My Darjeeling Holiday
Experience.
With a traveler’s Bag and a tourist’s spirit, I started my
four-day Darjeeling trip after Comparing options for Kerala
Holiday. And Bhutan Holiday.
In Early-September with a small pocket bearing lots of dreams.
It was a family vacation with my husband and two of my
little angels. We preferred airplane journey from Delhi Airport, Indira Gandhi
International Airport to Bagdogra Airport, from where a cab service transported
us to the City of Sunshine, Darjeeling. Railways can be another option to reach
to NJP railway station in Siliguri from Delhi and then one can board a cab to
Darjeeling.
We had an early morning Indigo flight from Delhi and
everything was smooth and on time. As we didn’t have had our breakfast, we
ordered a Sandwich for ourselves and some chocolate cookies. Around 10, as we landed
on airport, a rush of feelings got us. It was so calm, even in the hustle
bustle of the airport and here, it marked the beginning of our vacation. Lost
in dreams of wandering in the in woods, my eyes caught the hero of our trip,
‘Dorji’, our cab driver, Arranged by my Travel
Agent with a big board reading our names. He welcomed us a big grin and
loaded our luggage in a white coloured WagonR. As the engine started, we were
all ready with our ‘Things to do in Darjeeling’ lists. With 13-15 C, it was
little cold and luckily I was carrying a Pashmina shawl that I bought During my
Kashmir Holiday last
year and sweaters in my handbag.
Da
 |
| Darjeeling Holiday |
On our way To Mirik (It is a few hour detour from our
way to Darjeeling), Dorji who came out to be a very interactive native of
Darjeeling told us about all his previous adventures with the tourists and even
suggested us few places to dine at during our journey, Kunga Restaurant being
his favourite. He even asked us to visit ChowRasta, which is historical public square in the Victorian
era hill where a lot of
activities for tourists are organized and people assemble there for leisure and
strolls. In middle of sharing of all the culture and pride of Darjeeling, we
reached Mirik which was a delight to my eyes. Stretches of greenery peeking out
from the high browns with the dots of orange amidst of the shivers in the cold
weather, Mirik is known for its orange orchards and the tea gardens. My Husband
and I had a cup of Oolong tea in the shades of trees and kids went after the
sweet orange juice. After spending an hour in the lapse of nature, Dorji took
us the Tingling View point where your eyes can map the entire village and
beautiful landscapes. After clicking a lot of photographs, about 10 kms from
there we reached the Mirik village where we spent some time at Sumendu Lake
feeding the fishes other side of the Lake lies the forest connected by the
Rainbow Bridge. Few minutes away from there was the proper commercial twin of Mirik
with guest houses and hotels for travelers. We planned on staying in the town
of Darjeeling on the mall road as to the central location and it near to all
the major attractions. Spending 2-3 hours in the village and after satisfying
the shopaholic in me in the Mirik market roads, we came back to the cab happy
and contented. Dorji was constantly around us sharing the stories of places,
clicking photos and even suggesting us what should we buy and of how much.
Horse riding is another activity in the town.
we
resumed our journey to the hotel. We also took an hour stop at indo-Nepal
border where you will find a Nepalese market with high bargaining scope. It was
4 already and we all were tired and spent the rest of our journey quiet listening
to some regional tapes that Dorji always kept with himself. Finally, around 7
we reached our hotel at Mall road and all the booking were done before hand. We
made the bookings for 3 nights and we had our flight in the evening on our
fourth day. The hotel staff took out luggage to our room and we thanked Dorji
for the wonderful trip. Later, we got to know that Dorji lives about 30 minutes
from here and we asked him if he could only guide us to tiger hill tomorrow
morning and he gladly agreed. After saying and checking in the hotel, I checked
my room which came out to be very basic and simple. We were very tired, so we
ordered food in our room only from the restaurant on the first floor. We
ordered two traditional Nepali thalis, a plate of Momos and some rice. It was a
very different taste and till today I can’t decipher what it was. After
stuffing in a lot of food, our daughters went to sleep and my husband and I
thought of going out on a night’s stroll. As we came downstairs, it was very
quiet and there were hardly more that 4-5 people on road. All the shops were
close and the only source of light were the restaurants packing up. It was just
8 in the night and all this looked so unfamiliar yet relaxing. Our eyes caught
the boards of various restaurants and hotels we heard about and we planned on
having our breakfast at Glenary’s tomorrow morning. For tomorrow, we planned to
see the sunrise at tiger hill and then spent the rest of the day exploring
other locations which were near the Mall road. We slept around 9Pm
Next morning, our hero ‘Dorji’ was
waiting for us around 3 at the gate with special tea and Gundruk he made for us
at his place. I must say, it was the best thing to start our second day in
Darjeeling. We left our hotel around 330 in the morning to Tiger hill which was about an hour journey. Few other guests also
left with us. On our way Dorji asked us to taste Thumpka and buy some Kakra ko
Achar on our way back. Around 5 we reached Tiger hill and although it was still
little dark, it was the liveliest place I saw that day. With the waiting eyes
of many tourists and the places buzzed of various small tea and food stalls to satisfy
the morning hunger, I bought a cup of green tea and some biscuits. About 530 am,
we catched the first ray. Beautiful. Serene. Magical. It was a very different
experience of how the oranges and yellows were escaping out from the blues of
darkness in the lushes of green. The day couldn’t have gone better. About 2
hours later, we left tiger hill and reached back out hotel room.
We got ready for breakfast and as planned went
to GLENARY’S for a sweet morning. After the breakfast, we had a usual day
exploring places around like the mountaineering academy which had the statues
of Tenzing Norway and various sites to teach mountaineering for these who aim
higher. Also there was a section where tourists can try rock climbing if they
wish. I shopped for few hours in the city and everything I saw was so colourful
and lively that it was so difficult to resist, I even bought small packet of
teas and traditional food items along with Darjeeling souvenirs. We spent a lot
of time in similar looking Gardens with their own stories. We went to peace
pagoda, which was a Buddhist monastery and it was magical. I practiced Buddhism
for a brief period of my life and it is very peaceful. The shrines, the sound of
the bells, the colourful visions, the chanting of unfamiliar words and the
purity of the air mesmerized us, we spent about 2 hours in this serenity. We
even planned Zoo for today but after spending so much time in the monastery and
as we were very hungry by 6, we postponed it to tomorrow. We went to eat Thumpka
in Kunga restaurant and ordered typical Bengali food and drinks and Momos.
After food, we drove back to the hotel around 7 and strolled around in nature.
We planned on exploring the zoo and the Ghoom village for tomorrow.
Next morning, after breakfast we planned
on going to the zoo on foot as it was just a 15-20 min walk. The kids had a
good fun with the animals and they got real excited. After watching and playing
with the animals, Dorji came back to pick us to Ghoom Village. In Ghoom village, the major attraction was
the toy train. Apart from that green views was everywhere to compliment the fun.
It was about an hour’s journey from our hotel and as we reached, we got out our
cameras and shawls. We bought tickets for the toy train and boarded it which took us through the greenery’s of
the place. At Batasia Loop, the toy train took a 360 degree turn. We enjoyed
the train trip a lot and it was truly the pride of the city. After spending
some time over there, we went to the Ghoom monastery and then for some
sightseeing.
Kanchenjunga
was visible from there was very pretty. We even sent hours taking to locals and
listening to their stories. On our way back, Dorji invites us to his home for
dinner to which we couldn’t refuse. Dorji lived in a small house but the house
was painted in such bright colors and it was very lively He offered us Seoul Rotis,
Dalle (Darjeeling Hills
Pickles) and Alu Dum. It was the most delicious mean I had on my entire trip.
The homeliness a=at is place and the love that his family showered upon us was
very pure. The place and people in this
place are equally beautiful. Later he dropped us to our hotel and as we had
our flight the next day at 4, we packed our bags at night. Like always, we went
out for a little walk in the roads with a lot of memories to cherish. We spent
hours roaming in the cold air and went to sleep around 12 that night. Next day,
we had a lazy morning and we work up around 10. We had to check out at 12. So
we rushed and got ready and settled the payments. We found Dorji waiting for us
at the gate. We loaded our luggage in the car. We had a quick breakfast at
Glenary’s again that morning and paced few sweets to Delhi. We stated our
journey to airport around 12. We reached the airport on time and had a relaxing
flight to Delhi. It was an amazing journey to the land of pure magic and all
thanks to Dorji, who made it even more sweet and nice. Our next planned Holiday In Andaman Nicobar Island.
