ENCHANTING DARJEELING & GANGTOK.................................

Bhubaneswar is a hot and humid place in summer time and we always look for opportunity to escape to a much cooler place for retreat and after much research over Internet and lovely review I read on Trip Advisor,  Darjeeling and Gangtok were chosen as the preferred destination ...... The companion on this journey was me and my son Adi and my best friend Jayanti........

Day 1( 07.05.2012):

                  The excitement of vacation was definitely high and our train to NJP was at 7.30am in the morning and as usual the train got delayed and we could leave Bhubaneswar only by 8.30am and reached NJP at 7.30 am next day in place of 3.30am. Since we had already booked the Hotel in advance and our vehicle was waiting at the NJP station and the NJP station has a decent upper Class waiting Hall, where we had our refreshment and  move to our first destination which is Mirik in West Bengal.

                      It is one of the Hill Station at an altitude of 1767 meters above the sea level. Mirik is only 52 Km from NJP with a relatively thin population of 15,000 people. Mirik is surrounded by some of the best tea estates of the world and Lake Somendu which  is about 1.25 km. long and a 3.5 km road surrounds the lake is the main attraction of Mirik. Walking around the lake and a horse riding around this lake is definitely a stress buster. Once we reach Mirik, we had our breakfast at Jagjeet’s Restaurant where the chicken sandwich was awesome…We stroll there for one hour enjoying the lake , had amazing fruit salad and maggie to feel the local feel. The weather was awesome and the feel of the place was slowly catching us...Our next stop is at Pashupati Nagar market in the India Nepal border and my sincere  suggestion is not to buy and electonic and FMCG items though they appear very cheap.We spent some time over there and derided to  move to Darjeeling.

Lake Somendu, Mirik

 We started our 

Teas Gardens , Mirik

  

On our way to Pashupati Nagar, Nepal Border

Pashupati Nagar Market


Foggy day at 11Am, Tiger Hills

Me and my Son

Misty Woods

Darjeeling town

On the way to Darjeeling

By the time we reach Darjeeling , it was evening and our Hotel Shangri-la which is owned by Ranjan Lama and since the hotel is in Mall Road , one has to climb the road to reach the hotel. Though it looks small from outside , the warmth of the owner and hospitality will force you to come to this place again and again..Since it was raining , the temperature had suddenly dropped down and since we were very tired by the travel , we sunk on to the warm bed and enjoyed our welcome tea and snacks provided by the hotel and decided to go to mall road which is just below the hotel for a stroll. We had tea, mouth watering  momos and some shopping on the mall road and decided to come back to our room to take dinner and rest.

                           
                                                                                Breakfast at Hotel Shangri-la

Chowrasta, Darjeeling

Day 2( 08.05.2013):
Next morning we decided to take a stroll around the place and enjoyed the early morning at Chowrasta. After having tea and talking to some locals we came back to get ready for our local sightseeing for which we had booked a vechicle for the day and I must say Gorkha people are very polite and helpful and we never felt lonely as our driver was very informative about all the places. But due to heavy traffic and rain we were not able to view some places which I might come back some time to see also. Our first stop is at Batasia Loop from where one gets a grand view of the town of Darjeeling and   Mt. Kanchenjunga  in the background. The War Memorial constructed in the memory of brave soldiers who died in different actions since 1947, is worth a visit.

Batasia Loop

                           
Our next visit was to Japaneese Temple where we took part in the prayer and lost in it's tranquility. From there we went to Tiger Hills as we had missed the chance to witness the Sunrise due to heavy rain and managed to reach there at 11AM and it was still cloudy and windy.

Peace Pagoda

From there we went to Ghoom Monastry and spend some time there and bought some Souveniers and proceed to visit the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute and Zoo where one can find the Red Panda...

Ghoom Monastry

HMI

                              

Red Panda

After a tiring day we returned back tot he comfort of our hotel after having the best Thukpa at Kunga Restaurant. A must try place for Tibetan delicacies.