Well I am updating the blog after a long long time....Well I had a hell of a time this Christmas. We haven't gone out as a family for about 12 years after 1996 so kinda was desparate for an outing this time. Well one of our relatives was visiting Kalimpong with his Staff for a brief 3 days tour. So we jumped on the wagon and decided to go with them only adding Darjeeling to our schedule and adding one more day thus making it 4 days. Anyway we started off from Calcutta on 23rd Night via Darjeeling mail. Well you see something has to happen whenever we go out. Bad luck as usual and that was the day when the track in that route cracked. It came out in the papers that there was a crack in the Rail Tracks and we narrowly escaped a major accident....Anyway time was short and lotta things to see. So I'm gonna take you through my experiences of the trip...Well we reached NJP Station at about 10:30 AM train late for 2.5 hours. We started for Kalimpong on a small bus packed with 26 people from 6 families all our relatives and their staff. We waited with baited breadth to see the wonderful mountains and the fantastic flaura and fauna. Anyway keeping the Teesta on the right side of the mountain we made our way to Kalimpong. Gotta a few pics which might describe the beauty of the Teesta. Anyway one particular place was interesting where one diversion in the road went towards Kalimpong and
another went to Gangtok. Well you can understand how strategically important that road was. Anyway from therein we were constantly ascending towards greater heights. Stopped a few places finally we reached our destination. The Sad part was we were very very late and I had no lunch and it was all messed up. Reaching Kalimpong and settling down in the Hotel all took upto 5 in the evening. In the mountains you can't see anything then. So we basically wasted that day and cooled of our heels sitting in the Hotel watching the same idiot box. We were excited about the trip next day to Lava and Lolegaon and since it was short trip we had to cover both in one day.
LAVA & LOLEGAON: We got up early had a little breakfast me, dad and one of our relatives and rest of them were sleeping. Contrary to what I thought Mountain people sleep quite late and nobody wakes up before 7:30 in the Morning. Bed Tea was supposed to arrive at 7 but like the Indian Railways arrived one Hour late....Ok we started off for Lava first since it was more interesting according to everybody and indeed it was. The Lava trip was about 2 hours and we reached there by around 11:45. At 7034ft it was amazing. Quite cold and a little lonely place but it was just worth every penny to visit that place. Took a few good photos of the Valley on the other side. Could see the Kanchenjhunga but was not very clear from there. Here are the few Photos.
The weather and the sky was so clear and it is really a treat to go these places. One can't deny that these are places which can be really God's own country if there is ever a God. But one thing which I observed was that people there are very clean and do everything to clear up any mess. They try to keep the things as attractive as possible even a Tea Stall by the side of the Road is as clean as possible. This photo was taken from the Roof Top of the Buddhist Monastery and was colour reproduction has been amazing. Took a few panoramic photos but this turned out to be one of the best. Anyway also visited the Monastery and it really has an amazing soothing effect the moment you enter the Hall. I will that is the place to calm the mind. Due to Lack of time we could not explore the monastery
much but I was mighty impressed by the subtlety of art in the monastery. Anyway there were so many people I had to wait about 15 min to get this shot. There were people coming in my way. The Desks on the sides of this halls where the Buddhist monks read their Holy books and chant prayers.(By the way Photography was prohibited here :D ). Anyway came down from there and got a glimse of the Lava Township from the Monastery. Here it is. This image looks
another went to Gangtok. Well you can understand how strategically important that road was. Anyway from therein we were constantly ascending towards greater heights. Stopped a few places finally we reached our destination. The Sad part was we were very very late and I had no lunch and it was all messed up. Reaching Kalimpong and settling down in the Hotel all took upto 5 in the evening. In the mountains you can't see anything then. So we basically wasted that day and cooled of our heels sitting in the Hotel watching the same idiot box. We were excited about the trip next day to Lava and Lolegaon and since it was short trip we had to cover both in one day.
LAVA & LOLEGAON: We got up early had a little breakfast me, dad and one of our relatives and rest of them were sleeping. Contrary to what I thought Mountain people sleep quite late and nobody wakes up before 7:30 in the Morning. Bed Tea was supposed to arrive at 7 but like the Indian Railways arrived one Hour late....Ok we started off for Lava first since it was more interesting according to everybody and indeed it was. The Lava trip was about 2 hours and we reached there by around 11:45. At 7034ft it was amazing. Quite cold and a little lonely place but it was just worth every penny to visit that place. Took a few good photos of the Valley on the other side. Could see the Kanchenjhunga but was not very clear from there. Here are the few Photos.
The weather and the sky was so clear and it is really a treat to go these places. One can't deny that these are places which can be really God's own country if there is ever a God. But one thing which I observed was that people there are very clean and do everything to clear up any mess. They try to keep the things as attractive as possible even a Tea Stall by the side of the Road is as clean as possible. This photo was taken from the Roof Top of the Buddhist Monastery and was colour reproduction has been amazing. Took a few panoramic photos but this turned out to be one of the best. Anyway also visited the Monastery and it really has an amazing soothing effect the moment you enter the Hall. I will that is the place to calm the mind. Due to Lack of time we could not explore the monastery
much but I was mighty impressed by the subtlety of art in the monastery. Anyway there were so many people I had to wait about 15 min to get this shot. There were people coming in my way. The Desks on the sides of this halls where the Buddhist monks read their Holy books and chant prayers.(By the way Photography was prohibited here :D ). Anyway came down from there and got a glimse of the Lava Township from the Monastery. Here it is. This image looks 
so common yet so captivating that one would love to go and spend the whole life there only. Anyway there is one image which looks like a picture perfect postcard type one. Here it is.....
And please don't ask me what's so great about this one. I don't know but it seems in this shot that the animals are eating in Synchronization. The colour and the contrast is perfect. I like this photo pretty much. Anyway that was the end of Lava Trip basically. People stay in Lava for about 2 days and all we had was abot 2 hour trip to experience such a wonderful place like this. But no matter I made the most of what I got. Well Lolegaon was wonderful, unfortunately we could stay there for about 20 min hardly courtesy to our bus driver who came 30 min later than his stipulated time. Anyway we went to the reserve forrest and saw the Forrest bungalow there. Locals told it was great place to stay and see the sunrise and sunset but unfortunately we could see none properly. Anyway came back after that tiring trip and next day planned to go to Darjeeling.
DARJEELING: I had always planned to visit Darjeeling yet failed to do so on a couple of occations. This time I made it sure. We set off from Kalimpong 8:00AM and was supposed to reach there by 11:00. Made a stopover to Batashia loop and was very lucky to have a wonderful weather and could see Kachenjhungha peaks clearly. Luck was also in favour the Heritage TOY TRAIN came that moment only and I took a video footage of this legendary train.
