks. People from outside taking photos of the train and people from inside taking photos of the traffic. It was quite a sight.
Finally after two hours we reached the market place but we couldn’t find our guest house. After making couple of U-turns in the crowded market place, we nailed the route to our guest house. We were put up in one of the forest guest houses of W.Bengal which was situated inside the Lloyd botanical gardens. By the time we reached the main gate, the garden was closed for the public and we ended up waiting outside for sometime before we were let in. It usually takes 3-4 hours from Siliguri to Darjeeling.
Finally at around 8.30pm we reached the guest house and we
had requested for a simple dhal roti dinner which was promptly served. Vikram,
the care-taker of the guest house took good care of us. After dinner, we
retired for the night.
Information:
Siliguri is the base town to go up the hills.
The nearest railway station is New Jalpaiguri (NJP). Its around 15kms from Siliguri.
Once you land up in NJP, you can take a share taxi for around Rs. 50. You could directly take a share taxi to Darjeeling for Rs.150 per person. There are plenty of taxi available. If you want to hire a private taxi all the way to Darjeeling, it may cost you around Rs. 2500 to Rs 3000.
The ideal time to visit is March - May & September - November
Also visit:
Information:
Siliguri is the base town to go up the hills.
The nearest railway station is New Jalpaiguri (NJP). Its around 15kms from Siliguri.
Once you land up in NJP, you can take a share taxi for around Rs. 50. You could directly take a share taxi to Darjeeling for Rs.150 per person. There are plenty of taxi available. If you want to hire a private taxi all the way to Darjeeling, it may cost you around Rs. 2500 to Rs 3000.
The ideal time to visit is March - May & September - November
Also visit:
www.explorethesubtle.com
Instagram : explorethesubtle
Instagram : explorethesubtle
Email : explorethesubtle@gmail.com
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