Kolkata - New Jalpaiguri - Darjeeling

14th October 2012 

This is my first major trip north of Mumbai within India. I had visited Delhi for a few days, but never on a long trip to northern parts of India. We arrived to Kolkata on the 13th of October. Had a nice rest, visited some family, a lunch at a nice Bengali Restaurant. Tried having Fried Fish - did not like it particularly; Enjoyed the Misti Dhoi and Rosagullas. No trip to this land is complete without an encounter with Sweets. We had our encounter and I will have a separate post on this subject.

Kolkata is a very interesting place; This is one Metropolitan City in India which does not have a station with its own name. Mumbai has Mumbai Central, Mumbai CST; Chennai has Chennai Central, Chennai Egmore; Delhi has New Delhi; Kolkata has Howrah & Sealdah.

We boarded a night train from Sealdah to New Jalpaiguri (NJP). Though the origin and destination is in West Bengal, we do venture into Jharkand and Bihar. We got to know of this only after checking our Welcome SMS for roaming into these states.

The next morning we reached NJP. A very small and quaint place. We had our breakfast inside the station. There was a small mishap with our luggage; We had a whole backpack with eatables which we carried from Bangalore. We did the cardinal sin of keeping this bag below our seats along with our other baggage. We had a visit from "Ganesha's Vahana" - The RAT. This is not the first time this has happened to us and neither will this be the last time. Time and again we forget and keep our food below the seat. We thought it was just a nibble, later we found out that the rat(s) had a good feast.

We got out of the station, we were welcomed by a hoard of folks who wanted to drive us to Darjeeling. Wanting to enjoy the outside of the station, I shooed all these folks; took a couple of photos in front of the train just outside the station and made our way to the taxi booking counter. In the meanwhile, the drivers were pouring with offers to drive us to Darjeeling. I opted for the WB tourism counter, just so that there was no kit-kit at the end of the journey. A few buck extra is always fine for the peace of mind at the end of the journey.

NJP to Darjeeling is a three to four hour journey through winding roads. There are two routes one via Kuresong and another via Mirik. Both the routes are a must to do. The Mirik route touches the border of Nepal and the one via Kuresong has hairpin bends which redefine the whole meaning of hairpin bends. If you have someone with motion sickness, it is better to avoid the Kuresong route and enjoy the nature. If you are driving your own vehicle, which is a nice thing to do, I would suggest using the Mirik route. You could do the Kuresong route as an adventure, but you will block a lot of traffic. The local drivers know every millimeter on the road which would make the difference between a smooth ride or a traffic jam or hitting the edge of the road.

We took the Kuresong route on the way up and the Mirik Route on the way down. Logically too, going up him on winding roads is a bit easier than coming down. Our driver was a very wonderful person. Our first real interaction to a person from the North East was a very pleasant one and it opened our minds to a very interesting and unassuming folks, who define a very simple way of working and living life doing hard work.

Any tourist place you have a bunch of touts and crooks. Yes, Darjeeling might have a few too; The people we interacted were mostly very simple and very trust worthy. I could not believe myself that only a month ago, there was a huge problem in this part of the country. The journey to Darjeeling took me to a very beautiful place which we have seen only in movies or photographs, more importantly it took me towards interacting with a bunch of Indians who were very warm, accommodating and amazing folks.

This is a part of India I have never seen before and I am sure I will want to visit again.