A Visit To The "Queen of The Hills (Darjeeling)"


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Gentlemen & friends,
Had been to Darjeeling two months ago. Like to share a short travelogue with you, along with few pictures. Hope you will like it.

Started from my home in north Calcutta at around half past three in the morning. Road was almost empty. Reached the outskirt of Bardhaman town soon. This picture was taken even before five in the morning.
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The road I took was through Bardhaman-Sriniketan More-Purandarpur-Siuri-Messanjore-Dumka-Bhagalpur-Purnia. Here is a picture of the road. still very much empty in the early morning.
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This is right after entering Jharkhand, The road continued to be good all the way in West Bengal and Jharkhand.
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My first break of about twenty minutes near Messanjore dam.
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My only car, an almost ten year old Tata Indigo (Petrol/MPFI-1,30,000+ KM). It still performed beautifully, specially when I took her up on the very steep uphill climb of Peshok Road, where it outperformed many of the SUVs on that road.
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The road continued be good in Jharkhand but deteriorated in BIhar. Not deep potholes but the top surface had been scrapped off, giving constant rattling jarks. Had to restrict speed and drive slowly. And wasted two hours in a traffic jam in Bhagalpur town.
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Bikramshila bridge on the river Ganga at Bhagalpur.
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Two more pictures before reaching Purnia. This is NH-31 and is in excellent shape.
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After Purnia it is a divided four lane highway.
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Sprinkler irrigation system at the roadside tea gardens.
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This is where the four lane ends before Siliguri.
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Afternoon near Siliguri.
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My hotel in Siliguri. Reached there at half past five. An reasonably large AC room was sufficient for me, myself and my fourteen year old daughter and costed me Rs 1400/- (tax included). This hotel even has a secured car parking. Stayed there for the night before going to a place called Lolegaon on the next day.
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Thanks for reading. I shall surely finish my travelogue soon.
Regards,
Rahul
 
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Re: A Visit To the "Queen of The Hills (Darjeeling)"

Rahulji, fantastic pictures [clap]

The roads look very good. How was the weather there?

Waiting for the continuation with lots of pictures
 
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Re: A Visit To the "Queen of The Hills (Darjeeling)"

Rahul-da comes back with another nice TL and his Indigo never ages.
 
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Re: A Visit To the "Queen of The Hills (Darjeeling)"

Great WriteUp Rahul ji It refreshed my Darjeling Sikkim trip. BTW did you went to the chinese market in Siliguri you get some good things at great prices
 
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Re: A Visit To the "Queen of The Hills (Darjeeling)"

Rahulji, fantastic pictures The roads look very good. How was the weather there?
Thanks. The weather was really good. We had bright sunny weather at Darjeeling although the temperature never possibly exceeded twenty five degrees.
Rahul-da comes back with another nice TL and his Indigo never ages.
I guess this is nothing but timely maintenance and timely change of engine oil (Mobil1, fully synthetic), gear oil (fully synthetic), etc.

Great WriteUp Rahul ji It refreshed my Darjeling Sikkim trip. BTW did you went to the chinese market in Siliguri you get some good things at great prices
Yes, on my way back. Perhaps I shall describe it later.

Now, to continue, the next day checked out from the hotel by eight O’clock in the morning. Our destination was Lolegaon, a sleepy village in Darjeeling district of West Bengal, which is renowned for its spectacular views of the Himalayas. The road goes via Kalimpong town, till where the roads were decent. Thereafter the remaining 24-25 KM stretch of the remaining road was in bad shape and it took me considerable time to negotiate. And there was another problem. I booked a room in a hotel named Resort Tree Fern. I contacted them over telephone earlier. The manager of the resort seemed to be a nice, elderly and helpful gentleman, who assured me just the previous night to contact him over telephone for any road direction. But when I contacted him after my arrival at Kalimpong, he did not pick up his phone. I kept on going towards Lolegaon, being directed by the locals.

Here are two pictures of the Siliguri-Gangtok Road.
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This is Sevok bazar area, where I stopped for breakfast.
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A view of Sevok Railway Bridge over Teesta River, as seen from the restaurant where I stopped for breakfast.
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The road was very scenic though. Here is a picture of me and my daughter.
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The board at right says Lolegaon.
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After some more time we reached our hotel. It was only then we came to know that there was an unexpected accident that very morning, when the owner of the hotel has come across a car accident. Apparently his car fell forty feet in a gorge. Fortunately his condition was not critical, though he was taken to a hospital in Siliguri. And everyone else in this hotel has accompanied him, including the manager. There were only two people remaining in the hotel, one being the cook and the other being a room service boy.

The rooms had a very scenic view. Here is a picture of my room in the hotel.
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Here is a picture of my daughter standing on the balcony.
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A view of the reception cum dining area of the hotel.
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However, partly due to shortage of staff and also due to heavy shower in the afternoon we could not enjoy our stay at Lolegaon very much. We ultimately decided that the very next morning we should proceed to Darjeeling.

Thanks for reading. I shall describe the remaining portion of my travelogue very soon.
Regards,
Rahul
 
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Re: A Visit To the "Queen of The Hills (Darjeeling)"

North Bengal roads are always amazing. Rahul-da time for you to make a trip down south. You will enjoy the places and roads here.
 
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Re: A Visit To the "Queen of The Hills (Darjeeling)"

Rahul Da very well written,do u feel any problem when climbing up with your Indigo?Is it possible to take my swift with 4 adult and 2 year old kid and boot full luggage to derjeeling?

@Anshuman:-Going south is now a days headache specially in KA..because of RTO rule[frustration]
 
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Re: A Visit To the "Queen of The Hills (Darjeeling)"

@Anshuman:-Going south is now a days headache specially in KA..because of RTO rule[frustration]
RTOs know very well who to catch. And any way 30 days is free travel. I hope even Rahul-da comes it will be lesser than that.
 
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Re: A Visit To the "Queen of The Hills (Darjeeling)"

RTOs know very well who to catch. And any way 30 days is free travel. I hope even Rahul-da comes it will be lesser than that.
Even then its a harassment.

And innocents are always a soft target to them; I feel if they continue like this, the tourism department is going to affect very adversely.
 
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Re: A Visit To the "Queen of The Hills (Darjeeling)"

Mr Rahul nice TL. Please tell us something about your journey from Lolay Gaon to Darjeeling, the road condition and the hotel. If possible pls post some pictures of the route. Is it possible to drive your car upto the hotel or there is a separate parking arrangement.

Do you feel cars with low ground clearance like Alto K10 will be able to manage the road condition and the steepness with four persons.

Thanks
 
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Re: A Visit To the "Queen of The Hills (Darjeeling)"

Great Travel Log with stunning picture,

Great Capture about Bikramshila bridge at Bhagalpur.
 
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Re: A Visit To the "Queen of The Hills (Darjeeling)"

Rahul Da, do u feel any problem when climbing up with your Indigo? Is it possible to take my swift with 4 adult and 2 year old kid and boot full luggage to derjeeling?
Do you feel cars with low ground clearance like Alto K10 will be able to manage the road condition and the steepness with four persons.
You must be knowing that there are several roads (at least six) leading towards Darjeeling. Among them Mirik Road, Hill Cart Road and Rohini Road may be easily negotiated by your car, though I guess loading it with optimum number of passengers will surely make it somewhat sluggish on the uphill climb.
Really nice one.Waiting for the rest of the trip[:)]
Thank you very much.
Mr Rahul nice TL. Please tell us something about your journey from Lolay Gaon to Darjeeling, the road condition and the hotel. If possible pls post some pictures of the route.
I am going to write this right now. Please have a look.
Is it possible to drive your car up to the hotel or there is a separate parking arrangement.
Please excuse me for saying that most of the ordinary hotels (am not talking about the luxury ones) in Darjeeling do not have provisions for car parking. Please check with them before bookin. I stayed at Hotel New Vaishali and found that there was just enough space for a single car to be parked.
Now to continue with my story, waking up from the bed I could see clear sky and beautiful views from my room.
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Did not wait at Loleygaon for long. Left early by half past seven. As usual, the road up to Kalimpong was bad. In spite of my best efforts, scrapped the bottom of my car at least twice. Had our breakfast at this hotel. Nothing fancy but they served good momos.
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This is almost the beginning of Peshok Road, which I took to reach Darjeeling. I have taken this road even before, so was familiar with it. The bridge seen in this picture is NH-31A, going to Gangtok.
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And the climb begins.
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The view point known as "Lovers Meet".
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The confluence of two rivers. The muddy one is river Rangeet while the other is Teesta river.
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Allow me to show one picture of me and my daughter standing there.
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Some more pictures of the beautiful Peshok Road.
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This is Hill Cart Road, after reaching Jorebungla. The narrow gauge line is also visible here.
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This is Ghoom station building. The road on the left goes towards Mirik and Sandakphu. The barely visible road on the right goes to Darjeeling.
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Just before entering Darjeeling town.
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Reached my hotel in Darjeeling by eleven O'clock. Had a bath and finished our lunch. In the afternoon visited the famous Mall area of Darjeeling on foot (cars are not allowed up there)
Thanks for reading. Any query or question is most welcome.
 
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Re: A Visit To the "Queen of The Hills (Darjeeling)"

Wonderful Rahulda.Waiting for your experience in Darjeeling
Thanks a lot for liking my postings. I shall definitely update rest of my experiences at the earliest. But as I have been to Darjeeling several times, I only stayed there for three days.
 

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