Before the memory fades away, when each minute of the trip is right in front of my eyes, let me finally start this blog on my (our) Chandrayaan trip (do I need to translate it? ;)). After considering all the possible places, we finally decided to go for the unexplored North East part of India & the one which struck in mind was a week-long trip to Darjeeling & Sikkim. We had booked our package tour thru Darjeeling travel for 7N-8D which covered Darjeeling, Pelling, Gangtok & Kalimpong, starting 11th Feb. The onward flight tickets were booked a month earlier thru Jet Airways & return by Kingfisher. Bagdogra is the closest airport to Darjeeling, & we had to change flight at Kolkata both ways.
On 11th, we arrived at Bagdogra at around 1:30 PM & our cab was ready to take us to Darjeeling. We had carried huge jackets, as we had heard that the weather would be chilled. But, at Bagdogra, the weather was so hot that we cursed having got the jackets with us as it was very heavy to carry & it was like a tail. We passed thru the dense forests along the way & finally began ascending the hills. As we ascended higher, the weather got colder. We finally arrived at Mirik at around 4:30 PM and first went to a restaurant to have lunch. We both were the only humans not wearing a jacket in such a cold weather. The outside temperature was 8 degrees. We had hot parathas & went back to the cab. The driver took us to Mirik lake, also called Sumendu lake which was close by. The sheer calmness of the lake in this cold weather was awesome.
Mirik is situated close to Nepal border and is a very famous tourist spot enroute Darjeeling. One could go boating in this lake, but since it was already 5:30 PM, it was closed. Later got to know that boating was available only till 5 PM. The climate was very pleasant and we enjoyed our first spot.
Next, he drove us to Nepal border, called Pashupatinath Border, which was around 30 mins drive from Mirik on the curved hilly roads. We just stepped on Nepal's soil and returned, as it was already time up & no further people could go thru. For Nepal, one doesn't need a visa :) There were only 2-3 security personnel & a long wooden rod as a gate which separated India and Nepal.
We then headed to Darjeeling. It had already got dark at around 6:30 PM and the visibility on road was very poor. We had clearance of hardly 10 ft! The mist had engulfed us and our jackets were put to use. The driver was very experienced & drove very carefully as we kept our hands locked.
We could finally see some light as we entered Darjeeling. There was a small narrow gauge railway track which came from somewhere & joined us all the way. We could see some crowd, and city centre neared. There was a Big Bazaar & other popular branded stores on way to our hotel. We finally reached our hotel - Crystal Palace at around 8 PM & checked into our room. As it was very cold, we thought of getting a heater to our room. But on hearing the per night price of the heater (Rs. 150), we ditched the idea. We ordered roti and curry for dinner & slept off. For the next day, the driver had already informed us to be ready by 9:30 AM for a day tour of Darjeeling.
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