The Hills Have Eyes !
Shootout at Ghum and district Darjeeling, India.
Date: 23 to 26 January, 2012
Description: A much needed family sabbatical for 2Ns & 3Ds to The City on the Hills, Darjeeling, India.
Disclaimer: This blog is an attempt to publicly showcase only a few of my selected clicks and hence I do not intend to share any of my personal photographs related to this trip (for example photographs of my family or myself). Though I have tried to upload most of the photographs in a chronological order of the trip. But for few photographs the order might be different. Reading “About the Trip” section and “Foot notes / Captions” below every photograph, can easily help to correlate each and every photo to the trip.
About the trip
Last time when I visited Darjeeling I was in my pre-teens and hardly remember anything of that place. So, I always wanted to return a visit, especially the mere imagination of ‘hill station’ had always enthralled me. Finally, I made it this year during my annual vacation to India. It was in winter this year (Jan 23 to 26, 2012) and again though the conditions were not ideal for the trip (such as the chances are bleak in winter for a captivating glimpse or any glimpse at all for that matter, of Kanchenjunga peak from Tiger Hill) we (my wife and daughter who had already leaped into her 3rd year by then) decided to give it a shot not knowing when we will ever get another chance. The idea of getting into that toy train and journey through the hilly terrains was simply irresistible.
The focus of our short odyssey was to take the joy ride on the Himalayan railways, the exquisite steam powered toy train ride which embarks from Darjeeling and travels up to Ghum and back. Incidentally, Ghum station (as it claims to be) is the highest railway station in the world in terms of its altitude above sea level and so these toy trains run on the highest railway tracks in the world.
Very striking at its first sight, the rail tracks are located on and inside the city roads and the train moves parallel to other public conveyances. The twin coached trains are intended to move at an exceptionally slow pace and people on board come very close to a natural exodus as the train bisects the town alleyways and travels pass the Himalayan terrains while stopping at the famous Gurkha soldier’s memorial at Batashia Loop. An early morning ride in one of those coaches is a bliss !
Hence, I made all prior arrangements before leaving for the trip, including hotel reservations. For going to Darjeeling from Kolkata and back we took the Padatik express at night from a thronging Sealdah railway station at Kolkata. An overnight train haul…and by early morning the following day, we were at Siliguri. There are no direct train links to Darjeeling from any part of India, so everyone travelling ideally has to disembark at Siliguri or Kurseong and take a cab ride from there on up to Darjeeling. The ‘1 and half hour’ (approx 70 km) drive cost us around Rs 2000/- (approx. $50). The 70 odd kilometers drive through the undulating terrains is risky yet beautiful. And, after a good couple of hours (we did halt midway for brunch at a road side diner) we were finally at the City on Hills!
At Darjeeling our hotel experience was great. We opted for an attic room on the 5th floor of Shangri-La Regency Hotel (the caption of which read: “heavenly living at a down to earth price”) and since there were no escalators (not known to us prior to arrival) scaling all the way up through the steep staircase was the only difficulty we faced. Rest everything was close to perfect, the hospitability and food was appreciable.
Out of the 3 day trip, apart from the toy train ride, on one day we hired a cab for a city around tour (‘5-point tour’ as the locals call here) and the ‘points’ that we were able to cover were the Gurkha Stadium, the Tenzing & Nuang Gombu Rocks, the world renowned Darjeeling’s tea plantation, City hall, etc ad-hoc the natural beauty everywhere. Unfortunately we found the Rock Garden and local Zoo to be non-functional at that time of the year.
Apart from the sight-seeing we also indulged ourselves into some street shopping spree at the Mall road. When at the Mall road, checking out the road side diners and trying some local and Tibetan delicacies is a must!
Date: 23 to 26 January, 2012
Description: A much needed family sabbatical for 2Ns & 3Ds to The City on the Hills, Darjeeling, India.
Disclaimer: This blog is an attempt to publicly showcase only a few of my selected clicks and hence I do not intend to share any of my personal photographs related to this trip (for example photographs of my family or myself). Though I have tried to upload most of the photographs in a chronological order of the trip. But for few photographs the order might be different. Reading “About the Trip” section and “Foot notes / Captions” below every photograph, can easily help to correlate each and every photo to the trip.
About the trip
Last time when I visited Darjeeling I was in my pre-teens and hardly remember anything of that place. So, I always wanted to return a visit, especially the mere imagination of ‘hill station’ had always enthralled me. Finally, I made it this year during my annual vacation to India. It was in winter this year (Jan 23 to 26, 2012) and again though the conditions were not ideal for the trip (such as the chances are bleak in winter for a captivating glimpse or any glimpse at all for that matter, of Kanchenjunga peak from Tiger Hill) we (my wife and daughter who had already leaped into her 3rd year by then) decided to give it a shot not knowing when we will ever get another chance. The idea of getting into that toy train and journey through the hilly terrains was simply irresistible.
The focus of our short odyssey was to take the joy ride on the Himalayan railways, the exquisite steam powered toy train ride which embarks from Darjeeling and travels up to Ghum and back. Incidentally, Ghum station (as it claims to be) is the highest railway station in the world in terms of its altitude above sea level and so these toy trains run on the highest railway tracks in the world.
Very striking at its first sight, the rail tracks are located on and inside the city roads and the train moves parallel to other public conveyances. The twin coached trains are intended to move at an exceptionally slow pace and people on board come very close to a natural exodus as the train bisects the town alleyways and travels pass the Himalayan terrains while stopping at the famous Gurkha soldier’s memorial at Batashia Loop. An early morning ride in one of those coaches is a bliss !
Hence, I made all prior arrangements before leaving for the trip, including hotel reservations. For going to Darjeeling from Kolkata and back we took the Padatik express at night from a thronging Sealdah railway station at Kolkata. An overnight train haul…and by early morning the following day, we were at Siliguri. There are no direct train links to Darjeeling from any part of India, so everyone travelling ideally has to disembark at Siliguri or Kurseong and take a cab ride from there on up to Darjeeling. The ‘1 and half hour’ (approx 70 km) drive cost us around Rs 2000/- (approx. $50). The 70 odd kilometers drive through the undulating terrains is risky yet beautiful. And, after a good couple of hours (we did halt midway for brunch at a road side diner) we were finally at the City on Hills!
At Darjeeling our hotel experience was great. We opted for an attic room on the 5th floor of Shangri-La Regency Hotel (the caption of which read: “heavenly living at a down to earth price”) and since there were no escalators (not known to us prior to arrival) scaling all the way up through the steep staircase was the only difficulty we faced. Rest everything was close to perfect, the hospitability and food was appreciable.
Out of the 3 day trip, apart from the toy train ride, on one day we hired a cab for a city around tour (‘5-point tour’ as the locals call here) and the ‘points’ that we were able to cover were the Gurkha Stadium, the Tenzing & Nuang Gombu Rocks, the world renowned Darjeeling’s tea plantation, City hall, etc ad-hoc the natural beauty everywhere. Unfortunately we found the Rock Garden and local Zoo to be non-functional at that time of the year.
Apart from the sight-seeing we also indulged ourselves into some street shopping spree at the Mall road. When at the Mall road, checking out the road side diners and trying some local and Tibetan delicacies is a must!