Darjeeling Travelogue

 

Darjeeling, for me, had always been a poetic little hill station—one I had only seen through countless Bollywood movies. Naturally, my expectations were sky-high.

Our day began with a visit to the Japanese Temple and the Peace Pagoda. It was serene and beautiful, but the real showstopper was the breathtaking view of Kanchenjunga from the top. My obsession with that majestic peak pretty much ruled the entire trip.

Next stop was the Batasia Loop—a war memorial that has been slightly commercialised. For ₹50, you can play dress-up and get photos clicked with Kanchenjunga or vibrant flowers as the backdrop. Another ₹50 lets you view 13 points through a telescope, complete with a lightning-fast tutorial on important mountain peaks and nearby tourist spots. You really need to be a quick learner to keep up!

The iconic Darjeeling Toy Train passes through the Batasia Loop and halts here for about 15 minutes, so you can either cover it as part of the ride or visit the place separately. The memorial itself is ticketed. After experiencing the spotless streets of Sikkim—where street food is almost non-existent—the tempting aroma of pakoras and jhal muri outside Batasia Loop came as a pleasant surprise.

From there, we headed to the Ghoom Monastery, located quite close by. It’s a small monastery, run entirely on donations from local devotees without any government aid, yet it holds great significance in Tibetan Buddhism.

Then came our Bollywood dream moment—running around tea gardens at the Happy Valley Tea Estate. You can opt for factory tours and tea tasting for a fee. We skipped the factory tour due to time constraints but did attend the tea tasting session, where I sampled white tea, black tea, oolong tea, lemongrass tea, and more. Sadly, even after all that, tea still couldn’t convert me. We did manage a quick photoshoot in the tea gardens before moving on. Honestly, I felt the tea gardens on the way from Darjeeling to Bagdogra were far more scenic for photographs than Happy Valley.

Our next stop was the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoo—home to the Red Panda (the state animal of Sikkim), snow leopards, and several other fascinating animals. The zoo also has an aquarium and an aviary, though the aquarium was unfortunately under maintenance during our visit. There was a long queue for tickets, so I highly recommend booking them online—the steps are clearly mentioned on the zoo walls.

It was my younger one’s first-ever zoo visit, and his excitement was absolutely off the charts.

Our final stop of the day was the much-awaited heritage Toy Train ride. A few caveats here—book well in advance and keep plenty of buffer time, because delays are very common. We had booked the last available 3:45 pm slot, but the ride actually started around 4:50 pm. Since there’s only a single track and the train runs through regular roads, even a minor breakdown or traffic jam can delay all trains behind it. By the time we finally got going, it was almost dark and quite cold, which meant we couldn’t enjoy the views at all. The over-hyped toy train experience I had imagined from Parineeta or dreamed of while humming Mere Sapnon Ki Rani didn’t quite materialise.

But that’s life. 😀

We wrapped up the day at the iconic Mall Road, ending it on a comforting note with steaming jhol momos and hot chocolate 😍—and honestly, that made everything feel just right.