Hello, lovely readers, hope you found the first part of my Darjeeling Jatra helpful. I also want to hear your experiences if you have visited Darjeeling. Feel free to drop in your memories here. So without much blabbering let’s begin right away with the continuation of my DAY 2 tour of Darjeeling. The next tourist point that we visited were :
DARJEELING ROPEWAY– It is the next destination. Book tickets and wait in a queue for your turn to enjoy the ropeway which shall take you above the famous Darjeeling tea gardens.
TENZING AND GOMBU ROCK – These huge rocks are located on Lebong Cart Road where rock climbing is practiced. You need not stop there as we watched the two rocks on our way from the moving car. At the Tenzing Rock, Tenzing Norgay used to practice rock climbing.
HAPPY VALLEY TEA ESTATE- Darjeeling is famous for tea and the tea gardens present a spectacular view. At the Happy Valley Tea Estate you can get inside the tea gardens, take pictures and enjoy the view. Also there are lots of tea outlets, you can but Packets of tea leaves as gifts and also for yourself. It is also an old tea estate from where tea is imported to London and many other places.
Rock Garden &Â Gangamaya Park Tour- That was our last point of the day. The rock garden is indeed beautiful with lots of huge waterfalls and flowers blooming here and there. The park closes at 5pm, we reached there at 4.30pm, half an hour was enough to enjoy the place. It is also a famous picnic spot.
We covered almost all the important points in a day, though it may sound a bit hectic for some people and specially our respected senior citizens, in case you have time you may take two days to cover them. But remember they may charge you double for two days. There are few more tourist points like The Ava Art Gallery and The Japanese Peace Pagoda, we skipped them. Tired and exhausted we reached our hotel at 7pm, had an early dinner and then hung out in Mall Road.
DAY 3
We got ready early morning. The day was bright and sunny. The warmth of the sun rays boosted our spirits. The next thing in our itinerary was the Toy Train Ride. In case you have booked a travel agents, be very clear from the beginning as some Travel Agents do not include Toy Train ride in their itinerary as that do not welcome much benefits for them.
 So you need not worry, it’s very simple to book a ride. All you need is wake up early in the morning and reach the Darjeeling Railway Station which is around 1 or 2km from the town, there are shortcuts to reach the station, ask your hotel attendants, they know it well. Wait for the counter to open, there are two counters one for tourist and one for daily commuters.
Make sure you are standing in the right queue. Tickets are little highly priced but I am sure you are not going to miss the chance for the ride of a lifetime. We boarded the train at 8pm, it was two hours ride, we reached Ghoom, on way the train took a turn at the Batasia loop, halted for 20min and stared the journey. We reached Darjeeling Station at around 10am. The View was breathtaking. The snow clad Kanchenjunga was clearly visible due to the bright sun. We were so thankful to God for taking away the clouds and allowing us to enjoy the beauty of the Third Highest Mountain peak in the world. We walked back to our rooms and packed our luggage.
 The guy who dropped us to Darjeeling from NJP, was quite a friendly one, we contacted him and he came to pick us up in our hotel. He was in Darjeeling co-incidently. It was Sunday, we had our train back to Guwahati at 7.25pm. almost the entire day was in our hand. To reach NJP from Darjeeling the drivers use a different route via MIRIK, so that you can enjoy the Mirik lake and also the tea gardens. The journey was so memorable one, we were passing through small hills covered with tea gardens, acres and acres of land , finely pruned tea plants, neat and tidy, it was green everywhere, nature was in its full flavor.
The fresh aroma of tea leaves made it all the more alluring. We halted in between, took pictures, had tea, enjoyed the Mirik lake, skipped boating as we did not have much time in our hands. The driver also took us to the entry point of NEPAL. You shall get a chance to enter NEPAL and trust me you don’t need any documents, though you are just allowed to access the huge market located there. But be aware while shopping cosmetics as most of the products are duplicate. But still you can purchase bags, shoes and other accessories, you shall find nice variety.
 We reached the platform at 5.30pm, and waited for the arrival of our train The Puri-Kamakhya express. It is indeed a great experience to visit new places, know new culture, art and tradition.
On an important note carry warm clothes, caps, mufflers since Darjeeling is at higher altitude and the temperature low, at night it gets much colder. Carry an umbrella.
Thanks a lot for reading this post, hope its useful nd for further details you may email me or message me.
Posted By- Ishani Nath
