My travels: Day 23, 24 (May-4 and 5) : Kurseong and Darjeeling

We left Shantiniketan early in the morning. A very interesting thing I observed, whenever we needed to find the road, someone or the other needed the lift to that very place! We came out of Shantiniketan, using the guidance of the old man, whom we had given lift. The journey as quiet pleasant at first. As we reached the chicken neck part, the road became narrow and congested. We reached Siliguri around 5:00 PM and continued on to Darjeeling.

Within 10 Km of climbing the foothills, it started to rain. My god! How it rained! The sky got lit up by lightening every now and then. The bolts of electric discharge were bigger than ever! We could hardly see anything on the road. Then, we entered a bridge and got in to a Jam. We were on it for 20 minutes or so. Then, we got to know that a huge tree had collapsed. A guy completely wet and cold in the rain asked us for a lift. He looked, pretty weird with some shady text written on his shirt. We reluctantly took him in. He could hardly talk. I was sitting back with him. I soon realized that the guy probably didn't understand a thing what was written on his shirt and we were judging him by that L He had become very cold, due to which, he couldn't speak properly. He guided us to Kursiong by an alternate path. The ride to Kursiong in driving rain was a bit scary. We lived in a WBTDC hotel there. The food was good and especially the momos. The service was quite good too. The best thing is that we seemed to be the only people there

We left Kursiong early the next day. The road to Darjeeling was okay. We did however end up in a long traffic jam. At a point, we entered a narrow gully and a huge jeep entered from the front. As the cleaner, I had to get down and guide dad in reverse out of the gully.

At Darjeeling, the WBTDC hotel was okay. The location was good but half the things in the menu were not available. When went to shop in the afternoon. Well, if you ever go to Darjeeling, pray don't ever eat continental or Chinese food there!

We should have stuck to momos. We went to Nathmulls to taste Darjeeling tea. I tasted the best quality pearl tea. Mom thought that it tasted like hot water. Papa, also didn't like it much and stuck with his basil tea. Mom too enjoyed her Ruby tea. I however, loved my tea. Its splendid aroma finds way to your heart through the nostrils. You must not take gulps of this tea though. Let it stand on your tongue, Savour the flavor. Let it slip down your throat. The smell of the tea actually gives a smooth feeling, reminding me of pearls(real pearls mind it!!).

Tomorrow we will go on a toy train to Batasia loop and back. Well if you want to come to hill-station to just relax a bit and tell others about it, Darjeeling may seem a good place. However, if you are like me, you may not enjoy the crowd here much. It must have been a very nice place a few years back but not now L I like things, which focus mainly on the core (in this case, mountains). I am hardcore in that sense, I am ready to live on a very rundown place for a good view