Well, one day my friends decided that we need to take off for a week long vacation. But we had no idea where we can go. Goa? That can wait. Assam, it was friggin raining there. "Let us head to Darjeeling & Gangtok", said my friend Deepak (CD). Almost everyone agreed, except of course me. "Financial crisis dude!!!", I cried out. They somehow got me caved in.
"The Culprits" - (from left to right)
1) Veeresh - commonly known as "Lambu Da" throughout West Bengal. He is tall, trust me.
2) Suraj - common dialogue throughout"Maga, Gaadi swalpa sidege haaku". Means "Dude, please pull over for sometime". I am not going to brief you why he said that. But, we know why.
3) Chetan - The dude who loves to get into argument and call it formal discussion later.
4) Deepak - One dude who adjusts with whatever happens during the trip. But cannot tolerate meaningless argument due to misunderstanding.
So, we reached Kolkata by Simply Fly Deccan. Trust me, Kingfisher has improved the flight experience of Deccan. So, we got a Scorpio for traveling locally. We went to places like Victoria Memorial, Birla temple, Kali Ghat, Park Street, Dakshineshwar, Howrah bridge, Vidya Sagar Bridge, and also to Sonar Gachi (WE DID NOT GET "NAUGHTY" OF COURSE). Haldiram's food place is something you do not want to miss. It is awesome!!! If you wanna go pubbing or something, visit park street. You've got loads of pubs.The next evening, we set off to Darjeeling by train. We arrived Siliguri, NJP. The toy train we had booked was canceled due to unforeseen weather conditions. The railways of course refunded our money, but we missed the experience of traveling in India's only steam engine driven train (The one in Ooty now runs on Bio-Diesel).
Yet again, another Scorpio to the rescue. We took off to Indo-Nepal border, Pashupathi market. En route, it was amazing scenery. Me and Suri were a bit nausea. We chose to sit by window, you know, just in case. We reached pashupathi and most of them shopped till they dropped. After which we set off to Darjeeling directly. One of my team leader was from this place and made some arrangements for the stay. After which we arranged for Tavera for local sight seeing. Night we went pubbing to this place - BUZZ. It has a very good atmosphere and they had a band who were playing big time Aerosmith songs. Chetan seemed to enjoy every moment there.
Early morn we set off to Tiger Hill. Here, if you are lucky that is, you get to see sunrise amongst the Kanchenjunga mountain ranges. Most of the times, it is foggy. So, you need to cross your fingers and luck is something you need. Here if you are lucky, you may also see some group of chicks from Delhi University....lol....we did!!!! And some dumb couples. After this, Suri chose to rest due to hangover. Meanwhile, we went to places locally. Later in the afternoon a refreshed Suri joined us. We went to a tea estate, had some tea. Some of them bought tea powder. We then decided to shop during the evening in the bazaar area.The next day we visited Japanese Peace Pagoda, Buddhist Monastery, Himalayan Mountaineering Institute and Padmaja Naidu Zoological park in Darjeeling. We got there a little late. So the animals were sent to their cages. Fortunately we met this guy who decided to show the tigers in their cages. We paid him like 50 bucks. We captured some amazing moment with the cat. One of them is what i have posted below.
We also visited the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute. The museum here has amazing information and details displayed about the people (quite famous) who have ventured to climb Mt. Everest. Some of them succeeded, while others didn't. Nice place to visit, if you are an adventure freak. An also you can enroll for training as well, which is approximately 3 months. You will definitely enjoy the training. I personally have not enrolled for the same as I am not keen in mountaineering.
The Zoological park and the HMI are in the same premises. So, make sure you visit the zoo and HMI before closing hours. Should you happen to get enrolled in HMI, please share your experience on this blog. Your views are welcome.
We then took off to a tea estate in Darjeeling. Darjeeling is famous for its tea. Trust me, there ain't just tea, there are varieties of flavor for it too. For example, Chocolate flavored tea, orange flavored, Masala tea and so on. Make sure you bargain with the direct marketing of tea packets in the estate. The product seems to be genuine, but the pricing seems to be a little to much. So, do not get conned by the "SALES REPRESENTATIVE" here.
So, we finish the tour of Darjeeling here. Next morning, we set off to Gangtok through small town to Loleygaon. We actually headed to a forest guest house here. This was just the day before my birthday. We enjoyed many scenic beauties on our way here. Luckily, since this was off-season, we got the entire guest house to our self. Those buggers had planned something for me. I didn't even get a hunch of what they were up to. We decided to drink this night. We had to go downtown and get the required "ITEMS". We were back to the guest house in less time anticipated.
All the arrangements were made by the caretaker of the guest house. I was still not happy that no one was talking about my birthday celebration. We begun our sessions at around 10:30PM. The hallway of the guest was awesome. Very nice ambiance. All of a sudden the buggers got into a meaningless argument, into which I certainly was not welcome. I was not interested anyways :)
Five minutes to strike twelve. My close friend and colleague - Tim calls up at just one minute before the clock stuck twelve and wishes me. Then all the buggers bought out a surprise. There was a cake hid in the hallway without my knowledge, all throughout our sessions. My happiest moments arrived. I cut the cake, and as usual, i did not want any cream on my face. I was stern about this. But, ended up with little cream on my face. Continued driking a little and then had dinner and dozed off.
The next morning, we had some photo shoots in the backyard, we had our breakfast and left the place to continue to Gangtok. Gangtok itself is a very commercialized place. But there are amazing place to discover, but you need to sought the permission of the Army. These place are very secure and there is a reason why. I will not bore you more with my dozing off stories. But just in brief about the places we visited in Gangtok:
- Indo-China border (14,420 Ft above Sea level) - a must visit.
- Yamathong - Nice scenic place.
- Gurudong - (17,000 Ft above sea level) - we missed it.
- Baba Mandir - A place you can get inspired about the Indian Army.
- World's highest Golf course - It has entered Guinness Book of World Records.
- World's highest Cybercafe and eat out.
This blog is dedicated to my father - who allowed me to go off on a week long tour. I also dedicate this to my friends who were supportive with me throughout the trip - Deepak, Chethan, Suraj and Veeresh. I will cherish this tour for a long time to come. Thanks guys :)
