Maiden Tour in Sikkim and Darjeeling

Maiden Tour in Sikkim and Darjeeling

Tarek Aziz

Sightseeing is the commonly recognized medium to get refreshed to all. When we get confined to our regular monotonous life for a long period and it circulates, again and again, we became bored up and look forward to going to nature for healing our wounds of mind. Mountains are one of the best options for giving a tour for mental freshness because it is the most mysterious creation of nature where adventures ambush in every layer of it. The uncompromising guys always love to accept the challenges and decode of these mysterious mountains and it is the best way of healing mental wounds.

Munna, Aqib, and I, the young trio, are the student of chemistry department of Jahangirnagar University. Life was seeming meaningless to us due to going on the third year final exam pressure. We were looking forward to having the preplanned tour after being over the monotonous exam. The most awaited day comes lastly in last month. After being over the exam, we hold a couple of hours long meeting and decide to travel in India, Darjeeling district of West Bengal and Sikkim, with sketching a complete roadmap of the tour includes the needed kits, visas, the total expenditure, routs, and visiting sights.

It was all about a penniless tour for us because all expenditure on the tour was managed by home tutoring. It was not only the common fact that we belong but also have a common mentality that is why we can complete a successful tour.

Starting with a big mistake

We reached Savar bus stoppage about half an hour earlier on the beginning day of the tour. In the meantime, I collect some copies of photographs for further needed in our tour days. It was peeped on my mind that I did not take my endorsed dollars while only fifteen minutes left for leaving the bus, however, I went to the dormitory giving the bag packs to my fellows and take the dollars and could catch the bus from the main entrance of the university campus. Traveling the whole night we reach at the very morning at Banglabandha border.  

Immigration Experience

It was the maiden overseas tour for all of us. We were a little bit tensed lest we fall into any hassle. Except for any extra payment, we could manage to cross the Bangladesh border but Indian immigration department takes extra charge per person, we have paid legal travel tax though.     

Money Exchange

Completing immigration we exchange some money from the agency at nearby the Phulbari border and rest of the money we exchange from the Shiliguri Bazar for getting better rate against dollar.

Passport is missing

We were kidding to one another getting into a Shiliguri Bazar bound local bus. Meanwhile, I was giving a reminder to my friends recalling the mistake that I did at the beginning of the travel. Suddenly, Munna said, ‘My passport is missing’. The situation gets changed within a moment. We all get tensed and quickly we get down from the bus and started to search out the passport and lastly, we found it at the money exchange office. The last thirty minutes prior to getting back the passport we pass the tough time which cannot be expressed in words.

United fund

We make a united fund where we contribute equally after getting back the passport. As Munna knows good Hindi among us, for better communication and other advantages, we make him the team leader of the tour and handed over the united fund to him so that he can easily meet every expenditure from there.

Shiliguri to Darjeeling

Having lunch we travel by a zip, per person 250 rupees, bound to Darjeeling form the Darjeeling more of Shiliguri. Teak trees welcome us warmly at Shiliguri.  The long-cherished dreams come true while the zip started to pass through the roads of the mountain layers. Every second of our journey was becoming more interesting. Our zip partners were, one Chinese, two Nepali, one Panjabi, who were expressing joy seeing the amazing friendship of the clouds with nature as their own language and style respectively.

Photo: On the way to Darjeeling.

Bad Experience in Darjeeling

About five hours long driving through the sea of the clouds, we reached at Darjeeling at evening while our excitement was overloaded. The excitement was shuttered when we went to search out the hotel for accommodation but none was agreed to give us a room because of being Bangladeshi. It was a point of disappointed. However, we could manage a room nearby the Darjeeling bus stoppage but the hotel fare kept twice from us than that of Indian.

Street food taste

Getting fresh from the hotel we go to observe the night view of the Darjeeling town. The colorful lights were peeping through the windows and the decoration of the different layers of the lights, as the mountains are, makes the Darjeeling real queen of the Himalayas. Exploring mall roads and Darjeeling bazar we taste different types of tasty street foods. We came back to hotel hiring a taxi for sightseeing of Darjeeling for the following day.

Photo: The night view of Darjeeling city from the hotel.

Photo: Night view of Darjeeling Bazar

Sightseeing

There are a good number of visiting sights in Darjeeling. We took a package of ten renowned sights that are Tiger Hill, Batasia Loop, Ghum Monastery, Ghum Station, Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, Darjeeling ropeway, Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park, Bengal Natural History Museum, and Tenzin Rock. Each and individual demands a distinct explanation. We went to visit tiger hill first where the peak of Kanchanjanga is seen golden while the sun rises. Unfortunately due to having bad weather we miss the stunning view of Kanchanjanga. Then we gradually visit all the places over the day. Batasia Loop is a place from where the peak of kanchanjanga is seen.

Photo: Batasia Loop from the peak of Kanchanjanga is observed.

Ghoom Station is the highest Indian railway station at an altitude of 7,300 feet. The 2 Kilometer ropeway is an outstanding sight. Using cable care at an altitude of 7,000 feet the total views Darjeeling can be observed and it takes about one and half an hour. Himalayan Mountaineering Institute teaches its students how to climb the mountains. Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park is the award-winning zoo where a good number of amazing Himalayan endangered species collection that rarely seen anywhere else in the world. Bengal Natural History Museum is the most attractive place and it is known as the fauna of Bengal. It was the most overwhelming place among the places ever we visited in Darjeeling. There is the numerous number of dead body collection of different species which are exhibited according to the category in a two-story building. There are over 800 specimens of birds belonging to more than 400 indigenous species and two are foreign. There are also 110 species egg, 76 species of snakes, 100 species of fishes, 608 different species of butterflies and moths, 1104 species of the insect collection.

Darjeeling to Gangtok

Sikkim is the state of India where nature, culture, and adventure concords. We leave for Sikkim in next morning by a reserve zip where four Indian have accompanied us. We were so much excited because we were bound to the country of ice leaving the sea of clouds and it was the most awaited thing in our whole tour plan. It needed to take permission as a foreigner to cross Sikkim border at Rangpo. We could manage the permission without any hassle and after a long drive, we reached at Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim, at the mid-day.

Photo: The night view of MG Marg, Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim

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Accommodation and travel package

We take a hotel with food lodging, per person 750 rupees per day, near the M.G Marg mall road. Getting fresh and having the lunch we went to a travel agency for taking a tour package since none is allowed to visit any place in Sikkim except for the help of travel agency. The rules and regulations are strict for the foreigners and not allowed to visit all places as Indian does. They are not allowed even to travel with any Indian sharing the same vehicle. Besides, the northern part of Sikkim was closed due to having a landslide the prior day we reached there. Considering all the obstacle we were compelled to take a tour package to go to Tsomgo Lake.

Photo: On the way to Tsomgo Lake

Trip to Tsomgo Lake

Photo: Tsomgo Lake

Tsomgo Lake is one of the beautiful sights of Sikkim. The heart-shaped lake is situated at an altitude of 12,500 feet nearby the Chinese border. The combination of ice, water, stones, flowers, and nature gives a stunning view of this lake. Ice is the main attraction of this sight. The temperature was only 2 degree Celsius when we visit the lake. In the trembling cool from the cable car, the bird’s eye lake view was really mesmerizing. We went to the summit of a mountain adjacent to the lake by cable car and the altitude was 14,500 feet from the sea level which is the highest altitude we travel ever.  

 

Photo: At the summit of a mountain adjacent to the Tsomgo Lake.

Coming back

Since it was all about the penniless tour. All expenditure was met by our individual little income. Covering the whole tour we tried to save money that is why we had to choose below average category hotel, sometimes, we share our zip to others so that we can save some money. There were numerous obstacles in this tour but we successfully handle everything but we made fun unlimited in the whole tour. The mind-blowing sights of the beauty queen of Himalayas, Darjeeling, and the organic city, Sikkim, are still vivid on minds. ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ is the only word peeping on my minds to describe the whole tour experience in a single word.

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The writer is a student of Chemistry department, Jahangirnagar University. He can be reached at tarekju45@gmail.com