Precious and Not So Precious moments in our life..: Darjeeling

Just had a short trip to Darjeeling. It was a much needed vacation for me. It took a 2 hour flight from Hyderabad to Bagdogra Airport and then a 3 hour drive on the ghat road to reach the 'queen of hills'.

Unlike other hill stations that I've visited, the hill top doesn't seem flat & so, most of the town is on the sloping edges of the mountains. Houses seemed like a pile of colourful lego bricks hanging onto the hill.

Apart from the clouds & trees & mountains, another feast to my eyes was the beautifully arranged colorful flower pots in front of each and every house, be it small or large.I'm quite excited with this idea and planning to setup something similar at mine too.

We settled down in the hotel, which was originally a summer palace of the Maharajas from Burdwan. The ambience was good and rooms were quite spacious. But, do expect the least when it comes to the matter of hospitality.

Went out for a stroll in the mall road in the evening. The roads are so narrow & conjusted. We didn't expect that the weather will be so cold & hence didn't carry warm clothes. So, we are forced to shop warm clothing for all of us. Back to hotel & retired for the day.

Kanchenjunga in the backdrop

Next day, we are set to Tiger hills (the highest peak in the Darjeeling hill range) to view the sunrise & get a glimpse of Kanchanjengu. We reached there at 4:30 am and the hill top is already filled with lot of tourists. After a while, sun rose at 5:09 am and it was a spectacular view. A must watch nature's wonder and I'm sure the memory of this will last for the rest of my life. Sipping a hot cup of coffee while visiting this nature's wonder is stunning.

What excited me the most was the view of Kanchenjunga, world's third highest peak. Even after all the tourists left, I was not willing to move from there & kids were wondering why. I told them that the view of majestic peak is something I can't express in words. Just loved seeing the mighty mountain. Magnificent !!

The colorful flags all the way down the hill is so pleasant. It symbolizes buddist relegious practice it seems.

On the way back to hotel, we visited Buddist monestry at Ghoom & a war memorial at Batasia loop - a memorial to the Gorkha soldiers of the Indian Army who sacrificed their lives after the Indian Independence.

After taking rest for a while, we set out for local sight seeing. Visited Japanese peace pagoda (constructed by a Japanese buddhist monk, Fujii, for spreading peace across the world).

Then we went to have a ride in the cable car. We had to wait for more than 2 hours, but the wait seemed to be worth it. Kids enjoyed all the junk food while in the queue. Riding above the mountains & valleys is really exciting. Thoroughly enjoyed the picturesque painting by Mother Nature !!

We then had a short trip to the zoo. We could only see pandas & deers. Adjacent to it lies the Himalayan mountaineering institute, where we watched a short film about two adventourous people (Pranav & Abhijeet) & their journey in accomplishing their mission on trekking two frozen waterfalls. My God !!

Inspired by the video, Husband had a short adventure at the Tenzing rock.

Then we headed to Mall road, which was the most happening part of the town. You find an array of varied street foods, road side vendors from neighbouring states & countries, handi-craft stores. Window shopping followed by munching road side food. I thoroughly enjoyed the hot grilled corn on the cob, while kids & husband were muching the chicken snack.
After spending some time in mall road, we headed back to hotel.

We started day-3 very late (after all it is a vacation & we didn't want to rush). First, we went to the rock garden, which is a very beautiful place, lying amidst the valleys. Quite peaceful & different from the urban jungle that we live.

We couldn't get tickets for the famous darjeeling toy train. Just a few pics at the India's highest railway station (Ghoom) is what we could capture.

After that, we decided to go to on an adventurous trip to a village called 'chattakpur' which is around 7887 ft from sea level. We had to drive for around two hours in deep jungle to reach this place. We were the only one all along the route & some times it scared us. Luckily, kids were sleeping. Otherwise, they would have resisted us taking us this trip. Not even a single village/person is seen. The tall himalayan pine & a variety of other trees & valleys is all what you see. Animal/bird sounds + vehicle drive sound is what you hear..Halfway through the journey, we came across a few people who were trekking to the place on their two-wheelers. God !! The temperature is very less & you see + feel the clouds..It's amazing !! After we reached that village (which had just 18 houses and a population of ~ 90), we set our journey on foot to the highest view point there. On a plesant day, one can see places like Nepal, Silgudi from this hill top view point. After some time there, we returned to hotel & retired for the day.

Day4: We had to finally bid good bye to Darjeeling. On the way back to airport, we went to a town called Pashupathi, which is in Nepal. Indians were allowed to go on showing any govt issues ID card. Kids were excited that they stepped into a different country :)