Trip to North East India (Day 2)

Day 2
10:00 AM
Arrive at New Jalpaiguri (NJP) railway station from Kolkata on the Howrah-NJP Sup Special Express. This is an important junction for most of the trains bound for the North East. Here's a view of the junction.
We had breakfast at a small canteen in the station. There is a separate big counter in the station exclusively for defence personnel. This counter is meant for making train reservations for defence personnel and their family members. Our nation takes care of its soldiers well.

10:45 AM
There are quite a few shared taxis available to take one to Gangtok from NJP. However there are few or no such options available for Darjeeling. Of course, there are private taxis available but they charge much higher (anywhere from Rs. 800 to Rs. 1500). We found one shared taxi whose driver agreed to take us and even loaded our luggage on the top. However after a few minutes he refused to come, probably because he didn't get sufficient passengers. This is how it looks just outside NJP station. The commonly followed practice of reaching Darjeeling from NJP is to first go to Siliguri and then catch a shared taxi to Darjeeling. We took a shared seven-seater autorickshaw to Siliguri from just outside NJP station. The ride takes around half an hour and costs Rs. 15 per person. The rickshaws are old and rickety and passengers keep getting in and out all along the way. NJP town itself looks quite barren and impoverished.


11:15 AM
Leave Siliguri to Darjeeling. The autorickshaw from NJP dropped us off at a point where shared taxis ply from in Siliguri. I was taken into a small office where it appeared that a receipt would be issued for the taxi. However as soon as the guy learnt that we already had a hotel reservation in Darjeeling, he was quick to let us off. These people try to market their own hotels as well as take care of the transportation. We were able to find an available shared taxi without much difficulty and were charged Rs. 120 per head. The shared taxis are normally Tata Sumo kind of vehicles which are packed as much as possible. Here's a picture of the shared taxi we travelled by.

Most of the taxi drivers are quite young, some of them even in their late teens. The tourism business, it appears, is the main source of employment for the youth there.

There is a toy train track that runs parallel to the main road all along the way. This mountain train takes seven to eight hours to reach Darjeeling from NJP and is patronized by patient tourists with an eye for natural beauty. Indeed the nearly three hour drive to Darjeeling is very scenic and offers lots of photo opportunities for the enthusiast.

On the way up to the hill station, we caught a glimpse of Jaswant Singh, the only BJP MP from West Bengal. He was apparently giving a thanksgiving speech after having got elected from there. The local press reported that he won from the Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency mostly because he was sympathetic to the Gorkhaland cause.

2:00 PM

Arrived at Darjeeling town, which is at an altitude of approximately 2000 m above sea level. The taxi stopped at a point which was some distance away from the hotel we had booked. We were carrying two not-very-light bags and were wondering how to get to the hotel when a lady coolie approached us out of nowhere and offered to carry our bags to our hotel; we gladly accepted the services of the coolie-cum-guide.

A characteristic feature of the hill stations we visited is that they are arranged in vertical layers. It is almost as if the people live in a large structure that is several stories high. To reach our hotel, it turned out that we had to climb several feet up to the next level. It was amazing how the lady coolie carrying two heavy bags could walk so fast up the steep paths while we brought up the rear with some difficulty, puffing and panting along.

3:00 PM

Hot water bath and lunch at Hotel Snowlion Homestay.

The hotel is a very nice place to stay even though it is slightly on the higher side of room rents (Rs. 1500 + taxes per night for a normal room). The all-vegetarian menu was decent and the room service was prompt and courteous. The meal charges were also quite reasonable. We rested for some time after lunch to relax our tired muscles.

9:00 PM

After dinner which consisted of Aloo parathas, rice and dhal, we went out for a stroll on the streets. The weather was cool and very pleasant. The bazaar was just winding up for the day, and we did some brief shopping on the way. The town goes to sleep at about 10 PM and we did the same!

In my next post, I will describe our sight-seeing in Darjeeling. Keep reading!