Monsoon weekend in Kalimpong, India

Important Information for Fellow travellers planning a trip to Kalimpong:

Nearest railway station: New Jalpaiguri NJP (77 km)
Nearest airport : Bagdogra (79 km)
NJP to Kalimpong Tata Sumo Gold Price : Rs 2300 [ we were charged same both ways]
One day sightseeing : Rs 1000 [Maruti Omni with four seating capacity] /Rs 1200[Maruti Omni with six seating capacity] / Rs 1500 [ Bolero]
Contact number of few drivers:
        Sunil : 8759394240
        Pema : 9932673805 & 7479207765

And heres the account of how our trip went

"Kalimpong" in the month of August, 2016.

Being monsoon most tourists avoid the journey to the hills as chances of landslide and consequent road blocks is at the peak. Every single person we knew only discouraged us to go forward with the trip. We had pre booked our railway tickets to New Jalpaiguri (nearest railway station to Kalimpong) long back and were not in any mood to cancel it. From one week before our departure date we constantly broused weather reports on http://www.accuweather.com/ and asked travel mates on different travel forums like Tripadvisor regarding the weather condition. With thunderstorm on weather forecast, alerts from travel mates and relatives, we along with four common friends boarded train from Sealdah, West Bengal with lots of uncertainties. We kept on telling each other if the weather was bad after reaching NJP we would look for some hotel and stay in Shilliguri itself. 

The overnight journey passed quite uneventfully and next day morning 9.30 am when 6 of us got down at NJP clear sky and bright sun welcomed us. We freshened up in Upper class waiting room and ate quick breakfast at Food Track on Platform No. 1 . The choices of breakfast in the menu list was quite extensive but most of the items were unavailable so we setlled up ordering two plate Chole bature, 2 plate stuffed aloo paratha and two plate paratha sabji.  Our next objective was to hire a vehicle for up-hill climb. While few of us waited on platform others went to the parking lot where innumerable vehicles waited to be hired. Soon we fixed the deal with a driver and our uphill journey began on Tata Sumo Gold.
Hill journey is always fascinating. You get to experience Mother Nature very closely! 

Kalimpong is set amongst the foothills of mighty Himalaya at an altitude of 1250 m above sea level. The hill station of Darjeeling at 50 Km & Gangtok at 75 Km are the two major tourist pullers.  As we moved up the Hills, the weather changed and we experienced cool breeze that was soothing to our soul !!! We passed by the mighty Teesta river that was flowing in the valley below and separates Kalimpong from Sikkim. Overlooking the Teesta valley, Kalimpong is believed to have once been the forward position of Bhutanese in 18th Century. Our cameras managed to capture some amazing views of Teesta river while on move.

We crossed the Coronation bridge, Sevok Kali bari, Teesta Low Dam project site and after about two hours of uphill climb made a halt at Tamang Bro's Abhinay Resturants. This resturant provided proper seated lunch option with amazing river view as well as the corner was piled with quick snack option. As some of us suffered from motion sickness we stuck to buying only chips and cold drinks (P.S. the price of chips and cold drinks are always charged above MRP so if you are pocket concern carry them from the start of your journey.) After the quick halt we resumed our journey towards our destination and after almost an hour the beautiful city of Kalimpong welcomed us!

The hill journey had took a toil on us & we were starving as it was past noon. We had pre-booked our hotel for two night stay before coming to Kalimpong. [We had booked using Goibibo, regarding booking of the hotel at time of monsoon, we would suggest look for some hotel close to Kalimpong market/ bus stand. Many hotels remain close for maintenance due to off-season. So, it is advisable to choose the location and talk with the manager before hand.]

Our car finally reached the main gate of Hotel Garden Reach located in upper cart road. We completed all our boarding formalities & went straight to the dining area for mid-day lunch .

The lunch was served after almost 20 mins. It was little annoying as we had ordered the lunch well before reaching the Hotel over phone. We were informed owing to off-season, most of the hotel staff were on leave & so it was difficult for them to arrange it quickly. The lunch was a simple Veg lunch as we thought of not doing any kind of experimentation with other dishes as the place was quite new for all of us. To our surprise, the food was extremely tasty & delicious, specially the yellow dal that had an unusual aroma which we haven't tasted in any of the restaurants in Kolkata. It was simply heavenly especially owing to the rats which were already tired of running in our stomach . After having lunch, we moved to our room that had wide window opening to breath-taking view of the mountain. The clouds, the hills and the greenery it was just mesmerizing !!

It was past 5 by the time we all got freshened up. The manager informed that by the time we would reach any of the tourist spots it would be dark and hence it was better to keep the plan of sight seeing for the next day. While our fellow travel mates opted to strech out in their room Travel freaks could not hold their enthusiam of exploring the nearby areas. So we got ready with our cameras to walk to the market place and back. Our hotel was approximately 2 km from the main market. We passed tiny beautiful houses, a children's park, the kalimpong stadium and finally reached the main market area in about 20 mins. Innumerable stores were lined packed with shoes, bags, clothings, home decoratives and lot more. Few lanes were so ower crowded that it was even difficult to walk. We later learnt it was because Saturday's Haat Bazaar was popular place amongst locals as well who came over to quench their shopping desire. We spotted a small cafe named 3C's  their chocolate muffins looked quite irresistable. We bought some for us as well as our travel mates. It was quite dark by the time we moved out of the market and remembering our hotel manager's warning of avoiding moving around in dark we boarded a shared taxi that safely droped us back to our hotel. The day ended with full on chit -chat and anatakshari session with our friends at hotel.



Day 2 in Kalimpong


Our second day began when the hotel staff greeted us morning with steaming darjeeling tea. Perfect flavoured tea and a breath taking view of hills pumped up our spirits. We get freshened up and moved towards the dining area for enjoying our morning breakfast. The spread was not extensive but good enough to suffice our taste buds. Post completion of breakfast we moved to the reception to book a car for a day sight seeing program. The manager called up their tour partner but owing to off season and independance day weekend he couldnt arrange any vehicle. We decided that some of us would walk to the local bus stand (that was around 10 min walk from our hotel) to search a vehicle  while the others got ready. Our plan worked and soon a bolero arrived to take us to different places around the beautiful city of Kalimpong.

Our first point of visit was the watershed view point that overlooked a Golf Course wrapped by blanket of hills and clouds. Inaugrated on 7th October 1973 at the height of 4400' this was the most picturesque  Golf course I have ever seen. Visitors are not allowed to enter beyond a point but one can stand at the view point and admire the beauty to their heart's content.

Just a few steps from the View point was the Morgan House famous for all kind of spooky tales. A heritage house, built by George Morgan in 1930 where his family lived until the death of his wife, is presently a tourist lodge maintained by West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation. Locals claim that the place is haunted and often avoid the surrounding. We were quite eager to explore the place espacially as we were in group and it was braod day light (We definately would not have tried if it was otherwise.. Lolz). With beautifully maintained gardens, picture perfect surrounding and magnifient structure the place definately wanst creepy at all (not sure about the night expirience though .. lolz )

After exloring the so-called creepy Morgan House boarded the car which halted after 10 mins uphill climb near the Durpin Monastery also known as Zang Dog Palri Monastery on the Durpin hill. When we reached the place mid day prayer was on. Monks of all age group were seated inside the monastery in long columns and prayers were on. We initially didnt enter the premise as our driver had warned us not to disturb the monks during their prayer and to just go round the monastery and climb up the two levels to get the views of Kalimpong town and Kanchenjunga range. But when we reached the monastry gates a monk directed us to enter and silently explore the inside. We were thrilled because we had read that this monastery houses rare buddhist manuscripts on Tibetology that were presented by Dalai Lama during his visit in 1956. Beautiful incricate art work covered the walls. It was the first time we ever witnessed the prayer session of monks and as we walked inside the monastery the grasping chants of monks and the beautiful musical instruments played by them added a magic to the surrounding. We slowly and silently explored the interior and seeked blessing from the Buddha idol within and walked out. Photography was not allowed inside the monastery so we captured all the beauty through our eyes ! On the wall outside was the row of prayer wheels we turned them as we moved around the monastery from outside until we reached the staircase for going to level two. In the second level the outside was again lined with prayer wheels, we rotated them and reached the staircase which would take us to the third level. This level offered a 360' view of the surrounding. As the sky had clouds we couldn't see the Kanchenjunga range nevertheless the view of the surrounding was breath-taking and we were more than satisfied.

After viewing the beautiful Monastery at Hill top, we moved towards our next destination the Pine View Nursery, which is a small nursery of Cactus which are grown & nurtured with ultimate care.
The entry fee was meager Rs 10 & one would be able to view different varieties of Cactus which are normally grown in regions of  Australia, North, South & Central America. As Cactus requires a very hot & dry weather to grow, the plantation garden is divided into small zones and covered up by small tents, each of the tents are maintained at high temperature through greenhouse effect. The different varieties of cactuses had flashy thorns and spines which though looked ugly but were unique in nature. Some of them had diverse colour flowers which looked beautiful. The Nursery boasts of having the largest collection of cacti in Asia and holds a place of pride for the local citizens. It took about 45 mins to move around the plantation garden.

Apart from the Cacti garden, Pine View Nursery offers beautiful view of mighty Teesta river which flows in the valley & Kalimpong town from the top.

We were already very hungry as it was 2pm when we made an exit from the nursery. So the next thought that came was to satisfy our empty stomach on our way to our next destination.

Deolo Hills is situated 5.590 feet above msl & is one of the highest point in Kalimpong. Basically, the town of Kalimpong is situated on a ridge that connects Durpin and Deolo Hills. The hill is situated on the north east side of Kalimpong town. The road led us through a misty hill-range where the cirrus clouds passed through us !!.. It was a heavenly feeling experiencing Nature in its purest form!! Drizzles started as we climbed through twisted roads to reached Deolo Hills.
 We were extremely hungry when we stoped at the gates of Deolo Park. We checked in to a small hill-top food stall that was serving steamed momos. Momos are very famous snack in Kalimpong &  having the first bite we realized the reason for its popularity. They were lip smacking, tasty , delicious etc etc .We initially ordered only a plate but ended but eating four plates of chicken steamed momos Lolz ( Apart from momo's we didn't have any other option also :) .

After having a quck snack, we went straight to the ticket counter for entering the Deolo Tourism Complex. The ticket fare for Indian citizens was Rs 10 /- while for Foreign citizens it was Rs 50 /-. Car packing was charged separately as it is outside the complex.
The Deolo tourism complex is developed on a 8-acre of parkland that has beautiful flower gardens, green lawns & a Deolo Tourist lodge. From this Deolo Tourism complex which is at an altitude of 5500 ft, you can get beautiful views all-around the place.This includes the excellent view of Kanchenjunga range and confluence of Teesta & Ranget river although we got non as the thick clouds formed a blanket around us . Horse-riding was available for tourists & we observed some local music being played while we went to the centre of the garden top.

The beauty of the place was so enchanting that we felt like staying here for some more time. We  lazed through the beautiful flower gardens that were well maintained by the complex authorities. It was past 4, when we started our journey back to our hotel. On our way , we stopped to visit Hanuman Mandir & Ma Durga Mandir. We offered our prayers to the God & seeked blessings.


After visiting temple, we then took the downward hill path towards our hotel. On returning to the main market we went to Hotel China Garden and consumed some mouth watering authentic chinese cuisines at a jaw dropping cheap price. Being a day before independence day and a sunday most local shops were closed , so we planned to watch a movie in a local multiplex. It was pretty exciting to visit a cinema hall on the hills as we had never had such an experiences before. The inox was in close proximity of the market and we walked to the place. The movie started at 6 and ended at 9 pm. It was pitch dark outside when we moved out of the INOX. The walk from the INOX to the hotel was one of its kind with no lights and no soul around. It almost seemed we were out on walk at 2 in the night. The day wrapped with steaming dinner in our hotel and packing our bags as our departure was planned the next day . The beautiful of hills have always fascinated us & now Kalimpong has been added to the list .
We started our journey for New Jalpaiguri Railway station next day around noon. It rained heavily as if the hills were bidding us a teary farewell. Overall the trip had been one of its kind for sure Kalimpong is a beautiful hill station in the Northern part of West Bengal.

Kalimpong !! We are carrying back home innumerable lovely memories. Adieu until we meet again !