Day 3 - Darjeeling, another gate to Himalaya

Darjeeling (Pron: dɑ:ˈʤi:lɪŋ) is a town in the Indian state of West Bengal. A popular tourist destination, it is located in the Mahabharat Range or Lesser Himalaya at an average elevation of 6,710 ft (2,045.2 m). It is noted for its tea industry and the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Darjeeling is the headquarters of Darjeeling district which has a partially autonomous status within the state of West Bengal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darjeeling
Refer to some story that i've gotten from blogwalking, mail list and some travel web i put Darjeeling as one of my destination someday when i have an opportunity to step my feet in India. Indeed i did it, eventhough there's a lil bit wavering at the beginning since i became so selfish to cover all of my destination within the only two weeks of my visit.

Maybe like Malang, Dieng and Puncak in Java, Indonesia; Darjeeling just like a mountain view accompanied with greenness, fresh air and a best place for resting and relaxing. A huge tea estate in mountainsides, similar to Lembang then; Yups, its similar. But you can't have what i have when i get there. Overnite train from the big city continue with three hours shared jeep under the foggy weather, meeting new people from some part of India and some people around the world, keep surprising with anything new and unusual and of course challenge yourself in many aspects. But at the top of them, temptation to enjoy sunrise with Himalayan as the background will defeat all of my argument easily.

So it was so early in the morning when we woke up and went out from the hotel and just noticed that our jeep or whatever in which has booked last night seems to be out of nowhere. We tried to check with the owner but he seems to be asleep and when the hotel staff came out, he lil bit confuse and can't help. After same arguing session, finally we have to satisfy with having personal rent car for the three of us. Additional charges applied by INR 200, we had paid INR 500 to the owner before; so its damn like implicitly being cheated for our 3rd day in India.

Our car headed to the sunrise spot that well known as the popular spot for witnessing sunrise and Himalayan at the same time. The driver was a lil bit quite, he rarely talk to us instead of simply inform us where we are heading, how's the weather and best time to visit Darjeeling. Some 90's song were playing and with a-half sleepy head we try to recite some phrase of the song.

"I want to stand with you on a mountain..." - Truly,Madly, Deeply - Savage Garden

Actually it was rain. Light rain in the morning, or maybe the same rain as yesterday that being postponed for some reason. But yeah, unfortunately i have to realised that it was a bad weather. I'm not sure that we can enjoy sunrise today. Even so, most of the road are covered by fog. What i'm afraid of was actually happening, the main spot has fully covered by the fog. Nothing can be seen instead of white.

"The weather is bad. Yesterday, the sun has been raise nicely at this place." our driver start to talk. 

Yeah, its been our disappointment at that time, however as i always talked to myself, enlightning the burden, "there's always a reason to comeback." We did it on summer actually. However, Darjeeling weather boost into extremely unpredictable. We're nearly freeze when we're here but outside we got 47 degree like a hell.

Foggy Morning towards sunrise which never show up ;p 

Foggy Morning 

Next, we headed to the Ghoom Monastery; Ghoom Gompa, is about 8 kms from Darjeeling. Here a very beautiful statue of the Maitrayie Buddha ( prospective Buddha) is established. The Monastery has also preserved some of the rare handwritten Buddhist manuscripts.
http://www.trekking-in-nepal.com/sikkim_darjeeling/darjeeling_places_of_interest.htmAnd our last destination this morning was Batasia Loop or Batasia Eco Garden. An open area and a railway loop is an interesting example of engineering. At this loop the toy train takes a very unique turn. This loop is just five kilometer from the main town of Darjeeling. This place also has a very good market where you can buy the purses, bags and other decorative items made by the local women at very reasonable price.
http://www.trekking-in-nepal.com/sikkim_darjeeling/darjeeling_places_of_interest.htm

Street Market at Ghoom Monastery

Inside Ghoom Monastery - Darjeeling

Ki-ka : Jard, Alid and Me

Monks - They've been in Borobudur loh ^^

Me at Ghoom Monastery

Toy train railway at Batasia Loop

Batasia Loop or Batasia Eco Garden

There's several things that caught my interest, First, two of three monks that i met in Ghoom Monastery has visited Borobudur - Indonesia, Second, we can try to dress like Nepali by rent some clothes with only INR 30 per person. Yups, and it last; no time limit and also the owner was very kind to assist us taking a picture. And the last one, same as my experience in Japan, i found snack in which the appearance was look like Bakwan (Jakarta) or Ote-Ote (Surabaya). How its the taste? it was sweat for Japan, but in India, maybe its easy to guess, yups.. most taste like curry heheheh...

Dress Like Nepali 

Dress Like Nepali - Me :) 

Morning trip with rent car finished at around 7 or 8 AM. I lil bit forget about it, since we directly have a morning walk to enjoy this town. Most of our scenery this morning filling with students. Yups, student, and they all dressed in very cute, colorful and cool uniform. Even, i have a slight tought in mind that this is not India. Yeah, as intersection of India, Nepal, Tibet and Butan, most of the density in Darjeeling were not look like the common Indian people. Some of them still have a long nose, long hair, dark skin and big eyes, but most of them are looks like Japanese, Chinese and Korean. 

In terms of economic, i just think that their economic condition was quite good. I never met with beggar or anything that refer to the poverty. Most of them wore something fashionable, even i have seen HardCore concert for free in town on my first day. It just proved that there's no barriers for them to living a live with any update from the outside and being part of it. Many vehicles and personal cars running in the street and going to school become the most huge activity in the morning.

Darjeeling view from Batasia Eco Garden

snacking around Darjeeling

Morning activities, Go to school - Darjeeling

Playing around - Darjeeling 

It was a very short trip, and sure gonna visit this place again someday. For the mighty Kanchenjunga, king of the mountains, sunrise and of course Darjeeling tea. We're leavin hotel around 12PM and went back to New Jaipalguri (NJP) with 3 hours shared jeep since we have to catch the train at 5 PM for Mughal Sarai, the next gate towards the holy Ganges in Varanasi. 

Info:

a) Hospitality - Sevenseas Hotel : INR 1500/night for 3 people (1 king bed + 1 single bed); no online booking, just came by since we have dropped email but no response. 
b) Shared Jeep NJP-Darjeeling or Darjeeling-NJP : INR 200/per person - one way 
c) Rent Car : INR 700 per car, you can have INR 500 for 3 people but you have to share the remaining seat with others. 
d) Nepali Dress - Rent : INR 30/person 

Entrance fee:

- Batasia Loop : INR 5/person 
- Ghoom and Tiger Hill : Free