I always wondered about the attraction of Darjeeling.It is like a good book which I always try to leaf through in my spare time or an old Hindi song which I have not heard for a long time and then either hunt that out from collection of my CDs or go out and purchase one.This trip of Darjeeling was something like that,I longed to visit this heavenly place just after my trip to Mussourie,may be that trip to the northern hill station trigerred me to make this visit.Siliguri is the gateway for the hill stations like Gangtok,Thimpu,Kurseong,Kalimpong,Mirik and Darjeeling .One can reach Siliguri by road ,rail or by air.There are taxis available from railway stations,bus stops and airports.Darjeeling is about 76 km from the Bagdogra airport.It takes 3 hours with a break of half an hour.We stopped at Kurseong and had food in Amarjeet's Dhaba.The stuffed parathas are great .My this trip of Darjeeling taught me that before making any long journey it is wise to find out about the availability of toilet.We had harrowing experience in Darjeeling in locating proper toilet to relieve ourselves.We stayed in Sinclair's hotel. It is perched on the top and is meant for sportive crowd,a good amount of trekking is to be done to reach there.The staff there are friendly,accomodative and obliging.
We could see the snow capped Kanchanjungha from our hotel room.It was magnificent.The mall is the real place to chill.You are likely to come across your known friends.We came across Mr.Lahiri and his wife,that was a great surprise.The trip was spiced by the presence of Paramita and her son Ricky.
We were generally hanging around either at mall or in Glenary's.Glenary's boast of a good pub known as The Buzz.The top floor is having restaurant overlooking the valley,the next floor is bakery shop with tea ,coffee etc.There is a cyber cafe in the same floor.Lot of foreigners were either surfing the net or chatting or uploading the pictures taken by them.I too chatted from there. One should not forget to sample cakes,hotdog and chicken sizzler in Glenary's.The advantage of visiting Darjeeling in winter is that one can get a clear view of Kanchanjungha.The temperature was varying between 4 and 8 degrees.We took adequate woolens.
There is a zoo where three rare specis can be seen and these are Yak,Red Panda,Snow Leopard.
We spent most of the time at the mall and watching Nepali youth trying out football with the assorted football made out of rubber bands,they are really good in controlling that rubberry mass.The hill folks are real simple.I remeber when I made my first visit way back in seventies then all the young fellows used to watch English Western movie,strum their guitars and sing Cliff or Elvis but now it is all Hindi song singing crowd.We peeped in Kaventers ,there only I bumped on Mr.Lahiri.
I got many insight about the youth of Darjeeling from the taxi driver Tshering Sherpa who drove us back to Siliguri.
Though I am back in Cal, but the wet musky smell of Pine,Juniper keeps lingering along with the image of the cloud hovering around and the magnificent snow capped Kanchanjungha permanently etched in my mind.The taste of chicken sizzler in Glenary's is still fresh in my mouth,after so many years I tasted Hot Dog again which was our favourite snack at Standards by the side of Regal cinema in New Delhi.Those were the days of juke box,hot coffee and Hot Dog and roam about in Connaught Place.Well that is another place which keeps on pulling me like a magnet.So my visit to Delhi is never complete without visiting Connaught Place.Happy new year to all.
