Day three- Darjeeling

Train from Kolkata to Siliguri took exactly 12 hrs and we reached @ 7:45 in the morning

We had 2 options from Siliguri to reach Darjeeling , one was the 'toy train' which winds its way up the hills to Darjeeling , the jourey takes 8 hrs but is said to be really amazing. but we had to choose option 2 , travel via Hill cart Road along railway linecoz it takes only 3 1/2 hrs. With a cramped schedule like ours we dint have any choice moreover after an overnight train journey we were not really comfortable with idea of spending another 9 hrs in train.

On arrival tourists like us were chased by a swarm of agents who promised to find us exciting travel packages/ hotel booking. Finally we went with one guy who arranged the trip to Darjeeling for us and got us our bus tickets for the return joureny to Kolkata. Actually all we had to do was to step out of Siliguri station and right outside there is bus stand where u can book tickets and there are lot of private jeeps waiting outside which will take u to Darjeeling/Gangtok

The ride to Darjeeling was Rs.70 per head. The roads were winding and the views were fantastic and by afternoon we reached Darjeeling. Throughout the journey along with the roads you can see the tracks of Darjeeling Himalayan Railway line along the winding roads , how they manage to travel along such curves has to be seen to be believed.

We had booked a room at hotel Sunflower (got it through net) and the room was really good and worth the 1500 price tag. The temperature was 12 deg when we arrived in the afternoon. The town is at 7000 ft We decided to visit the Himalayan zoo and Himalayan Mountaineering institute in the afternoon/evening.

Dusk falls pretty soon in this part of the country and most places get closed by 6. so we spent the evenings walking along the streets looking for some trinkets. Bought some Tea which Darjeeling is famous for and some shawls for parents , cap and gloves to beat the cold climate. The temperature fell to 4.5 deg in the evening and later to 3.5 deg later in the night. The place had a colonial hangover and was full of cafes and cake shops and eateries each one seemed to be better than the other, all in all it was a wonderful day.
We arranged for a land rover to pick us up early morning next day for visit to Tiger hill.
4 wheelers are the only mode of transport in the steep sloping streets in the town . There are local taxis and jeeps which connect the town with neighbouring towns. It was prety cold that night , but we had room heaters so it was really cozy n comfortable, for the next day we had planned for Tiger Hill and 2 other places early in the morning and then come back and start for Gangtok for the next leg of the trip ...

Trip-Day two - time travel

As we ventured out into the streets of Calcutta we started doubting if we travelled from Bangalore on an Airplane or was it a time machine ? (!) ... The roads , the buildings and the buses , trams and cabs seemed to suggest that we seemed to travelled back some 15- 20 years ... The city of Calcutta seemed to be what i remember of cities of late 80s ... Though we had an idea that this city is totally diferent from other cities of India and that it does retain the old world feel , adjusting to the city took some time. The city is called the cultural capital of India and has the legacy of Raj ( being the former captial city fo the country) . So we decided to check out the Victoria memorial and the museum first. The Chandni chowk metro station was pretty near to our hotel , so we decided to travel by the metro . Though we dint really like the cabs , buses and the congested roads , the metro changed our impression about the transport facilities in Kolkata. It really is a cheap, fast and effective means of transportation and i guess is one of the best in the country. The underground metro stations had maps indicating stations covered and train timings and was really hassle free travel for us.


We visited the Victorai memorial which was built as memorial for Queen Victoria who the empress of India in early decades of last century. It is made of white marble and is pretty well maintained and though it was a British Building at first glimpse it reminded me of Taj Mahal. Like Taj , this was also surrounded by sprawling gardens on all sides . Inside this there is a musuem which has a huge display of potraits/photographs from British era till Indian independence. The building is surrounded by gardens and a couple of big pools. After a couple of hours we trooped out to have a look at modern Calcutta.


Then we had our first glimpse of a tram ! The tram is a really unique mode of transport and tram lines run along the major roads and how all these vehicles on road , pedestrains and trams manage to co exist on same road is something really amazing !


After we came out, we cut across the Maidan which is supposed to be largest urban park in Kolkata , the Eden Gardens , Victoria Memorial , the turf club and polo club are located on its fringes. We then strolled through busy streets of kolkata for an hour after lunch. Then decided to check out the Kalighat , it is believed that kolkata derieves its name from it. Kalighat is where the famous Kali temple is located. But our timing was very bad , by the time we reached the temple had closed. But what was shocking was how the whole place was maintained , the place is full of touts out to squeeze money. Less said about it the better, this is one place to AVOID for casual tourists ie who are'nt really religiously inclined. Place is full of beggars and other assorted pujaris and their helpers out to snatch money under some pretext or other . The worst part is that all of of them are together in this and they have a unique model by you are forced to pay all of them. When you enter you are asked to leave your footwear in a shop ( there was no footwear stand outside temple) and hence you ahve to buy something from the shopkeeper and need to tip the guy who suggested the shop to you and so on ... The experience of visiting a temple is totally spoiled when you come across such elements . The temple visit turned out to be a really bad experience and we decided not to visit any temples in this part of the country.

We returned back to our hotel and in the evening visited the Howrah bridge ( Rabindra setu) and took a boat ride across Hoogly river.
Later in the evening we checked out of the hotel and moved to Sialdah station to catch the train to Siliguri. The journey was supposed to take 12 hrs. Another major problem we faced was lack of Restaurants at Railway station and surprsingly no one was selling food stuff.