Gangtok Trip – Day 4 – Last Leg, Silliguri To Gangtok
April 14, Day 4, 10.30 am:
We left Kolkata by Darjeeling Express, leaving Sealdah station at 10.05 pm. Did some shopping at Shree Leathers, Lindsay Street and the footpaths of Esplanade.
The train was a hour late, arriving in New Jalpaiguri at 9.00 am. Mr. Chaudhari of the local LIC office picked us up and took us to their guest house in Silliguri for breakfast.
Padmaja had booked a taxi to take us to Gangtok. SAIL has a marketing office in Suliguri and she called the local branch manager. He got her in touch with their travel agent / cab operator. As a result we didn't have to worry about finding a taxi in New Jalpaiguri.
Our driver is a Nepali who thinks he is driving Formula 1. He also has this annoying habit of braking suddenly in a way that leaves ones stomach about 18 feet behind. Also he manages to jerk the car very badly every time he changes gears.
We should be in Gangtok in about 4 hours. I want to send this off while I still have a GPRS connection.
Will post again from Gangtok.2.
On The Way to Gangtok (Day 1)
April 11, 2009, 5.15 pm - Gangtok Trip
Padmaja, Durgesh Nandini (Mamli), Jyotiraditya (Bablu) and I are sitting in the 2nd AC coach of Falaknuma Express on our way to Calcutta. The train left Secunderabad Station at 4.00 pm. We will arrive tomorrow evening about 5.45 pm, and stay overnight with my fourth maternal uncle, Shri Rebati Ranjan Dash and aunt, Mrs. Bandana Dash. My uncle is the head of LIC East Zone.
Some shopping in Gariahat and The Esplanade, may be a visit to the Victoria Memorial before we catch the Darjeeling Express from Sealdah Station in Calcutta to arrive in New Jalpaiguri early Tuesday morning. Then a cab to Gangtok, a distance of about 150 kms. I am told this journey is very scenic and will take about 6 hours.
We will stay at Mingtokling Guest house (found and booked on the internet) doing the rounds of the local tourist attractions till Saturday, April 18, when we will retrace our steps to Calcutta via New Jalpaiguri. Then on to Bhubaneswar by Puri Express on Sunday night.. A week in Bhubaneswar before Padmaja and I return to Hyderabad on Apr 26. The kids will stay with their grand parents for a couple of weeks more before retuning to Hyderabad with my in-laws in mid May.
That's the whole vacation plan.
We started planning this in Jan 2009. In fact today's train tickets were purchased on Jan 15, 2009, only 4 days after the reservation window opened 90 days prior to the date of journey and we still got lousy berths. Anyway that should be resolved as soon as the TTE completes the RAC assignments. It is just a question of shifting berths around so that our 4 berths are together.
I intend to post regularly during this vacation. Gangtok, here we come!
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