Now c'mon, everyone, i mean EVERYONE atleast considers a vacation at this time of the year. So did I. I looked at the map and realised I had been ignoring East Zone...so Darjeeling it was. Now, I had bought my li'l Santro for my sojourns, but the prospect of driving 1500 odd km (even on our 'improved' roads) gave me the shudders. So, I started planning early for a rail journey. (TIP - DON'T TAKE CHANCES WITH INDIAN RAILWAYS - BOOK IN ADVANCE)
I decided to try the Calcutta Rajdhani after a decade or so. There are two Rajdhanis - one to Sealdah and the other to Howrah. The latter is sort of quicker and more prestigious. It also saves time at it doesnt have to cross the Hooghly.
However, since I booked only 20 days in advance, I got room in the Sealdah Rajdhani. We left NDLS at about 5pm and reached Sealdah at 12 noon the next day (TIP: Ask for inside berths whenever avalable). We decided to leave our luggage at the cloak room since we had another train to catch at 730pm from the same station. The day was spent catching up on lost friends and places , as well as shopping for kaatha saris. At 730 pm, we boarded the Darjeeling Mail from Sealdah and were soon snoring under the impact of the day's activities. We woke up to a visibly different North Bengal landscape in the morning. In fact we were deposited at New Jalpiaguri(NJP) station at 7 am.
A short taxi ride to Siliguri station (8 km) brought us to the most wonderful sight of the trip till then - the wonderful little 'Toy Train' - Darjeeling Hill Railway (DHR)'s 3 small coaches pulled by a small diesel locomotive.
This 'Toy' chugged away at about 10am and was soon winding its way up the hills. Dream-like stations welcomed us on the way. The journey might be slow, but by jove, what sights! I could almost see Rajesh Khanna driving around the corner in his open jeep singing the Aradhana song! Before Ghum (2300m), the weather changed suddenly from a pleasant sunny cool breeze to a foggy, chilly gust. Add to that the delay at a previous station and we were running late by about 2 hours, finally reaching Darjeeling at 5pm (in total darkness!).
This town is truly at cultural crossroads - it has the Lepchas of Sikkim, the Bhutias of Bhutan, the Nepalese and Tibetans. Garnish with a few Bengalis, Marwaris and the works and you have a really cosmopolitan 2100 feet perch.
The next two days were spent in local sightseeing - Tiger Hill, monasteries, tea gardens and factories, Padmaja Naidu Zoo, Himalayan Mountaineering Institute - but generally, watching the crowd at Chourasta and its environs (these Darjeeling girls have some trend-sense, man!).
On to Gangtok. The road from Darjeeling to Teesta Bazaar is quite ordinary, even in a little truck. But there on, Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has done a terrific job (I actually got down at a BRO post, saluted the first officer I saw, shook his hands and told him how ingratiated we felt and all should). It was further enhanced by views of a sparkling, gurgling, squeeky-clean blue-green Teesta river. We entered Sikkim at Rangpo. Another 2 hours of driving and we entered its capital city. Gangtok, in sharp contrast to Darjeeling, was clean, organised and peaceful. Of course, wherever there are tourists, there would be touts and 'helpful' drivers. But, its all relative; after the experience at Darjeeling, even a Delhi autowala would have a saintly halo above his head.
There was much less in the 'Must See' list of Gangtok brochures. As against the 16-point, 12-point and 8-point itenaries of Darjeeling, Gangtok could only manage 5-point and 3-point. And even those were quite predictable and unromantic - Hanuman Tok (Hill of Hanuman), Ganesh Tok (Hill of Ganesh) and Shankar Tok (Hill of Shankar). I had almost decided to look for any little Durga temple anywhere in the town, just so I could help the poor brochure guys add another point.
So, when someome mentioned Tsongo lake (pronounced Tson-go lake) at 12,400 ft, I kind of didnt believe him. But I did visit Tsongo, and it was out of this world, quite literally. At sub-zero termperatures, the lake hadnt quite frozen but water sliding down the slopes overnight had. We tried to sneak to Nathu-La (a post at the Chinese border), but were stopped by the BSF well before that and asked to turn back.
So, we consoled ourselves by dancing to Nepali tunes in the Sikkim Festival at Gangtok.
The return journey was quite uneventful - drive back to NJP, tickets not getting confirmed on the guwahati-delhi Rajdhani, having to figure out what other trains go to delhi, stretching out on the platform bench in the night, finally getting tickets for the coveted NE express, reaching delhi in 59 hours(31 at NJP, 28 on the NE). (TIP: Never , EVER, BELIEVE YOUR W/L TICKETS WILL GET CONFIRMED, EVEN IF SOMEONE SAYS YOU'LL GET VIP QUOTA!)
See You in Manali!
