Day 2 - Darjeeling

Before I begin, let me give some trivia about Darjeeling. The name Darjeeling is a composition of dorje meaning Thunderbolt and ling meaning place.. The Land of Thunderbolt. It is very famous for its tea industry and the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. For more info on Darjeeling, click here.

We began our day by having aloo parathas for breakfast. The weather was cold and little sunny. But we couldn't see far off things. We set out from the hotel at around 10 AM for the day trip. First, we visited Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park, also known as Darjeeling Zoo. Our trip itinerary didn't consist of entry tickets to any place. Inside the zoo, the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute is also located. We purchased tickets for both at the entrance. This zoo was big enough and it housed various animals - black bear, blue sheep, deer, gorals (mountain goat), spotted leopard, snow leopard, Indian tiger, Himalayan wolf and the famous Red Panda, which is the state animal of West Bengal. Among the birds were the parrots, falcons, monal, silver pheasant, peacock and others. At the HMI, there were the tools used by Tenzing & Hillary for the first expedition of Everest, a model of the entire Himalayan range, and all equipments needed for mountaineering. This institute provides training for mountaineering activities. We spent about an hour & a half in the zoo campus, and while coming back, I grabbed a copy of Darjeeling & Sikkim pocket guides from the nearby souvenir shop.

Next, we stopped at Tenzing Rock. This is a very short but steep rock where HMI conducts training. Close to Tenzing Rock was the Gombu rock with was very high & steep. Tenzing and Gombu rock also commonly known as " monkey rock" was named after late Tenzing Sherpa and Nawang Gombu respectively. It is where Tenzing Sherpa climbed the Tenzing rock in the presence of Late Prime minister Jawaharlal Nerhu without a belay.

Next, we came to the famous tea estate of Darjeeling. The view of the tea estate was so pleasant, we felt like staying there itself. Mist had covered the entire range though. We tasted authentic Darjeeling tea at a small shop nearby & it was too good. We brought a packet of tea from there itself.

When we were sipping tea at the stall, a news came from our driver that a strike had been called for the next day by students union for Gorkhaland, and that we had to drop Tiger hill the next day & leave for Pelling as early as 3 AM as during the strike which was from 6 AM to 6 PM, no vehicles would be allowed to move. We felt utterly dejected on hearing this news.

Next, he took us to Tibetan refugees self help centre. There was a monastery there, but little did we know that it would be closed on Fridays.

Continuing further, we went to a place called Lebong, where there was a flat ground on which horses were trained. We wondered how was it possible to have a flat ground of such size on a hilly region! On the way to Lebong, he showed us the most famous school of Darjeeling - St Josephs High school, where the legendary Amitabh Bachchan studied.

Further down, at Lebong, he showed us the army training camp, but visitors were not allowed inside.

From Lebong, we came back to Darjeeling and midway we stopped to have a glimpse of entire Dajreeling.

We continued further towards Ghoom to Batasia Loop. The weather was getting colder & mist was engulfing us. We reached Batasia Loop in the afternoon & couldn't bear the cold. So all our accessories - gloves, jackets & sweaters were put to use.

The Batasia loop is an engineering marvel where the railway tracks intersect to form a figure of eight. The world famous heritage toy train - Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) has a station here. This is the only place where the engine can be seen from the last compartment. There is a war memorial at the centre of the loop that honours the men of Darjeeling who died in several wars.

From Batasia loop, we headed back to Darjeeling. On the way, we went to our last spot - Dali Choeling Monastery, which is the biggest monastery in Darjeeling. It was huge & very colorful. Inside the monastery, there were 5 big idols of Buddha & prayers were going on. Photography was prohibited inside. They prayed in tune, blowing the horns & other instruments. Nearby, there was a small room with huge prayer bells. Next to the room were some Stupas of saints. I don't know Buddhism very well..

It had began to drizzle. We headed back in the car to our hotel. On the way, the Darjeeling station appeared and the engine of DHR had halted.

After we came back to our room, when we were about to go to munch some stuffs, our driver came back to our room and told that the strike had been called off & that we could go to Tiger hills. He told us to be ready by 3:30 AM in the morning to go there. We were very happy on hearing this news. Tiger hills was the main attraction here, & we would have been unhappy if we had missed it.

It was 4 PM when we went out for lunch, and by that time, the rains had worsened. We went to a nearby restaurant & had tomato soup & some rice. The soup remained sweet, as was in Mirik, and we wondered if these guys ever knew how to prepare soup. Old instrumental songs were played in the background, making the place romantic. By the time we finished eating, the rains had lessened, so we decided to go to the Mall, as it was too early to hit bed. As we walked for some distance, it started pouring heavily, so quickly we came back to our room and settled on bed watching TV. At around 8:30 PM, we ordered dinner and slept by 9:30 itself, as we had to get up at an unearthly hour the next day.