If you plan a trip to Darjeeling, it is better to cover the following places together in one go, namely Darjeeling, Gangtok and Kalimpong. These three places form a triangle, We had only planned Darjeeling and came to know about this from our Driver during our visit.
Bagdogra is the nearest Airport and its a 3 Hour drive to Darjeeling via. Kurseong, its a rather steep climb with a bit of bumpy roads. The railway line (narrow guage) runs parallel to the road from Kurseong all the way to Darjeeling. Currently, there are direct flights to Bagdogra only from Delhi, Guwahati and Calcutta, it would have been more convenient if direct flights started from other cities.
Being on the Eastern Side and hilly area, it gets dark very quickly, 5:30PM and everything is dark suddenly. We reached in the evening and retired for the night. For Rs 1500 - 2000, you can get a decent accomodation. The Hotel Windamere at Chowrasta is the top accomodation here.
One of the main attractions of Darjeeling is the view of the surrounding Himalayas, especially the Kanchenjunga which is the third highest mountain(about 28169 Feet) in the world. This is what I found really attracts the western tourists, they come to treck on the mountains all the way to the base camp of the Kanchenjunga. This has been declared as a Holy mountain by the Sikkim Govt, so no-one is allowed to climb this mountain.
Its best to first plan the early morning visit to Tiger hill (8800 Feet) to view the beautiful sunrise. You have to leave your hotel at 3:30AM in the morning, on reaching the toll gate, take a (Rs 30/40) ticket to a sheltered view point since it will be very cold standing outside until 4:35 AM till the sunrise actually occurs. It is a real treat to view the first rays of the sun fall over the himalayas, especially the lofty Kanchenjunga which glows from a Pink to golden orange initially before turning bright white later as the sun rises, it is a real treat for the eyes. It was so clear when we were there, the top of Mt Everest(29128 ft) in Nepal, the hightest mountain in the world was visible to the left of Kanchenjunga.
On the way back from Tiger hill, one can stop at Batasia loop, which is basically a war memorial to the brave Gorkha Soldiers. Here you’ll find many hawkers standing with Binoculars offering a view of the mountains. The Kanchenjunga looks great as always from here too. You can choose to take a view and they’ll explain the names and show you different mountains from a closeup.
By this time it will be nearly 8 AM and you’ll find yourself tired and deprived of sleep because of rising so early. I couldn’t hold my curiosity and dragged myself to the Darjeeling Railway station to enquire about the Narrow Guage "Toy" train. I learn’t that earlier there were all steam engines connecting Darjeeling to NJP(New-Jalpaiguri) but it was not cost effective and the Govt. incurred losses, so they replaced the actual service trains from Steam to Diesel Engines. So the train leaving at 9 AM and 4 PM are Diesel engines and tickets are very cheap. If you take this train, you’ll have to get down midway and come back by Taxi.
The steam engines are still in use, however only for the sake of Tourists and to raise revenue. They
run at 10 AM and 12:50 PM only from Darjeeling to Ghoom station (only about 9 Km away) and takes a turn and comes back. It is relatively expensive and costs Rs 250 a ticket for the joy ride.
Don’t be surprised if you ask for a ticket at the station and find that it is pre-booked for the next three days !!. I was told that the local tour agencies buy all the tickets and sell them for a premium.
I couldn’t get tickets, Anyway I didn’t find it that interesting since it is for such a short distance and takes one and a half hour. "The grapes are sour :-) "
The Chow-rasta is the centre of town where different roads converge, there is no vehicular movement here, its a pedestrian zone. After you have relaxed sufficiently to recover from the earlier pre-dawn exercise, take a liesurely stroll down the shop lined road and you’ll find many hotels. I liked the cakes and bakery items at Glennary’s. Infact, the small road side eateries on the other road from chowrasta serves tastier food and is surely hygenic since you can see the preparation in front of you.
At dusk, you can take a walk down mall road and go straight to reach Nightingale Park. At about 6:30PM everyday, traditional folk dances of Nepal are organized here and is nice to watch.
The local people prefer to walk throughout the small town and it should be one reason for their health and fitness.
A short walk down the right mall road in the morning should take you to a beautiful view point of the Kanchenjunga. This peak is visible almost everywhere in and around Darjeeling, but I never got tired of viewing this mountain.
You can arrange for a Day long (9 to 5) trip to cover other places of interest like the Japanese Temple, Rock Garden, Ava Art Gallery, Himalayan Mountaineering Institute and Padmaja Naidu zoological park, Tenzing Rock and the Tea Gardens and Tibetian Refugee camp
I found the Ava Art Gallery interesting and it was a surprise to see embroidered portraits looking like paintings, so painstakingly and beautifully done. The Mountaineering institue contains among other exhibits, the equipment used by Tenzing Norgay during his ascent of Mt Everest for the first time in 1953. The zoo was also nice with animals relatively happier and not confined to cruel small cages as in other zoos.
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