darjeeling&sikkim

I have always wanted to go to Darjeeling and finally I have got the chance to go!!
I’m so lucky to go to such a wonderful place..
Darjeeling is a hill town in eastern Himalayas and we had to go to new jalpaiguri by train from where we took a taxi to Darjeeling. Actually it would have been better if we went in a train from jalpaiguri to Darjeeling, as there is a toy train in this place which is an old steam engine train which goes slowly parallel to the road..
It is very quaint and romantic.. infact the famous “mere sapno ki rani” song has been picturised on this route.. The hills were so beautiful and there was a drizzle. And we were climbing rapidly, weaving inbetween clouds as well as the train tracks….

As we reached the top we could see flowers in so many varied colors, sizes and shapes!!!!

It was so breathtaking!! When we reached ghoom station & we waited there for sometime during which time we saw the railway museum there.. And then took the toy train to Darjeeling.. IT WENT SO SLOW THAT WE COULD GET DOWN AND GET UP INTO THE RUNNING TRAIN!!! We reached Darjeeling, had a nice lunch and started out on our local tour.
First, we went to the Darjeeling zoo where we saw some rare species like the snow leopard, clouded leopard, Tibetan wolf &red panda.. There was also the Himalayan mountaineering institute museum which is very fascinating and I recommend it as a must see..
Next we went to the ropeway but it was closed, then we went to the tenzing rock where we could do a bit of rock climbing!! ..And then we saw the soccer field before retiring for the day..
Next day we started out to SIKKIM, which is very near to Darjeeling, again we took a taxi to Gangtok, which is the capital of Sikkim…
In Gangtok, we went for a local tour.. Here we were lucky to have a tour on the ropeway from where we had had a lovely view of the whole city..as well as a view of the Sikkim legislative assembly!!

Then we went to hanuman tok, which is supposed to be the place where lord hanuman rested with sanjeevni, here not only the temple but also the route is awesome!!! Next we went to Ganesh tok followed by tashi viewpoint where we can see Mt Kanchanjunga on clear days but we could not see anything as it was cloudy but we had nice hot momos, it was yummy!!!!I recommend everyone who goes to Sikkim to have momos, they can be either veg or non veg, plain or fried, I recommend fried momos to people who like spicy food and mind you!! These momos are to be eaten only with the chutney they provide. In the evening, we went to the gangtok bazaar to do a bit of window-shopping.
Next morning we started out early for changu / tsango lake and baba mandir which is near the china border and nathu-la pass and it was around 50 kms from gangtok so we had to take a permit before being allowed to travel in the route.. We rapidly climbed the route and soon we were above the clouds and in between lush mountains and valleys with an occasional glimpse of a narrow stream down below and we were crossing sooooooo many waterfalls too!!!

we were climbing so rapidly that we reached 12000 feet above sea level and changu lake was still 10 kms away!!
The lake itself was at a height of around 13000 feet above sea level and we were told that it would be frozen in winter!!! WOW!!! It was literally freezing there and we had to borrow warm jackets there, we also went for yak rides there!! , Next we went to baba mandir which is not a temple for gods but it is a temple in the a name of an Indian soldier who went missing some 50 years back and it said that his spirit is still present there..

Unfortunately we couldn’t go to nathu-la pass, as it is open only 2 days a week and the day we went was not one of those days. Nevertheless its easier now as the pass has opened for trade from 6th of July. This pass is famous as it is supposed to be the route of the original silk route!!! And is a height of 14000 ft!!! So in essence we went till a height of 14000 ft by road!! That’s almost half the height of Mount Everest!!

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We started back soon as we had to reach Darjeeling by nightfall, but on the way down the road was blocked as one of the army trucks carrying oil skid and almost fell down but dint fall down … luckily!! But the way was blocked and we couldn’t go down so we filled up the side gutter with rocks so that vehicles could pass… all of us helped there to fill up the gutter. and it was a good experience too!!! On our way to Darjeeling we visited the rumtek monastery which is supposed to be the 3rd biggest monastery in the world and it had a golden shrine..

Next morning we went to tiger hills near Darjeeling to watch the sunrise. Generally we can see Mt Kanchanjunga and sometimes, even Mt Everest!! And that day we were lucky cos we were able to see both.. We could see the morning rays fall on the snow capped peaks of both the mountains as well as the whole range of Kanchanjunga Mountains!! It’s an experience of a lifetime!!!!

Next we went to the ghoom monastery followed by Gangamayi Park, the center of which has a pure stream running through ore rocks…we had loads of fun there jumping from rock to rock, sometimes getting wet too!! Later on there will also be local tribal dances in the park but we dint get to watch them.
Next we went to the rock garden, which is similar to Gangamayi Park. Then we went to Mirik Lake where we can do boating as well as admire the beautiful scenery around it..
We saw a funny thing there; there were hundreds of large fish in the lake, which would fight with each other for food, especially large buns. it sounds weird but it was fascinating to watch all those fishes fighting for a whole bun!! Someone commented it as fish football! Really it did look like that with all the fishes fighting it out for one bun!!
We were now rapidly descending to jalpaiguri but even here the view was beautiful as we were surrounded by

endless tea gardens!!
We reached Calcutta the next day where we had a few hours break before we came back to home sweet home!! By now we were so tired as we had such a hectic schedule but still we managed to see Howrah bridge and cross Hooghly river by boat before starting back home..

Well that was the whole account of my holiday and believe me ppl it was loads of fun!!