Darjeeling Things to Do

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The road to the famous Yiga Choeling Monastery is adjacent to the Ghoom Railway Station and is only a 10-minutes walk. It is a walk through rows of small shops on both sides of the road till a sharp turning unveils the venerable monastery before you. You may find the monastery locked but there will be monks around who will oblige you if you request them to open it. Established in 1850, this monastery of the Yellow sect Buddhism, worships the 15-foot high Maitreya Buddha (Future Buddha). It was built by Lama Sherab Gyatso and houses some very rare Buddhist texts. It also houses Chenrezi and Chongapa, Buddha’s disciples.

Take the trouble of going round the monastery first, turning the prayer wheels in a clock-wise direction with your right hand. Once you enter the verandah, you will find a huge prayer wheel on the left hand side. Once inside the monastery, a huge statue of the future Buddha greets you. To your left are the rare manuscripts of the ancient Buddhist religion. All four walls have riveting frescoes. You may either take a ‘khada’ (cream-coloured light-weight scarf) and offer it to the statue or you may buy it from the monk who opened the monastery doors for you. You are allowed to take photographs. Once you return to face the huge statue again, you may make a donation in the box provided for this purpose.

First Written: May 23, 2012

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The Ghoom Railway Station is where your joyride ends. It comes all too soon, barely an hour after flag off. You have hardly had time to acknowledge your co-passengers, so engrossed you have been in your own enjoyment. As you shuffle reluctantly towards the door, you realise how short-lived your happiness has been till you look at your camera or video recorder and remember that your memory, aided by these external devices, will constantly re-live the magical moments of this joyous joyride.

First Written: May 23, 2012

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The Ghoom Railway Museum, a UNESCO heritage site, is worth a visit where you may see the origins of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR). You will learn that the DHR started functioning in 1881; that until 1878, the route from Calcutta to Darjeeling was tortuous in the extreme and that it took 5/6 days; that the engineers invented the Loops and Z-Reverses for the train to gain height; and, that it went under the Coronation Bridge to reach Siliguri. Rare black-and-white photos adorn the walls.

First Written: May 23, 2012

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On your final day in Darjeeling, you can afford to take it easy as your Toy Train ride will only start at 10.40 am. The preparations of the train engine as well as the two carriages are a treat to watch.

It takes three uniformed engine drivers to get the Beauty Queen primed. There’s a lot of hooting (book only for the steam engine and NOT for the diesel engine) and shuttling of the carriages. The lady ticket examiner in uniform looks equally fetching while the Train Master himself struts up and down the platform. Each seat in the carriage is draped with a white cloth and the car sure looks squeaky clean. It hardly matters if you’re in the first row or the middle or the last – the scenery is the same for everyone. With some more last-minute hooting, the Guard blows the whistle and the Toy Train is off.

All too soon you’ll be performing a loop at the Batasia Loop, a tourist sight. Here, the train tops for 10 minutes for you to take in the scenery of the picturesque town, the plains below as well as pay homage to the brave soldiers from Darjeeling who have laid down their lives since 1947 in the service of the motherland. A fitting monument is at the centre of the park. Another hoot and you are off towards Ghoom Railway Station.

First Written: May 23, 2012

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After that sumptuous lunch and before you begin feeling soporific, try out the Darjeeling Ropeway. It earlier consisted of 16 cars and plied between 'North Point' and Singla on the banks of the Ramman River. The journey on the ropeway offered beautiful views of the hills and the valleys around Darjeeling.

Started in 1968 it had to stop operations in Oct. 2003 after the cable snapped and two cars plummeted 100 feet down the hill killing 4 tourists. It was reopened on Feb. 2, 2012 with lesser number of cars and a truncated journey. From 7,100 ft (2,134 m) in Darjeeling’s North Point (Singamari), this bi-cable ropeway descends for about 15 minutes to Puttabong Tea Estate in Tukvar village. It passes over dense forests, green valleys and tea gardens offering unmatched scenic vistas.

It is now operated as a joint venture by the West Bengal Forest Development Corporation and Conveyor & Ropeway Services Pvt. Ltd. (CRS). It operates between 10 am to 2 pm and the rates are Rs. 120/- per adult and Rs. 60/- per child (above 3 years to 8 years old). On the 14th of each month, the ropeway is closed for maintenance but if the day happens to be a Sunday, then the maintenance is done the next day. Each car carries 6 passengers only; try to grab the seat facing the downhill journey. The scene is far better this way. While returning also, grab the same seat for the best views.

On your way back to the hotel, you could check up the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, the Tenzing Rock, the Zoo and the Nightingale Park. Kids will love to try out their mountaineering skills at the Tenzing rock.

First Written: May 22, 2012

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If you are into art, you may try out the Ava Art Gallery close by. Else you may take a transport to the Japanese Peace Pagoda (4 kms away). The moment you climb the last step up, three sights await you: the long stone-inscribed pillar in front, the Nipponzan Myohoji Temple with its two lions at the entrance to your off-left and the peace pagoda in the distant off-right with its wide, sweeping steps.

Standing at a lofty 90 ft (28 m) with a girth of 75 ft (23 m), the Japanese Peace Pagoda is a snow-white (symbol of peace and of unity) icon of world peace reaching out to all the people regardless of race, religion or country. Designed by M. Ohka and built under the guidance of Nichidatsu Fujii, it reportedly took 3 years to complete after the foundation laying ceremony in 1992. The pagoda itself is further away from the two-storied prayer hall. You can enter the upper floor of the Nipponjan Myohoji Temple and beat a hand-held cymbal-like drum to the accompaniment of a Buddhist chant. The puja timings are 4.30 am-6 am and 4.30 pm to 6 pm.

You may then try out some ‘momos’ and ‘thukpas’, ethnic Buddhist food for lunch. Thereafter, wend you way down to the Happy Valley Tea Estate for a crash-course into the intricate art of growing, plucking, manufacturing, tasting and selling tea leaves. It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, an experience enriched by the subtleties of first flush, second flush and third flush.

First Written: May 22, 2012

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Once you return to the Darjeeling Railway Station, walk over to the Dhirdham Temple next door. Designed by Beg Raj Sakya and built by Rai Saheb Purna Bahadur Pradhan in 1939, this temple was inspired by the famous Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal. The roof of the temple is, however, reminiscent of a Tibetan monastery.

A huge statue of Lord Shiva greets you at the entrance. It opens only in the mornings and evenings for ‘aarti’. It miraculously survived the Aug. 1950 landslide which took away a large chunk of land just beneath the temple.

First Written: May 19, 2012

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From there, you could roll down to the Darjeeling Railway Station and book your ticket for the next day’s joy ride till Ghoom. This can also be done online (Train Number 52548; Darjeeling to Darjeeling; 10.40 am and 12.50 pm) and I would strongly suggest doing so as tickets are hard to get on the two First Class Chair Car compartments.

You can’t buy single journey ticket in the Toy train; the ticket is Darjeeling to Ghoom and back, a total of roughly Rs. 200/- for almost 2 hours. The distance till Ghoom is barely 7 kms but it takes a pleasant 50 minutes to reach there after the 10 minutes stop at Batasia Loop. The War Cemetery there is a sombre reminder of the supreme sacrifice made by the fearsome Gorkha soldiers of Darjeeling with their ‘khukris’.

At Ghoom Station itself, the Toy Train stops for 30 minutes to enable you to check out the Ghoom Railway Museum – a veritable treasure house.

First Written: May 18, 2012