Trip to Darjeeling - 4

[Continued from Trip to Darjeeling - 3] The next day morning we went to the Supermarket Taxi Stand. From there we hopped on to a Singamari bound share taxi and told the driver to drop us at the Happy Valley Tea Estate entrance. The entrance to the estate is situated on the main road but the factory is below and one has to walk to reach the factory. It was about 15 minutes walk but the scenery of the tea garden was beautiful. Happy Valley is the only tea garden in Darjeeling town. There was a guide waiting in front of the factory gate. He showed us how the tea plucked from the garden is processed. We saw the various machines and processes by which tea is made. There was a souvenir shop too where we bought a packet of Happy Valley Tea. Then we walked to the Singamari Taxi Stand. From there we took a share taxi to get back to Supermarket Taxi Stand. That day we took rest in the hotel.

Happy Valley Tea Factory

Trip to Darjeeling - 3

[Continued from Trip to Darjeeling - 2] The day after we woke up late in the morning. After breakfast we had a stroll in the Mall and inquired about how to go to Mirik at the Supermarket Taxi Stand. We booked a car which would take us to Mirik tour, the next day  We were told to get ready by 8 o' clock in the morning.

View from Simana

The next day we got ready quickly and reached the place where our car was to wait for us. The car came and we started our journey towards Mirik. On the way we stopped at Simana. The view of the distant hills of Nepal from Simana is awesome. Next we reached Mirik. In front of us we saw the Sumendu Lake, the prime attraction of the place. The lake has an arched footbridge over it linking the two sides of the lake. Firstly we had our breakfast with Momos. This traditional delicacy is much tastier and cheaper in these hilly places than in the cities.

Trip to Darjeeling - 2

[Continued from Trip to Darjeeling] The Darjeeling railway station was a long walk from the Chowrasta. From the Passenger Reservation Counter of the station, we bought tickets for a one way ride from Darjeeling to Ghum. After that we were lucky to witness a joy ride train starting from the station so that we could get the shots. Dhirdham Temple, one of the attractions of Darjeeling is visible from the station. On the way back we booked car for the Tiger Hill tour from a travel agency. The tour consisted of Tiger Hill, Batasia Loop and Ghum Monastery. Then we went to the Bengal Natural History Museum. It is located close to the Mall. The museum hosts an impressive stuffed collection of butterflies, moths, insects and other animals and birds. Various stuffed fishes and reptiles are also kept in this museum. In another room the varied ecosystems of West Bengal has been depicted. After that we came back to our hotel.

Toy Train at Darjeeling Station

The next day we woke up at 3 am and got ready. The car picked us up from the Mall at about 3:45 am. We reached Tiger Hill at about 4:30 am. Although the sky was lighting up but the actual sunrise had not started yet. After a while we saw a small portion of the sun becoming visible. Gradually the whole of it became visible to us. After watching sunrise we got back to our car and then went to Batasia Loop. At this place the toy train traverses a loop. There is a Gorkha War Memorial along with flower gardens. The beauty of the loop has now been damaged by the people sitting on the rail tracks selling various items to the tourists. Our next destination was Ghum Monastery. The scenic view of the distant hills and houses from the monastery is amazing. After that we came back to Darjeeling.

Trip to Darjeeling

It was a scorching summer in Kolkata with news of heat waves and rising temperature coming in the daily weather forecast. I decided it was once more time to move out of the city. To a cool destination - Darjeeling, I thought was the correct place.

We boarded the Kolkata-Haldibari Superfast Express and set out towards New Jalpaiguri. The train reached NJP an hour and a half behind the scheduled time of 18:50 hrs. That night we stayed at Hotel Miami in New Jalpaiguri. The day after we went to Siliguri by auto rickshaw. Siliguri and New Jalpaiguri are actually twin towns and are located very close to each other. Our auto dropped us at one of the many travel agency counters scattered in the town of Siliguri which conduct daily car service to Darjeeling. We bought tickets from the counter and hopped into the car. The car started moving. Soon we saw a narrow gauge railway line by the road side - the track of the heritage Darjeeling Toy Train. But soon our car was diverted to Rohini Highway instead of travelling on Hill Cart Road, the traditional way to reach Darjeeling because of a land slide on that road. The new road was very steep and had a number of pin head curves. It took about three hours for our car to get to Darjeeling. We descended from the car at Super Market Taxi Stand. Since we had made no hotel booking so my first job was to find a hotel to stay at least for that night.

On the way to Darjeeling

Visit to Tarapith (Part - 2)

[Continued from Visit to Tarapith (Part - 1)] The accident took place just in front of us. A speeding motorbike was coming through the highway. As it approached that point it came to the edge of the highway and lost its balance. The motorist was injured. He was taken to the hospital by some local people in a rickshaw. After that we went inside the restaurant and placed our order. The food arrived but the food was not up to the mark. In the shop there were  plenty of mosquitoes which  made us very uncomfortable. Somehow we quickly had our dinner and went back to our hotel.

The next day we woke up late in the morning and quickly got ready and went to the bus stand. That day the sun was extremely hot. We felt as if our skins were getting burnt. We once again enquired at the bus stand whether there were any buses to Bakreswar. They replied that there were none. We could get bus to Siuri. From Siuri we would have to take auto to get to Bakreswar. But I decided not to go there. So we started walking through the streets of Rampurhat in search of a good restaurant. We did some shopping at the market area of the town. Most of the goods sold here were locally made and the price was also low. On the way we saw a restaurant named Panthasala. After strolling for some time we entered the restaurant. We went upstairs. The restaurant was quite good, neat and clean. We were served Bengali thali. The food was nice. After having lunch we went back to our hotel.

Visit to Tarapith (Part - 1)

We boarded the Howrah Rampurhat Express from 11:55 am and reached Rampurhat at 15:50 pm. We came out of the station. It was raining. There were a number of auto and cycle rickshaws. Also there were trekkers which were going to Tarapith. But we started walking. We asked at a tea stall, whether there were any hotels nearby. They told us that there was a hotel, Prachi Lodge. We reached Prachi Lodge but there we were told that the rooms were dirty and not good. The person at the reception told us that there was a hotel named Gouri Hotel a little distance away. As it was raining we took a cycle rickshaw and went to Gouri hotel. The rooms of the hotels were clean and good. I booked a room there. Rain had not allowed us to go out, so we stayed inside and watched TV. In the night we ate dinner at Mondira restaurant, our hotel's own restaurant. We had ordered fried rice but the food was not good and the price was high. It was still raining outside. There was just one shop which was still open. All other shops were closed. The time was 21:30 hrs.

The next day we woke up early in the morning. We all got ready and came out of the hotel. We took an auto to get to Tarapith. On reaching Tarapith we started walking towards the temple. There were many small shops on either side of the street. At Tarapith there are two main types of Darshans - Free Darshan and Paid Darshan. Paid darshan are of 3 types - Rs. 30/-, Rs. 100/- and Rs. 200/-. Free darshan takes about 3 hours to get Darshan. Rs. 30/- takes about 2 hrs, Rs. 100/- about 45 mins - 1 hour whereas Rs. 200/- is instant Darshan of Ma Tara. We went for Rs. 100 paid darshan. The line was quite large. Atlast after about 50 mins we got darshan of Ma Tara. After that we came out of the temple and had our breakfast at a small eatery. We took a trekker which was heading to Rampurhat station. Gouri hotel was on the way so we had no trouble getting to our hotel. That day we went searching for a good restaurant. We had lunch at Bama restaurant. But the food and the condition was also not hygienic there. Then we took a cycle rickshaw and went to the bus stand.

Visit to Mandarmani

Mandarmani is a newly discovered, unexplored and virgin sea beach. It is located 172 km away from Kolkata. It is a peaceful and calm beach where you will find not many visitors hanging around the beach. It is also one of the longest motorable sea beach in India. During low tides the water shifts far away from the beach and during high tides it comes very close. So one must be careful while driving on the beach. Recently many hotels and resorts have come up at Mandarmani making it a more attractive option for tourists.

Mandarmani Sea Beach

From Esplanade bus terminus, we boarded a bus and reached Chawalkhola. From there we hired a car which took us to Mandarmani. A metalled all weather road connects Chawalkhola and Dadanpatrabar, a small village en route Mandarmani. From here our car drove along the beach. It was a unique experience. On reaching Mandarmani, we booked a room at Hotel Neel Nirjaney. It was already quite late in the afternoon. Hence we didn't get much time to spend near the sea. Then we ate at our hotel's restaurant. Probably all hotels in Mandarmani have their own restaurant. The food was not up to the mark. After lunch we went to have a look at some small shops near the sea which sell toys, shell necklace, balls and other stuffs. We remained inside the hotel in the evening and watched TV.

My trip to New Digha

It was very hot during summer time in Kolkata. So we decided to go to Digha to get some relief from the extreme temperature of Kolkata and enjoy the sea breeze. I booked a ticket from the railway passenger reservation centre.

New Digha Sea Beach

On the day of journey we boarded the Tamralipta Express from Howrah Station which departed at 6:40 am. The journey by train was especially beautiful when it crossed Mecheda and branched off the main line. There were lush green fields everywhere while the train was passing through Tamluk. The train reached Digha Flag Station at around 10 o' clock. The station was situated in between Old Digha and New Digha. We reserved a van rickshaw to search for hotels. It could carry 6 people at a time. In Kolkata I have seen hand-pulled rickshaw and cycle rickshaw. Both are able to carry  2 persons. So it was interesting as this was my first time ride on van rickshaw. There were many hotels and we booked a room in a hotel which was located near the sea. After entering the room I felt glad as cool sea breeze was blowing into the room. We went for a sea bath. After spending an hour there we came back to our hotel. We changed clothes and went to the restaurant and had lunch. Although there were many restaurants, the quality of the food served was not good. A variety of fishes are available in the restaurants of Digha such as hilsa, rohu, pabda, prawn and many others. In the evening we had a look at the shops in Kshanika market selling various items like cashew nuts, ornaments, items made from sea shell etc. We went to the sea shore. There we had some snacks when it suddenly started raining. In the evening the sky was clear so I had not brought the umbrella. So, we had no choice but rush to the hotel. The rain poured for about 45 minutes

My visit to Shankarpur

Shankarpur is a sea beach situated about 15 km away from Digha in West Bengal. One can spend the time just by looking at the sand dunes, conifer forests, fishing villages, fishing port and the life of the fishermen.

Shankarpur Sea Beach

I boarded the Tamralipta Express from Howrah Station at 6:40 am which reached Digha Flag Station at around 10:30 am half an hour late from its scheduled arrival time. From there we booked a private car and continued our trip towards Shankarpur. After reaching Shankarpur, we saw that there were lots of hotels and stayed in Hotel Nest which was very close to the sea. The seabeach was dotted with casuarina groves. I learnt from the local fishermen that although the sea is safe and ideal for swimming, there are patches of quicksand in some desolate areas. So, it is better not to go further beyond the area marked for tourists. The beach was splendid and perfect for having sunbaths. We went to see the auction of fish held near the market. After all it was a great time. Time to come back home, we boarded the Kandari Express from Digha in the evening and reached Kolkata at night.