The last night in Puri was also the last night for one of our Dragoman leaders as he was leaving to head a new tour in Africa. This was an opportunity to go out for a nice meal and say our goodbyes. The meal was excellent but sadly the same could not be said for the wine. However after a few glasses, the taste buds had become accustomed to it, just…
Yet another early start to catch the train to Calcutta. It was quite a relief to leave this hotel, but not Puri, and head to the station, even at 05:00 hrs. It was seating only which was OK but like most train journeys in England there were several noisy, annoying local passengers with loud mobile phones and screaming kids, etc. Still, I was able to sit back, relax and watch the scenery go by for about 8 hours. There are worse ways to spend a day, especially when I think about my friends back home working…
Calcutta station was a welcome site. I was anticipating chaos, noise, overcrowding and and people jostling for position but it was really civilised, with people quiet, queued up in straight lines, luggage set out all in a line with several employees guarding it – not at all what I expected. Outside the station however, a completely different story. We lugged our bags to the pre-paid taxi park and must have been accosted no less than 20 times by various taxi drivers offering their services but nice to see the old Hindustan Ambassadors. It was about a 30 minutes drive through heavy Calcutta traffic around some parks, and through underpasses before we arrived at the hotel.
We had a few days in Calcutta which was enough time to try and find the black hole – really difficult and it is split in to two or three different places, including in a working post office! There was also Mother Theresa’s home but I didn’t visit that. Instead I did a walking tour around some of the city which was great and it took me to places I don’t think I would have ordinarily visited if I were on my own, where some of the locals were washing themselves in the streets.
Once again one of our original tour guides was leaving the trip here and was heading over to New Zealand. So we had another great leaving meal as a group in ‘Oh Calcutta’ restaurant. I am not sure if that’s a chain but I really enjoyed it.
The next day I explored a few of the local parks that were not too far from the hotel and ended up back near Oh Calcutta. Feeling peckish I tried a restaurant next door and whilst it was quite disappointing they were doing 2 for 1 on drinks. Later on in the afternoon, met up with a few of the others and as there was 2 for 1 on drinks it seemed like a good idea to spend the afternoon there 🙂 Later at night, we found a jail themed restaurant where all the serving staff were in prison uniforms and our table was in a cell. It was quite interesting and fun.
Taxis dropped us off at Calcutta station around 21:00 hrs as we were to board the 22:05 hrs night train to Siliguri, arriving around 09:00 hrs the next morning. The bunks were in three tiers not just two, but there just enough space, even with all our luggage to lay down. I had the top bunk again and although there wasn’t sufficient space to sit up, it was more than comfortable enough. I actually had a pretty decent night’s sleep as the train slowly trundled its way, rocking us to sleep. I was woken up early-ish as some sellers board the train to sell tea, coffee and breakfast. The coffee was pretty good, but quite bizarre given that we were about to enter tea territory.
There were several jeeps waiting for us at the station to transfer us up to the mountain town of Darjeeling, famed for its tea. The roads were narrow and winding, not dissimilar to the ‘death road’ in Bolivia, often single track on the edge of a mountain with blind hairpin bends which the drivers seemed to take with casual abandon and a blast of the horn. We stopped for tea along the way which had nice views over the valley and a waterfall in the distance.
Continuing up the mountain, the temperature was dropping quite fast and it felt very different to the heat of Calcutta. I was still wearing shorts and T-shirt, but could see some of the locals in hats and down jackets, so it must be cold. This is the first time since leaving England that I have experienced single figure temperatures so it was a little culture shock when I got out of the jeep. Darjeeling seems to be a collection of villages huddled along hairpin roads on the mountainside rather than one large town. As we drove up the road, the views through the valley were obscured by thick heavy mist but periodically, there would be a little clearing and you realised how high up we are. The road also zigzags across a narrow gauge railway too. This belongs to the famous steam Toy Train that runs approx 79 km from New Jalpaiguri and rises over 6,400ft to Darjeeling at 6,812ft and this is one of the must do activities in Darjeeling.
The next day, following breakfast in the hotel was about to venture out, but still wearing shorts and t shirt, I saw a local man done up with down coat, hat, gloves etc. go outside, shiver and mutter a few words in Nepalese or Tibetan and come back in, so it must have been really cold. At that point, even after a warming bowl of porridge I thought it best to go and get changed…
Darjeeling itself wasn’t as picturesque as I was anticipating but I found a little tea shop, Glenary’s, that reminded me of the one by the old clock tower in St Albans.
They served great tea, coffee, cakes and snacks and they even had a red telephone box inside too. It was a nice town with plenty of things to do and a pedestrianised area that helped. Visited the Happy Valley Tea Plantation which is the highest tea plantation in the world and the tour was only 100 Nepalese rupees and lasted about 30mins. The tour only went around the factory, rather than out amongst the tea plants themselves but still quite interesting.
Later visited the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute located in the zoo. Very interesting to see some of the old mountaineering equipment used on previous expeditions including Sir Edmund Hillary’s and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay’s tools and clothes, etc. Outside the from of the institute is a memorial statue of Tenzing Norgay and his grave too.
We later had afternoon tea which included sandwiches, scones, biscuits and cakes at the Windermere Hotel which maintains the tradition from the old colonial days. The good news is there was a roaring open fire in the room which kept it all cosy and warm. There were a couple of pianos too but we weren’t allowed to play them. It was getting dark by about 17:00 so not much of a view from the top of the look out. Even if it was daylight, the hill was completely surrounded by mist anyway.
Eventually managed to get a ticket for the Toy Train and only rode it for a couple of hours, to Ghoom and back. I was really looking forward to this and it was good fun. However the train seemed to constantly blow its whistle all the way warning any road users and pedestrians that it was coming – as if a big blue stream train in the road wasn’t a big enough giveaway…
