Re: A Visit To the "Queen of The Hills (Darjeeling)"
Rahul Da dis you take TAlit-Ghuskura-Suiri-Massonjore-Dumka route?How is the road condition?
Worse. I took an even longer route, via Bardhaman-Guskara-Sriniketan More-Purandarpur-Siuri-Messanjore-Dumka-Deoghar-Katoria-Bhagalpur-Purnia route. The road condition was almost totally good, except between Katoria and Banka. But they were manageable and this stretch is only less than 40 KMs.
Anyway, after a good night of rest we started from Siliguri. The road is very beautidul, as always, going through Mahananda river forest areas.
The Sevok railway bridge, which carries the total railway traffic to all the northeastern states. Sorry for the poor picture.
Initially our direction was towards Lava (West Bengal) via Kalimpong. But with sudden impulse we changed our direction and decided to visit Pelling (Sikkim). Little did we know about the road condition ahead. From Melli border check-post the total road ahead was broken, unpaved, dusty and with loose gravel.
And bad roads meant BAD roads. I learned from several sources that there was some irregularity detected with the Sikkimese road construction department and consequently the central government has stopped all road development funding, pending proper audit. No idea how much of it is true.
Here I am looking at the tyres anxiously. Fortunately my Michelin XM2 tyres were only two months old and they performed flawlessly.
The tunnel before Legship town.
The last few KMs after Geysing was decent.
Reached Hotel Greenland in Upper Pelling. I shall advice all members of this forum not to stay there. Dirty linen, poor lights, squeaking doors made staying unpleasant.
But the view from the private balcony was good. sorry it was night with no views.
Here is a picture of my wife and daughter sitting at the restaurant opposite to our place of stay. I did not go there and got this picture from the first floor common area, across the road.
Thanks for reading this. I shall continue soon.
Regards,
Rahul