Are you a Tea Lover? What’s the craziest thing have you done to grab a cup of Tea? Well, we all have different answers, comparison would not do justice to our efforts!
Anyway, this journey is not about Tea, but it’s an integral part. If you are an astute traveler you would know, planning is a waste of time. I am here again with an unplanned trip, which helped me to explore a part of India.
Sikkim, a state in North East India known for its beauty, Tea Plantation, and mighty Kangchenjunga, 3rd highest peak in the world. I have been living in Bangalore ( Namma Bengaluru!!!) for about 14 years now, and have explored most of the destinations in southern India, including Andhra, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, and Goa. And, now we wanted to explore North East India, but we wanted to drive.
29th Nov 2019, early morning we started for Sikkim by Car, planning to visit all the possible destinations on our way to Sikkim. We had made a rule, we would start our day as early as possible, and would stop driving after 6~7 PM in the evening. As the day started, we started feeling excited and nervous at the same time. It was Avijit and me, just both of us .. two brave souls!! (haha!!)
On Day 1, our first major stop was at Srikalahasti , a town in Andhra Pradesh. If you have ever prepared for UPSC, you would know that Srikalahasti is famous for its painting on Clothes, called 'Kalamkari', where a type of brush is used for hand painting/ block painting on clothes. Only natural dyes are used in Kalamkari Painting.
At Srikalahasti our halt was at a restaurant, maintained by Andhra Government, where they served traditional Andhra Cuisine, it was simple and tasty. After lunch, we thought of exploring a handloom attached to the Restaurant, and there I saw handcrafted Sarees, painting, and Toys. They were all available at a reasonable rate. A lady, who was a worker at handloom, asked us to visit Shiva Temple situated in town, it was a few Kilometer from that location.
We thought it would be just another Temple, and looked quite ordinary from outside. But, as soon as we entered the temple, what we saw was mind-blowing. A Temple built on rock, walls were carved, it was magnificent, beautiful architecture. I have not seen such a beautiful temple in my life ( I wish I could share the pictures, but cameras were not allowed inside the temple). If you ever happen to be at Srikalahasti - don't forget to buy Saree, and Visit Srikalahasteeswara temple.
It was already in the afternoon, and we had a long way to go, after driving for a few hours, we were pathetically tired and thought of halting at Ongole, unfortunately, the hotel we had booked was booked for a wedding, and they did not allow us despite our booking. Somehow we managed to get a hotel that night.
The next day, we started early, and after driving for the whole day in the evening we managed to reach srikakulam, and on Day 3, 1st December we reached Berhampur, Odisha, a native of my friend where his brother was getting married at Gopalpur village, at the sea coast. Gopalpur is a small village since it is near to the city it's developed and it has a sea beach, where you can purchase ‘Shankh’, I bought one for myself
At Gopalpur Beach, hope you can see the irony in the pic!!
At Gopalpur, I met Dadaji( Durga’s Grandfather), he was an army man, and even at the age of 84, he is young and strong, in fact, stronger than us! He is jovial, fun-loving, self-reliant.
At Gopalpur Beach, Dadaji with us!
Durga managed to get us a guest room in Berhampur University, it was a lovely place to stay again. We spent two days in Berhampur, and then headed for Sikkim again.( Food at University campus is awesome, must try Poori, Idly Vada)
Now we are close to our destination, before Sikkim we wanted to explore Morgan House, at Kalimpong. It's an iconic location, about 100 years old, but before that we had to pick Avijit’s friend Sumit, and his younger brother from Bardhman.
On 3rd Dec we reached Bardhman, where I met Sumeet and his family, this was my first close interaction with a Bengali Brahmin family. Though I have very close links with Bengalis, and Bengali culture, this was my first time that I was ever going to stay in a family. Trust me it was a great experience, basically we all are the same, irrespective of race, language we speak, culture most important aspects is humanity, that's there everywhere, we just need an eye to experience it. After staying two days, and enjoying Bengali meals in Bardhman, we picked Sumeet and Rohit, and now we are four of us.
Bardhman to Kalimpong is about 600 Kilometers, we thought we would be able to cover the distance in a day, but we were wrong. Road conditions were pathetic, and we got tired, and somehow managed to reach Siliguri by night 9.30 PM. Now, we were struggling for food, but Zomato saved us.
On the way we also saw farakka barrage across river Ganga, it has an amazing view ( but don’t watch if you have hydrophobia, like me. haha!!!)
Next day on 5th December 2019, we started at Morgan House, and reached there in the afternoon. It was a lovely scenic drive, where we crossed river Teesta and reached Kalimpong. It's a tough terrain, you need an expert driver, mind that ( and, I am good at it :D)
Teesta River, North Bengal, on the way to Kalimpong.
Now, we have reached Morgan House, it was 2.30 in the afternoon, and trust me though we were tired, it did not disappoint us. It is built in such a way that you can see Mighty kanchenjunga from its Lawn, Balcony. Morgan House is a British colonial architecture, built by My Georger Morgan. He had a great sense of design and architecture, rooms were spacious, and every room had Chimney in it. House is surrounded by trees, lawn and Golf course. About 100 meter from Morgan House, there is Army Camp - it's a well maintained town, if you are looking for pleasant weather, and a hill station.
Morgan house, back view
Morgan House side view & Entrance
Kanchenjunga View from Morgan House
Morgan house is a lovely place to stay, its maintained by west bengal tourism. They serve lovely breakfast!
After spending a couple of days in Kalimpong, we wanted to visit Guwahati but Avijit, and company were tired, and we took a U - Turn to Darjeeling. Like me, Sumeet is also fond of Tea, and after reaching Darjeeling at night, we started planning to find the best tea in the town!!!
Darjeeling at night!
It was cold, the temperature was about zero degrees in the night/ early morning. We started looking for tea, original tea leaves ( not the one advertised in the television, they are rubbish. Best quality tea is exported outside India, not sold by these multinational companies.) By the way, Darjeeling tea is world famous, and world best tea is available here. You can visit Tea Estates in Darjeeling, out of which Makaibari tea estate is very famous and already covered by discovery channel.
We bought expensive varieties of tea( we are tea lovers, now we had money and original tea to prove that!! ? ). We bought first flush, and second flush tea varieties.
Next day, early in the morning we started for Tiger Hill, Darjeeling. It's a sunrise point, At sunrise, the peaks of Kanchenjunga are illuminated before the sun is seen at lower elevations. From Tiger Hill, Mount Everest is also visible.
If you want to avoid rush, suggest you to start early, and reach tiger hill by 4 am. During winter, it's extremely cold, and frozen. Be prepared for 0 degree temperature.
So, we were eagerly waiting for sunrise, and after waiting for an hour, what we saw was disappointing. The weather was not great, and we could not see an illuminated Kanchenjunga. But it was a nice experience, at times you need luck also, only efforts are not enough. Nevertheless, with friends, it was a nice journey!
The journey doesn’t end here, it continues and we explored other states as well including, Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. It was a memorable, long drive, which Avijit and I completed. We spent about 15 days on the road, explored 7 Indian, states, Bangladesh Border, and drove my car for about 4000 Kilometer, and finally stopped at my home!
We need such experience in life, rightly said “To Live is to Travel”.
Travel and explore, that’s how you live, learn and grow in life. Meet with different people, enjoy their culture and form a community of mankind!
See you soon!!!
by Coolsage