25th Nov: Siliguri to Darjeeling

25th Nov: Siliguri to Darjeeling

Our ride to the Himalayas was to start again, from the foot hills, Siliguri, to the old queen of the hill, Darjeeling. We had a dilemma though, how could we miss the heritage toy train ride. So it was decided to put one Blaze in the back up vehicle with Sunny and Sunil going for the toy train ride, while Ashish me and preferred to burn some rubber to Darjeeling. Sunny and Sunil left at 9am and had to buy tickets in black while we took our own sweet time to pack up, spend some time with member Santanu, his fiancée and surf before leaving the hotel by 12 noon. This also meant I postponed my ride to Nepal, at a place called Pani-tanki, a 45minute ride from the hotel.

As soon as we left the hotel, within the first few kilometers we came across the narrow gauge train track running parallel to the road, which would be the case till Darjeeling at a distance of around 80 kilometers. This was my first time on this route and it wasn’t long before I started falling in love with the place, the traffic free roads, the overall feel of the place.

Started stopping for pictures and soaking myself in the beauty around. It wasn’t cold at all and I was happy I had left the jacket in the backup vehicle. The roads were most of the times quite nice and allowed me to kiss the stand with the tarmac quite a few times, which the Blaze is quite capable of actually.

We knew we would be catching up with the toy train and so we did within half an hour.

Sunny and Sunil had noticed me coming from behind and it was really enjoyable riding with the train at 10-15km/h, clicking pictures, holding hands, running behind the train and what not. I went ahead and waited for the train to catch up and took some pictures of the Blaze and the train together.

I was really enjoying the day a lot which was mainly due to the lack of traffic and terrific views all around and not to forget the toy train. Ashish and me stopped for snacks and I packed some for Sunny and Sunil and gave it to Sunil when the train passed by. Train delivery of snacks now made possible!

The chill factor started coming in as the evening came closer and the jacket wasn’t enough by the time we reached Darjeeling. I had read about the Darjeeling tourism hotel and headed and Ashish was already there and so I headed for that place, which was situated on the highest point in the city. It was however quite difficult for the back up to reach there as turning it around the tight curves in the city was quite a task.

After checking in (700 for a 4 bedded big room) Ashish and me decided to explore the city and saw Sunny and Sunil asking for directions from the cops to the hotel. Giving the keys to them, we went exploring the place around and also for dinner and I found a perfect little Pizza place run by a French guy, who cooked for the food for the guest. We packed a Pizza, hot sandwiches and some snacks, while Sunny and Sunil ate food in the hotel restaurant. It is really cold tonight and I hope this continues as we ride our way into Sikkim tomorrow. I have heard about a place called Pelling, a little town where trekkers spend the night before heading to Kanchanjunga. That should be our night tomorrow. Signing off from 7000 feet and around 7 degrees…