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North Bengal Tour 2021
Monday. 18th of October 8:30 a.m. Venue: New Jalpaiguri station
Butterflies! The most awaited trip so far in my counts! We started from yesterday night and reached today. The train journey was no doubt exciting. Now we’re to get our seat belts (well not really) in our cars and head to Ahaldhara. Did you hear the name before? Well I’ll tell you what. The management of fatty bags and all of those luggage was followed by the very sharp drive on the beautiful mountains. It’s going to take nearly 4 hours to reach Ahaldhara maybe. In the meantime let me give you the backgrounds.
This is a very first north bengal tour. Well, when I highlight ‘ our ‘ it’s barely of six people as the other seven had explored mountains before. Now when I say this, you must count the thirteen people, okay? It included the leads (my aunt, uncle and cousin brother), the others who’ve seen (my parents, uncle and new aunt), the new fans (cousin sister, her parents, my grandparents and the grand ME). Six months of planning has brought the shiniest moon today!
We first landed on a random place just for a bit of photoshoot with river Tista and beautiful hills all around. It was all in excitement, you know? When we first viewed such big and pretty creatures wrapped with lovely pearls of water, amazed at highest level were we. Now it seems very normal though. The other scenes seduced even better. In all, we halted at two places in the journey. Random ones!
On way to Ahaldhara, haze was foggy. Wait, mind not my rubbish words. It’s because I didn’t realise at the beginning that we were inside the clouds. Oh, “be cloudy, look cloudy, feel cloudy.” Well this was the caption to my whatsapp status with a graceful picture, I guess. As if angels gazing from cloudy sheets, we, beauty queens and ‘ kings ‘ entered the super beautiful tea garden that headed our homestay at Ahaldhara. Haha!
The road was certainly scary but let’s be grateful with our very hearts to the sharp drivers. The view was unremarkable and the feeling was so new! Off-beat, amazing and peaceful and beautiful and what couldn’t have been the virtue of the homestay! We had our lunch at nearly 5 and went to see the side scenes, just walking or ‘ strolling ‘. It was beautiful, certainly was it.
The coolie weather struck our hearts mainly when the naked beauty got its jewellery at early nights.
"~City lights at far hills~"
Why call it early nights? Well, it’s because after barely an hour or two, it started with lightning and then heavy rain as it went denser. We decided we’d stay idle for the night ( not idle though), and explore other side scenes on the next day. I personally couldn’t believe how lovely the people there were. So good, so nice, so caring and so cute. But the blessed glitch was that the heavy rain kept on showering with increasing pace and zero tiredness. The tents were safe and we were safer but the expectation for the next day went in vain.
Who could even look outside? There were only scary and fast crystals of water from the heaven that were heavy. This made us altogether for the day and they talked, interacted but the rain wasn’t in the mood for any sort of halt.
But the fire talks of comedy, loss and lessons of our joint family made us all laugh and wash away with an ointment to bad luck. So strange, the rain acted as heavy as ever tonight as well. Whatsoever, we were still lucky to be the rare tourists to meet the cyclone in mountains! It took on scary, yet thrilling. But the best thing was at the denser nights. Oh it made the thing so adventurous that fear gave birth to burning and forming excitement in our hearts.
P.S: To tell the tale of the adventurous 19 October night, I miss Ahaldhara the most!
The architecture of the rooms weren’t very good literally. The heavy rain took its form into thunderstorms as the night went denser and water droplets made sharp holes through the roof to the straight beds. It was almost all wet in the house and this thrill brought a sleep, better and relaxing. But that wasn’t all. Suddenly we were waken up and called for a meeting. The leads started with their first curse,” It isn’t very safe.”
Why? That has certain reasons. Firstly for the wild rain droplets wetting all the bed up. But most importantly, we were in an area all surrounded by mountains, at the top of some very high hills. In addition, if the rain went heavy, landslides may wash the entire thing away. Thus it was advisable to stay awake and run out when needed. The place was also marked ‘ RED ALERT ‘ and besides, our hosts warned us as landslides are truly dangerous.
Well, it was adventurous, thrilling and something I loved. Good God, the night was difficult but the safest it could’ve been. Yes, we ARE alive, certainly, okay?
According to early plans, we were to leave for Lepchajagat but the weather reports made us head to Darjeeling straightaway. For such stormy times, it was hard to do journeys but as we were ready to leave, the sun kissed doors made by clouds and the weather had a tender grace while the rain vanished away.
It was October 20 and our cars headed to Darjeeling. Unknowingly, our leave from Ahaldhara wasn’t very cheerful and we couldn’t like department from such a beauty. The place sucked all love in stock to exhale it in our goodbye cars. Still the hope for Darjeeling lasted. This day was full of excitement and it was all wonderfully beautiful and much more than ‘ beautiful. ‘
The scenes couldn’t be captured in cameras.
Hope you can get a bare glimpse of what or how things kept going, haha!
The journey was long yet filled with fun and beauty. We began at the morning and reached Darjeeling by evening. The group of thirteen tired models were taken to the rooms. All the rooms were nice and pretty. Well not to be proud but our room was the prettiest! The evening was spent in the lovely Mall market.
We weren’t for a very long time there and hardly purchased something. The actual marketing was to be done day after the next. Confusing? Please help yourself this time, sorry. Haha!
The best thing about staying in the homestay was though to cook and eat together. The day was wonderful and the hosts were really good, but sweeter were their cordial behaviour and looks.
The next day, we were to visit Lamhatta Eco park, river Triveni and view point, Tinchule.
October 21. Beautiful morning with lovely view from our homestay.
Lamhatta was graceful with the wonderful pine forests all around. Some of the wild pictures made a gallery view.
Still, the beauty and tranquil of the pine forests didn’t came into understanding before we headed to Tinchule. For the hazy weather, the view point wasn’t very visible ( now we had to curse our luck for this) but this made the fluffy clouds rush between the pine trees grooming into the most stunningly beautiful and lovely scenery. It had stolen my very heart!
For the offensive weather though Triveni was cancelled and we decided to go to the random places the next day.
It was 22nd October. As said, we started with Shrubbery Nightingale Park at Darjeeling. The park was no doubt beautiful but the hope for Kanchenjunga went in vain with the rushing clouds all where around.
We couldn’t really relax ourselves and thus went straight to the zoo. The creatures were amazing but the most graceful and angelic was the Royal Bengal Tiger.
This day at evening, we went to the Mall market digging sharp through the clouds and shopped greatly. Now for me, shopping was the most awful way to pass time but still I can remark it as ‘ good ‘ for it all began with horse riding. Not very patriarchal like, okay?
This day was again a beautiful one. It started with us heading to the Rock garden. The journey was ‘ stunner ‘ the beginning of fun, as people turned out of thousand worries exploring the tough road. However, Rock garden was such a wonderful place!
Next was Batasia Loop. The place was beautiful and cool but few of us didn’t get to see it all. Now this was because we went on to wear the traditional Darjeeling dress and click pictures, they were lovely.
We were back for lunch at evening. Then again we had to head to the Mall market for the left shopping. I was personally the least interested yet tired. So I, my cousin and uncle stayed. Certainly next, incidents kept happening. We were sitting and talking and planning for a next trip when we heard the tap in washroom start and halt at intervals. Then again after sometime the door closed by default and more obstacles occured and then I had a scary dream. Well, whatever! I’m grateful the morning was peaceful.
It was October 24. The very last day of the tour, the very last day of this shade of life. Early morning, eight of us went to the Mall market to watch Kanchenjunga. At first, nothing was visible but the ever lasting hope brought the beautiful icy peaks into our calming vision. Poetry-like? Anyways, the next day was followed by trekking at Mirik and Tea gardens.
Well, now! The things were good but paved with shades of hopelessness and grief. We’d miss the beauty dreadfully so much, you won’t believe. The train was at night and we reached on October 25, Easter morning. What next? Just some unknown feelings, untold mysteries and unrevealed desires. Still, this adventurous and beautiful trip, one of the most awaited ones, we’re sure to revisit in order to ask when in the world is it returning our hearts back!?
THANK YOU!
-Sabita Mondal
© Sabita
Butterflies! The most awaited trip so far in my counts! We started from yesterday night and reached today. The train journey was no doubt exciting. Now we’re to get our seat belts (well not really) in our cars and head to Ahaldhara. Did you hear the name before? Well I’ll tell you what. The management of fatty bags and all of those luggage was followed by the very sharp drive on the beautiful mountains. It’s going to take nearly 4 hours to reach Ahaldhara maybe. In the meantime let me give you the backgrounds.
This is a very first north bengal tour. Well, when I highlight ‘ our ‘ it’s barely of six people as the other seven had explored mountains before. Now when I say this, you must count the thirteen people, okay? It included the leads (my aunt, uncle and cousin brother), the others who’ve seen (my parents, uncle and new aunt), the new fans (cousin sister, her parents, my grandparents and the grand ME). Six months of planning has brought the shiniest moon today!
We first landed on a random place just for a bit of photoshoot with river Tista and beautiful hills all around. It was all in excitement, you know? When we first viewed such big and pretty creatures wrapped with lovely pearls of water, amazed at highest level were we. Now it seems very normal though. The other scenes seduced even better. In all, we halted at two places in the journey. Random ones!
On way to Ahaldhara, haze was foggy. Wait, mind not my rubbish words. It’s because I didn’t realise at the beginning that we were inside the clouds. Oh, “be cloudy, look cloudy, feel cloudy.” Well this was the caption to my whatsapp status with a graceful picture, I guess. As if angels gazing from cloudy sheets, we, beauty queens and ‘ kings ‘ entered the super beautiful tea garden that headed our homestay at Ahaldhara. Haha!
The road was certainly scary but let’s be grateful with our very hearts to the sharp drivers. The view was unremarkable and the feeling was so new! Off-beat, amazing and peaceful and beautiful and what couldn’t have been the virtue of the homestay! We had our lunch at nearly 5 and went to see the side scenes, just walking or ‘ strolling ‘. It was beautiful, certainly was it.
The coolie weather struck our hearts mainly when the naked beauty got its jewellery at early nights.
"~City lights at far hills~"
Why call it early nights? Well, it’s because after barely an hour or two, it started with lightning and then heavy rain as it went denser. We decided we’d stay idle for the night ( not idle though), and explore other side scenes on the next day. I personally couldn’t believe how lovely the people there were. So good, so nice, so caring and so cute. But the blessed glitch was that the heavy rain kept on showering with increasing pace and zero tiredness. The tents were safe and we were safer but the expectation for the next day went in vain.
Who could even look outside? There were only scary and fast crystals of water from the heaven that were heavy. This made us altogether for the day and they talked, interacted but the rain wasn’t in the mood for any sort of halt.
But the fire talks of comedy, loss and lessons of our joint family made us all laugh and wash away with an ointment to bad luck. So strange, the rain acted as heavy as ever tonight as well. Whatsoever, we were still lucky to be the rare tourists to meet the cyclone in mountains! It took on scary, yet thrilling. But the best thing was at the denser nights. Oh it made the thing so adventurous that fear gave birth to burning and forming excitement in our hearts.
P.S: To tell the tale of the adventurous 19 October night, I miss Ahaldhara the most!
The architecture of the rooms weren’t very good literally. The heavy rain took its form into thunderstorms as the night went denser and water droplets made sharp holes through the roof to the straight beds. It was almost all wet in the house and this thrill brought a sleep, better and relaxing. But that wasn’t all. Suddenly we were waken up and called for a meeting. The leads started with their first curse,” It isn’t very safe.”
Why? That has certain reasons. Firstly for the wild rain droplets wetting all the bed up. But most importantly, we were in an area all surrounded by mountains, at the top of some very high hills. In addition, if the rain went heavy, landslides may wash the entire thing away. Thus it was advisable to stay awake and run out when needed. The place was also marked ‘ RED ALERT ‘ and besides, our hosts warned us as landslides are truly dangerous.
Well, it was adventurous, thrilling and something I loved. Good God, the night was difficult but the safest it could’ve been. Yes, we ARE alive, certainly, okay?
According to early plans, we were to leave for Lepchajagat but the weather reports made us head to Darjeeling straightaway. For such stormy times, it was hard to do journeys but as we were ready to leave, the sun kissed doors made by clouds and the weather had a tender grace while the rain vanished away.
It was October 20 and our cars headed to Darjeeling. Unknowingly, our leave from Ahaldhara wasn’t very cheerful and we couldn’t like department from such a beauty. The place sucked all love in stock to exhale it in our goodbye cars. Still the hope for Darjeeling lasted. This day was full of excitement and it was all wonderfully beautiful and much more than ‘ beautiful. ‘
The scenes couldn’t be captured in cameras.
Hope you can get a bare glimpse of what or how things kept going, haha!
The journey was long yet filled with fun and beauty. We began at the morning and reached Darjeeling by evening. The group of thirteen tired models were taken to the rooms. All the rooms were nice and pretty. Well not to be proud but our room was the prettiest! The evening was spent in the lovely Mall market.
We weren’t for a very long time there and hardly purchased something. The actual marketing was to be done day after the next. Confusing? Please help yourself this time, sorry. Haha!
The best thing about staying in the homestay was though to cook and eat together. The day was wonderful and the hosts were really good, but sweeter were their cordial behaviour and looks.
The next day, we were to visit Lamhatta Eco park, river Triveni and view point, Tinchule.
October 21. Beautiful morning with lovely view from our homestay.
Lamhatta was graceful with the wonderful pine forests all around. Some of the wild pictures made a gallery view.
Still, the beauty and tranquil of the pine forests didn’t came into understanding before we headed to Tinchule. For the hazy weather, the view point wasn’t very visible ( now we had to curse our luck for this) but this made the fluffy clouds rush between the pine trees grooming into the most stunningly beautiful and lovely scenery. It had stolen my very heart!
For the offensive weather though Triveni was cancelled and we decided to go to the random places the next day.
It was 22nd October. As said, we started with Shrubbery Nightingale Park at Darjeeling. The park was no doubt beautiful but the hope for Kanchenjunga went in vain with the rushing clouds all where around.
We couldn’t really relax ourselves and thus went straight to the zoo. The creatures were amazing but the most graceful and angelic was the Royal Bengal Tiger.
This day at evening, we went to the Mall market digging sharp through the clouds and shopped greatly. Now for me, shopping was the most awful way to pass time but still I can remark it as ‘ good ‘ for it all began with horse riding. Not very patriarchal like, okay?
This day was again a beautiful one. It started with us heading to the Rock garden. The journey was ‘ stunner ‘ the beginning of fun, as people turned out of thousand worries exploring the tough road. However, Rock garden was such a wonderful place!
Next was Batasia Loop. The place was beautiful and cool but few of us didn’t get to see it all. Now this was because we went on to wear the traditional Darjeeling dress and click pictures, they were lovely.
We were back for lunch at evening. Then again we had to head to the Mall market for the left shopping. I was personally the least interested yet tired. So I, my cousin and uncle stayed. Certainly next, incidents kept happening. We were sitting and talking and planning for a next trip when we heard the tap in washroom start and halt at intervals. Then again after sometime the door closed by default and more obstacles occured and then I had a scary dream. Well, whatever! I’m grateful the morning was peaceful.
It was October 24. The very last day of the tour, the very last day of this shade of life. Early morning, eight of us went to the Mall market to watch Kanchenjunga. At first, nothing was visible but the ever lasting hope brought the beautiful icy peaks into our calming vision. Poetry-like? Anyways, the next day was followed by trekking at Mirik and Tea gardens.
Well, now! The things were good but paved with shades of hopelessness and grief. We’d miss the beauty dreadfully so much, you won’t believe. The train was at night and we reached on October 25, Easter morning. What next? Just some unknown feelings, untold mysteries and unrevealed desires. Still, this adventurous and beautiful trip, one of the most awaited ones, we’re sure to revisit in order to ask when in the world is it returning our hearts back!?
THANK YOU!
-Sabita Mondal
© Sabita
