We, being located at Calcutta and having got ourselves an opportunity to let ourselves free for a short (read: 3 days) period, we instantly decided to explore the hilly regions of North Bengal. Though we initially aimed at Darjeeling, we finally zeroed on Lava and Rishop, which are still now less explored and less congested comparing with other West Bengal travel hot spots likes Darjeeling, Kalimpong etc.
Day 0 – We started off from Calcutta in the Evening and boarded the train from Sealdah Station in around 8:30PM. We reached New Jaipaiguri (NJP) the next day morning around 8:15AM. The train was delayed by more than an hour and half.
Day 1 – After reaching New Jalpaiguri (NJP), we hired an exclusive car for ourselves from the local taxi stand which is adjacent to the station. We booked a Muruti Omni for Rs1200. The distance between NJP and Lava was around 125 kms and it was supposed to be a four and half hours journey through
Malbazar-Gorubathan route, as told by our cabbie. We left NJP around 9 in the morning. The stretch of road was comparatively smooth, with rough, muddy and almost un-drivable patches in between.
Our first halt was at the
Farakka Barrage for breakfast around 10:30AM. There were few road side make shift stalls selling egg toasts and hot tea. However, mineral water, cold drinks and chips were available aplenty. While the breakfast was in process, we utilized the opportunity to explore the banks of the barrage. Post-breakfast we headed straight for Lava. The landscape slowly began to change. The climb slowly starts once we had traveled through the numerous tea estates on both sides. The road was decent with sharp drivable turns. Although a stretch of the
road was rocky and became almost un-drivable due to a recent landslide. However, our Omni did a decent job in crossing the hurdles along with its fellow Sumos.
Around 12:30PM, the driver stopped near a waterfall. This waterfall, though not directly visible from the road, is considered to be the most famous local picnic spot on the way to Lava. The picnic spot was really amazing. Not big in size, but the waterfall in the backdrop made it an amazing place to spend some time. As the water was really chilled, we did not take more chances with it. Instead, we used the camera to capture the magical moments. We started from that place after spending a good 20-30 minutes.
After another 45 minutes drive, we finally reached Lava. We had already made ourselves conversant with the fog, cloud and cold weather of the hills during the last one and half hours. There was a drastic change of weather between NJP and Lava; which to us was quite surprising as well as refreshing. Our hotel was already booked and the manager was kind enough to receive us from the centre of the city. It was almost 2PM by the time we entered our room. We were really hungry and after freshening up, we quickly settled for the lunch. After lunch, we sat in the balcony and thoroughly enjoyed the amazing view of Lava from our hotel balcony.
Around 3:30PM, we went to the nearby monastery known as Ratnarishi Bihar Buddhist Gumpa, which is just a ten minutes walk from our hotel. The monastery is very beautiful and well maintained. We explored various sections of the monastery in peace and tranquility as there was hardly any tourists. The chants of the ongoing prayers made the whole atmosphere more enthralling. We sipped our hot coffee from a Nescafe joint, a part of the canteen of the monastery while witnessing the cloud clad mountain ranges behind our backs.
The trip for the day ended after we had a glimpse of the gigantic dry well followed by hot coffee and pork momo at a restaurant near the Lava taxi stand. By the time we reached our hotel, it was completely dark, with very few street lights to guide us and more importantly we were completely exhausted due to the day’s hectic travel. The temperature, by that time, had already gone down by couple degrees. We enjoyed the chillness of the evening with some Old Monk and pakora. The dinner was served around 10:30PM. Finally we retired to bed around 12 midnight.
Day 2 – We woke up around 8 in the morning with bed teas served in the room. After freshening up and tightening our backpacks, we went to the dinning room of our hotel. Post-breakfast, it was time to leave the hotel. It was an average hotel with wooden walls and fully carpeted room with TV as the only source of entertainment (though we didn’t really turn the TV set on). The charge (Rs1000 for a room for 3 persons including breakfast-lunch-evening snacks-dinner) was well within our budget. We walked up-hills for sometime and finally reached the taxi stand around 9:30AM from where our trekking to Rishop began.
We bought a couple of bottles of mineral waters and numerous chocolates to survive on our 3 hours trek to Rishop from a local shop near the taxi stand. After tightening our backpacks, we started off for Rishop. The tarmac road took us to only few hundred meters from where we had to follow the narrow and rocky road which would take us to Rishop. The road was quite rocky and narrow and almost un-drivable though we had seen two Mahindra Maxx passing by during our three hours trek to Rishiop. The starting of the trek was bit heavy on us, however, after half an hour of trekking; our bodies became acclimated with the situation. Though this
Lava to Rishop trekking takes around 3 hours to complete; we deliberately spent some more time. We enjoyed the scenic beauty of this Lava – Rishop trekking route thoroughly while stopping occasionally to capture those moments in the camera.
Around 1 PM, we reached Rishop. Our hotel in Rishop was already booked but the hotel was located in upper Rishop which was another half an hour further up-hill walk. Rishop, comparing to Lava is much sleepy town with few hotels here and there. If you like to spend some quality time and enjoy the nature, then surely it is THE place to be in. But with the ever increasing travelers to Rishop, I strongly doubt how long this place will be able to hold its natural charm. Our hotel in Rishop (Himalayan Hut) was a small yet a comfortable one. The complete wooden hotel room in Rishop added an extra charisma to the atmosphere with an attached balcony overlooking the Kanchendzonga range (though at that time nothing was visible due to heavy cloud).
Our lunch, which consisted of rice, daal, vegetables and egg curry, was ready by 2:30PM. After having our lunch, we decided to explore the local Rishop of foot. We took couple of short cuts, crossed narrow creeks and walked through the ridges. There is nothing much to do in Rishop but you can always enjoy this loneliness. We utilized this opportunity and captured more hilltop views of Rishop.
By 5:30 PM, it was beginning to get dark and we decided to walk back to our hotel. The evening was well spent inside our room with vegetable pakoro and some Old Monk leftovers. But it turned out to be a surprise when we were invited by the hotel owner to join his bon-fire party just outside the room. There was bon-fire, roasted chicken, alcohol and music and he was already enjoying with his friends. We were there for some time, and finally we headed for the dinning room for dinner. We decided to sleep early as we needed to catch a direct vehicle from Rishop to Kalimpong the next day morn, which was supposed to leave at 8AM from Rishop as told to us by the hotel owner.
Day 3 – It was one of the most memorable travel days in our life when we woke up with a clear view of the Kanchendzonga range in front of our eyes. We didn’t waste a single moment and rushed out of the room with the camera in order to enjoy and capture the beauty from a higher view point. It was around 6 in the morning, and we were so mesmerized with the scenic beauty of the Kanchendzonga range that we failed to realize how two hours had passed by. We quickly went to the hotel room to have shower and packed our baggage. But by the time we reached the reception of our hotel, the only vehicle traveling from Rishop to Kalimpong had already left.
At this point of time, the journey became more adventurous. It was almost 9AM in Rishop and we were without a vehicle and we had a train to catch at NJP after 7 hours only. The hotel owner came to our rescue, but not with his own vehicle but a personalized plan to reach NJP within time. We paid Rs.600 for the room (3 persons) and Rs.230 each for food including breakfast, lunch, evening snacks and dinner and quickly left for Choy Mile trek, as suggested by the hotel owner.
We further trekked up-hill for another 45 minutes to Choy Mile (read: six mile) while passing through the highest view point of Rishop. Since we were in hurry, we did not get enough time to explore the area nearby. But we were lucky enough to get a vehicle just before reaching Choy Mile to take us directly to Kalimpong. And surprisingly there were only three empty seats in it. It was almost like a miracle. The Rishop-Algarah-Kalimpong route is quite smooth comparing to the NJP-Malbazar-Gorubathan route, but definitely this lacked the beauty of traveling through the tea estate and passing under the dangerously dangling gigantic rocks. It was Sunday, and the street at Algarah was tremendously crowded due to “Sunday Market”. After zig zaging through the crowd, we finally reached Kalimpong taxi stand around 11AM. The journey from Choy Mile to Kalipong cost us Rs.150 for three people.
We did not have much time to explore Kalimong. We quickly had our brunch (Samosa, sweets and tea) at a near by restaurant and went to the taxi stand to book our seats for Siliguri (Most vehicles go to Siliguri, there is hardly any direct vehicle to NJP from Kalimpong). We booked a shared vehicle to Siliguri for Rs.80 each. There were total ten people jam packed in it and we reached Siliguri somehow around 1:30PM. It was indeed, an uncomfortable ride.
After having lunch (it was grand Bengali lunch) at Siliguri, we booked an auto to NJP Station and reached there by 3PM. Our train back to Calcutta was almost delayed by an hour. Finally the train left NJP around 5PM.
Day 4 – We reached Calcutta around 6:30AM, almost an hour and half late from the scheduled time. And we were back home within 7AM to enjoy the homemade breakfast.
