Kalimpong, Rishop, Lava.

Took a Spicejet flight and reached Bagdogra. The trip was planned end to end by Himalaya travels. So, getting a call from the driver the moment we landed was no surprise. In half an hour we set out for our hotel Golden Kuensel. The river Tista soon started giving us company. It was such a wonderful drive with the Tista flowing parallel to the road and the steep ranges on the other side. We needed a steep drive from the main market area to reach the hotel. What followed next was very unpleasant, especially if you are with your family and had been travelling for quite a few hours. Golden Keunsel had over booked and in spite of we having a confirmation from them, they refused to take us onboard. Finally the manager took us to another nearby resort called Yakha. The hotel was better than the previous one and left us with no room to complain. Dinner was also sumptuous and we were fast asleep post that.

Day 2 of the trip comprised of local sight seeing. The cloud cover over the distant ranges made sure that the Kanchenjungha peak remain out of sight. Nevertheless, we visited Delo which seemed to be an interesting physiography converted into a lovely place for a day's outing. Another very serene spot nestling with the hills was Dr Graham's school. The place is a picturesque property of a Dr Graham who went on to found one of the most famous schools of Kalimpong. The place would provide plenty of happiness for avid bird watchers too. Unfortunately, there were a couple of places which were closed because of holi. The few other places covered a nursery which we could have easily given a miss, and two monasteries, one on the Durpin Dara hill and the other near our resort .

Day 3 was supposed to be exciting since we had planned our visit to Lava and Rishop. The road to Rishop was quite horrendous. The bumpy ride through the woods was both scary and enjoyable. The place looked pretty deserted at this time of the year. Compared to Rishop, Lava was a far happening place. The place seemed to have developed around the marvelous Kagyu Thekchen monastery. The climb to the monastery was not without chilled cold wind unfurling its wrath on us. It was nevertheless a great place to visit and clearly was the highlight of the trip. It had been three days and we realized that we were not destined for a Kanchenjungha site this time.