Budget Tour to Darjeeling

Journey to Darjeeling : Hill station

Darjeeling Station

Before making any plans, you must know that there is no airport or railway station in Darjeeling. But there are other ways. You can either reach New Jalpaiguri if travelling by train or can book a flight to Bagdogra. If you prefer buses, then you can take bus service from Kolkata or Siliguri. Darjeeling is almost 80-90 km from these spots and hence you have to then either take shared cabs or enjoy riding on the Toy Train. Don’t forget to check the schedule for trains, buses or cabs beforehand.

It was only the second time that I had been inside the Sealdah station in Kolkata. Added to it was the fact that the crowd, even at 6 in the evening, was quite moderate. I was waiting for my train, which would take me to New Jalpaiguri (a place near Siliguri in North Bengal).  I was accompanied by my friend, who was also my colleague at my college, and together we were to take a trip to the hills of Darjeeling.

Darjeeling Toy Train

Along with my friend, boarded Darjeeling mail at 22:05 from Sealdah station & reached NJP on 6th morning.
At next day The vibration of the phone in my pocket woke me up from my slumber. It was the buzzing of my cell phone’s alarm which was set for 6 in the morning. I took out the phone and realizing that it was 6 I muttered a “shit” under my breath. The New Jalpaiguri station was hardly 15 minutes away and the train would halt for just 10 minutes there. We hence didn’t have much time left to get ready. I turned to my friend who was now lying face down and fast asleep, even as his own mobile alarm kept on buzzing repeatedly. I shook him a couple of times, but it seemed that he was determined to sleep till the end of the journey. Not wanting to waste anymore time, I kicked him on his shin. That thankfully worked.

From NJP we got a share jeep in Rs. 200 per head. There are plenty of shared jeeps around, you can choose one having a convenient seat that you want. We started around 9 AM in the after got some food.

On the way

The cool wind slapped my face as I gazed outside the window of the moving car. We had just begun our journey towards Darjeeling and the streets were rapidly getting vacant as we surged ahead. I, along with my friend, was sitting on the front seat with the driver. There was bubbling anticipation in my heart as to what lay ahead.

However, what I hadn’t anticipated was having to face the steep, hilly terrain that the car had to pass through in order to get into Darjeeling. Now, I am one of those people who are quite apprehensive of heights. I have had horrible experiences in my past of riding through some really high mountains and getting scared shit of looking down the ravines. A similar experience awaited me now.

The car, after having left Siliguri, was now entering into what seemed like a never ending hilly roadway. My insides squirmed as I couldn’t help but look down. What didn’t help was that my friend was even worse than I was in handling these steep hills. “God, look at how deep those ravines are,” he said in utter fear. “What if the car skids and we all fall down,” he mumbled again. “I don’t want to die now. I don’t want to die now,” he kept adding after every few seconds. The driver, who by now had sensed our fear, reassured us in his typical North-eastern accent, “Kuss ni hogaa. Saant rakko.” (Nothing will happen. Be calm.) He had apparently made hundreds of trips like this and never ever had had an accident. I had just started feeling a little relaxed when I saw an overturned car lying down in the bushes. I immediately lost all faith in the driver.

Around 12:30 PM we reached at Darjeeling,  chawrasta mall road.

Chawrasta Mall

 We checked prices at 2-3 hotels near mall areas and checked in hotel Sonar Bangla.  It’s a nice hotel and budget is also okay , for deluxe room they charged 2500 per night for 4 bed. For two bed they changed 1500 . Fooding , lodging and room services are excellent. when we just got settled at hotel room , it was  2 PM . We then got ready for evening trip near mall area.

Our Hotel room

A brisk walk at the mall area and some window shopping are the best ways to enjoy time during evening. We checked in tea junction Glenarys for savoring great test of Darjeeling tea, and we did some shopping from nearby market. It was 7 pm , rains started again . We returned hotel and went for dinner early as we had plan for Darjeeling side seeing tour tomorrow.

Darjeeling shop

Famous Tea Shop in Darjeeling

Darjeeling sightseeing tour :
The Darjeeling Ropeway : Driver took us to ropeway . Since there was a long queue , so we skipped ropeway ride. It took about 2 hour for this ride as there was a long queue of tourists. But we don’t find it worthwhile to spend hours here only for this ride; moreover, whole area was covered with thick clouds. So we left for the next spot. At rope way , they charge 150 per head for two way ride , only concern is you need to have enough time and clear sky.

Tea garden: I was one of the best sit seeing experience in Darjeeling. When we reached the tea garden, thick cloud removed its veil from the valley.  We could see lush green tea plants nodding their leaves with gentle bridge and drizzle. We climbed down the pathway that taking us through the tea garden. Out family members enjoyed some time with local dress.  I donned the hat of photographer. After some time, fleeting clouds returned back to hill top as if it had given us enough time to enjoy beautiful tea valley with a fresh cup of Darjeeling tea. it was really a wonderful moment.

View from Ropeway

Peace Pagodas (Japanese temple): Local people called it Japanese temple as it was built during (1885–1985) under the guidance of Nichidatsu Fujii, a Buddhist monk from Japan.

It’s the most beautiful Buddhist temple in Darjeeling tucked away by 4 km from city. Best part is there is no bustle of city. When we reached there, it was about 1130 AM and thick sheet of clouds already covered the temple top. Beauty of lofty temple on the hilltop get further face lift with the touch of mystic cloud. Sometimes I felt it was just a replica of Dhabalgiri Buddhist temple near Puri ; it looks same with marble Supta and statues. Only difference is cloud and beautiful local orchids flowers guarded the temple. We stood sometines on temple podium and watching bunch of clouds crawling up along the hill slop , touching us and simple vanishing behind the treers on upper hill tops. It’s was a monsoon time, that’s why we could see this pristine beauties of hills and temple along with impressive presence of clouds. We spent about 30 min there. I would say this is second most beautiful spot in Darjeeling sight seeing.

Rock garden Darjeeling: Locally known as Barbotey Rock Garden and located in down hill valley from Darjeeling city and takes about 8-10 km journey downhill. It was 3 pm , we headed for rock garden and located on the Chunnu Summer Falls .It was our last spot located down hill at about 16 km distance from tea garden. We finished our lunch in local restaurant. Rock was was like ban jakri falls in Gangtok.  But it has natural waterfall and very nice geadrn and pathway take you to hill top to have close views of local flowers.The garden offers a beautiful view of a Chunnu Summer falls cascading over rocks along the slope, done up with flower gardens and sitting spaces at different levels. It was 5:00 PM, we finished our day long sight seeing in Darjeeling.

Teesta River

After that we come back and for tiredness wewe ffelt asleep.  next day we Woke up at 3:30AM to go to tiger hill. It was a full moon night & I was feeling that I might be lucky today. Managed a share jeep at Rs. 150. Today my co-passengers were all foreigners: 3 Canadians, 2 Germans & 2 from USA. Our driver was telling that today we may be lucky to see even Mt. Everest & Mt. Makalu range. It was really my day. The first rays of the sun was reflecting on Kanchenjunga & it was one of the amazing views I have ever experienced. Was feeling like I am the king of the world.

Kanchenjunga was looking like a furnace. Within a few minutes the colors changed & it turned orange.It was biting cold & I had no sensation in my palms & toes. Even the Everest & Makalu ranges were visible far in the horizon. I was really lucky. It was a color competition in the sky & the competitors were obviously the Kanchenjunga, sun, sky & the clouds...

Sun rise in Tiger hill

Althrough owr train time was 1 P.m that day to we soon reached our hotell, this trip ended nicely & we checked out of Hotel Capital around 11:30 AM and took a share jeep to reach NJP at 3PM. We boarded Darjeeling mail at 8PM & reached Sealdah on 12th morning.


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