April 28 | I wish i was a better writer.

The plan was to leave early morning and reach our next destination, Siliguri by late afternoon and figure our way ahead from there. But unfortunately, it was pouring at 5AM when we planned to leave, so we had to hold on. With some decent breakfast, we took off at about 10AM.

Our map suggested that Siliguri was 65kms, but when we started the journey, the milestone reflected 172kms! We kept going on. Since it had rained the same morning, the weather even on the way seemed damp and clouded, but as boring as it may sound, it turned out beautiful. We were following the NH31 which passed through thick jungles on both sides and peppered with many nature parks, we took a short detour to one of these. The South Khaibari Nature Park’s entrance was 2kms off the main road that we were travelling on but the road was beautiful. We planned to reach the gate, look around and then take off, but on the way it started getting too dark and conspicuous so we just turned around after about a km.

I’m not a writer but had i been one, i would’ve been able to explain what we were getting to see on our ride. These were lush green forests on both sides, sometimes with a drizzle or a pour from the sky and pleasant, clean breeze flowing into our faces. There were times when it looked like bodo militants sporting guns will just pop out of the jungle, but then off course none did. Being on the bike with large bags and heavy gear, we got a lotta stares, it was difficult to make out if they were friendly or otherwise, but if i have to go by my belief, all people are good unless they prove themselves otherwise, so i did wave at a few and sometime was returned with a smile or a perplexed expression.

Being the second day of the ride, it was a little more stressful to ride, but the weather really made up for all the stress. What added to the stress were the roads, initially the stretch from Alipurdwar to Siliguri was quite bad, and the later stretch though was awesome. At many moments, the roads were good enough to cruise at 100kmph, which was almost impossible earlier.

Entering Siliguri, we encountered some traffic because road was being constructed, but this should be done soon. Once in, we had to look for a good lunch and the place to sit and decide if we are taking off further or sacking here at Siliguri. After a few suggestions from friends, we decided to leave for Kurseong, this is a place half way from Siliguri to Darjeeling which is about 35kms.

Just as we started our ride over the mountains, we saw the last toy-train for the day coming back from Darjeeling to Siliguri. As you would know, this has been declared a world heritage site and while just looking at it is not much of a pleasure, sitting in one would sure be fun. The ride here on was uphill, which meant, it’ll be Suzy riding all the way from here. We started the ride at about 5PM, expecting to reach by 6:30PM. But the roads weren’t kind, we were doing an average of about 15-20kmph! Potholes and construction all over the place does pull one back.
Since in the east, we expected the sun to set by about 5:30PM, but luckily it stayed fairly lit till about 6:30PM. It would’ve been a good idea to take off a little earlier and complete more of the journey in light because the sites on the way are brilliant and not to be missed. There are ample of photo-opportunities and quaint little tea stalls on the way that one would like to make a stop-over at. The entire stretch is full of small villages along the way, but just at the beginning and the end of many villages, there are sweeter and less commercial places, which would be our recommendation for chai breaks.

After dark, it did tend to become a little more difficult to ride and this was accentuated by the innumerable trucks and cabs along the way. But if you ask Suzy, he loved the ride, it was quite an experience for him to ride in this terrain.

Kurseong is a town full of schools, apparently hundreds if you have to believe the locals so by the time we reached, it was quite dead. While looking for a hotel, we came across the Tourist Lodge and all about it just worked for us. It wasn’t outrageously priced, it had a balcony outside the room that looked over the valley and it had a decent covered parking area for the bike.

The day was long and tiring and nothing could’ve been better than a good dinner along with a few drinks. The bar at the lodge was this nice (almost) sauna looking room with walls of wood. They shut shop by 8:30PM, so we had to make our orders asap. While just sipping our first drink, a certain Mr Thapa came by to talk. He seemed happy high and claimed that he was an officer with the RAW, while we never bothered to speak any further about that, we did have a great evening with Mr Thapa. He was well travelled and knew a lot about both B’bay and Delhi.
This is when we crashed for a good night’s sleep.

Morals: Take as many break on your way to Siliguri, its beautiful. Rains cannot be predicted, so keep the bags well guarded. Have rain-sheeters and other small covers to waterproof your small belongings. When leaving from Siliguri, leave early to catch the evening skies on the way up. Tourist Lodge at Kurseong is a nice place to stay with friendly set of people to take care of you.