As a student, everyone is very passionate about travelling but money is always a constrain.That's why i will be narrating my travel story with the expenses.
So today i will experience you all the cool breezes from the Himalayas with a curing smell of tea at DARJEELING,West Bengal.
So lets start our journey to this small hill station.
I and one of my friend started our journey from the city Bhubaneswar,Odisha in afternoon to Kolkata via train. As train is a cheaper mean of travel and very frequent among both the cities.
We reached at Kolkata almost at 9:30 pm. And our next train for NJP(New Jalpaiguri) was at 10:30pm. We had our dinner at Howrah Jn food plaza where you can get a hygeinic food and affordable. We reached at NJP next day morning at 9:00 am although the right time was 7:00 am but it's quiet frequent delay on this route.
Train :
BBS - HWH : 180/- (chair car)
HWH - NJP : 900/- (3 tier AC)
NJP is one of the major junction point for travelling to any part of North-eastern states,Bhutan or Nepal.
After coming out of the NJP station, suddenly you can find a lot of taxi drivers,tour package handlers, etc. will surround you and they will start giving you many delightful offers but it's your choice. But we prefered to travel by our self without any guide. So we chosen to go via shared taxi which surely cost us much cheaper. But if you want to travel via bus then you have to go to Siliguri town which is approx. 14km from NJP.
So the shared taxi(bolero) although it was not much comfortable. It took approx. 4-5 hrs to Darjeeling while this journey you can enjoy pleasant view of the mountains and small villages. As we booked out homestay at Ghoom which is with the Darjeeling but approx. 5km prior to the Main town. Due which we got the accomodation in a cheaper rate with all good aminities.
We booked the homestay from #makemytrip, the homestay was really good with good food too.
While reaching at the destination it was around 3 pm and the place shuts down around 6 pm as sunset is also very earlier. As the day was going to end so we thought of that a quick look around place within 2 hrs. After reaching at Darjeeling it was really cool whether with temp. of 12 deg. C. So we took a quick bath and refreshed out then we walked to Ghoom monastery.
Homestay : 500/- per day(double shared room with tv and room heater)
This is very well known Tibet monastery of 1850s of North-east India.
Where you can feel the calmness by hearing the chantings of mantras and the view of mountain in the mist of fog. And while returning back to the homestay we thought of taking a tour through the local market.
UNISCO heritage railway
Darjeeling is well known for its tea gardens and toy train. Toy train can be taken from Njp but its very slow and expensive but no doubt you can enjoy a lot the journey with amazing view. The train and the railway system was among the first railway network in our country. And now this properties are being maintained by UNISCO as heritage site. The stations will give you a feel of colonial times. We enjoyed this h from Ghoom to Darjeeling town which took around 30min.
There is also an Heritage rail museum in Ghoom station but it's open only for the traveller of the train but if non traveller wants they can visit in morning 9, its free of cost.
This is one of the major market place of the town. Here you can find all kind of local hand craft, colonial time's restaurant and bars, Oxford book shop,local foods, tibetan foods,etc.
I would suggest to go for
Kunga restaurant - for best momos and chinese cuisines
Kathmandu kitchen - best Nepali cuisines
It is one the largest tibetan monastery complex in North eastern states. It is a multi-level monastery with restaurant and clinic inside it. It's a must visit place. The place is in between the Ghoom and Darjeeling main town.
It is a bit away from the main town darjeeling but its quite large in size where we can find Black panther, snow leopard, Bengal tiger, Lion, Black bear, Many species of reptiles and also there is a Natural history muesum.
This a walking distance from the zoo where you can see people practicing climb,jumping, etc. There is also a museum where you can get know about the legendary mountaineers, all about Himalayan range and the type of rock and flora fauna of the Himalayan region.
The is one of the heritage school of British colonial period. This school is evident to many Bollywood film too. But unfortunately there is no permission to enter into the school.
We took shared taxi to travel from one place to other. It cost us around 10-30/- per head.
The day we started at 8:00 am after refreshing breakfast from the homestay to Batasiya loop.
It's almost 1.5 km from our homestay and on the way to Darjeeling town. It is a kind of memorial for the martyrs of brave Gorkha regiment.
It is good landscaped place with a loop toy rail track. You can enjoy the landscape of the place as well as the mountain view of the place.
Then we moved to The mall road market place and hired a motor scooter (yamaha ray). For cheap two wheeler rental we searched a lot in Darjeeling and found a rental agency named 'Amigos rentals' . This was the most cheapest two wheeler rental that we found. And in this vehicle me moved to this tea garden which is really amazing scenic view. There is entry fee of almost 200/- but its worth. We can also find a varities of tea to buy out from there, starting from Rs. 30- 500. It took approx. 2 hrs to roam around place. Then we started departure towards the Tiger hill, which is approx 25 km. from there but it would take more than 2 hrs due to the road.
Whiling heading towards tiger hill we came across many scenitic views and tea garden. But we also came across this centre which is free to visit. Here we can see 8-10 small rooms where we can see the struggle of Tibetans while China conquering Tibet,we can feel the pain of the refugee people who flee to India at that time.
Tiger hill is very well known for the view of Kanchanjangha range. Before entering to the hill we need to cross the check gate where we need to pay Rs. 20/- per head. And entering the check gate we can enjoy the narrow road inbetween the huge woods and fog. While reaching at the top view point it was almost 3:00 pm. but we couldn't find sun due to a lot of fog, so unfortunately we couldn't see kanchanjangha but we enjoyed a lot the road.
After heading down to the Darjeeling town we came across a Japanese temple or a peace pagoda. It really relaxed our body and mind after a tiering travel whole day. We joined their evening prayer. We were really willing to spend a bit more time but as it was already 5 pm so we had to leave towards the Darjeeling as the temp. was dropping low and the sun was already set.
Bike rental : Rs. 1200/- (Yamaha Ray) per day (morng 9 to eveng 6)
then we came back to our homestay.
Here our Darjeeling travel chapter came to an end. Now it was time to leave for NJP back for our train at evenging 5. So we took a taxi from the Ghoom main road direct to the NJP station.
Taxi : 300/- per head (tata Indigo)
Here our Darjeeling travel chapter came to an end. Now it was time to leave for NJP back for our train at evenging 5. So we took a taxi from the Ghoom main road direct to the NJP station.
Taxi : 300/- per head (tata Indigo)
I must say the place is amazing and the people over their are really welcoming and helpful. Most of them speak Nepali language but they manage to speak hindi as well. And Interesting fact is that the Place Ghoom is situated only 6 km. away from the Nepal border. Even sometime your phone network may received from Nepal.
Thank you all Travellers I hope my experience would surely help you. I haven't described much regarding cultural part and historical essence because you can get it any where from net or any other sources.
For any further enquiry drop a message to me. I will be happy to help all my Travel mates.
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