April 30 | Met the sweetest Lodge Hosts ever!

The plan was to head to Darjeeling and since that was not too far, we thought; why not rest till a little late this morning. We got up at an easy 8PM, and after some decent English breakfast at the Tourist Lodge restaurant, we took off for Darjeeling. Since a friend from B’bay, Shyamal Sinha who has done this route in the past told us to visit Mirik; we thought we’ll go there on the way and then head to Darjeeling.

We started the journey anticipating about a 35-37kms ride today because that’s how much Darjeeling is from Kurseong, but the road had something else in mind for us. When we reached the junction at ‘Ghoom’ which is 8kms from Darjeeling, the signboard suggested ‘Mirik’ as 35kms from Ghoom! We were now confused whether to visit Mirik at all, so we asked around about what’s there to watch at Mirik and everyone seemed to suggest a beautiful lake, so we decided to go there and drive back incase the city is boring.

But guess, the weather gods were not favouring us today as well and threw in heavy fog on the way, this substantially slowed us down. Instead of an average of 30-35kmph, we went down to less than 10kmph on this stretch. The fog was dense enough to afford only about 5-7mtrs of visibility add to that the roads were potholed and narrow and there was heavy traffic on the opposite side. Since it was not very cold at Kurseong, we had worn light warms but after Ghoom, the nip grew and so did the pelting, we were both cold so even with the hardship of having to open all the plastic covers of the bag and repack, we stopped at a little shelter by the road to get a few more warms and also put the camera in a more safe place. Shelters like this can be found across the route at regular intervals.

On the stretch there are two important villages; Sukhia and Fatak where you will find some people and food if necessary. We stopped at Sukhia which is about 10kms from Ghoom and had hot chai and steaming momos served with soup at this hole-n-the-wall called Emmanuel. Someone told us that fog will recede after Sukhia, but that did not really happen so we continued inching towards Mirik, by now our expectations from Mirik were mounting. After Fatak though, after losing some altitude, we could see much more clearly. The stretch from there is quite full of Tea Gardens with lush green shoots ready to be picked. We did not really stop because we felt that else it would get dark and we’ll not be able to enjoy the view at the Lake.

But after reaching Mirik’s famed lake, we were grossly disappointed, so much so that we didn’t even get off the bike to walk around it. Also by now it was already late and going back to Darjeeling was not a possibility because with the road like the one we came from riding in the night would be dangerous. Since our experience at the Tourist Lodge was good at Kurseong, we looked for one here as well but unfortunately they were all booked for a conference. The guy there suggest another Govt Tourism property called Model Hotel which he pointed out to us and it looked just the kind of place we were looking for, one with a good view. But there was no water supply in this property so even they left us still looking. But before that, let me tell you that this Model Hotel if functional is a good place to stay. We went down to a few more hotels and checked out the rates and rooms, we eventually had one place where we could stay.

Riding through the city, we had noticed a huge monastery over the hill and casually thought to ourselves that it would be quite an experience to stay in a monastery for a night and this made us go and check at the monastery if they’d let us stay there. It was our NEGA (for those who don’t understand this, it is a Negotiations Course at the ISB) at its peak; Sushant would keep pushing the monk to check and get back even when the monk said they don’t allow, but unfortunately they refused so we decided to come back to the hotel where we had already identified a room. Don’t know what really struck Mirik, but suddenly all the properties were full, we were just not finding rooms. Eventually we came to this lodge called ‘Buddha Lodge’ run by an old couple Mr and Mrs S. K. Tamang. When i asked for rooms while Suzy was waiting outside; before anything else, aunty asked me who will be staying with me, male or female and when i said male she was perplexed and looked like she wanted to ask if we were going to do anything wrong. That’s when i got it and told her a little about us and re-assured her about our characters. From there on, she was a sweetheart. Even uncle when he came out he was super nice and helped us with a lot of stuff and made a personal recommendation of the room we should select, i went with his recommendation.

Just as were about to leave for dinner, the lights in the town went-off and uncle said that this does happen often. The recommended restaurant didn’t seem too appealing because we were looking at a drink to go with the food but could not really say that to the couple. So we went on the lookout and decided to go with ‘Jagjit' is one of the only decent restaurants there, the food was decent and not extravagant.

Getting back home, we just showered and crashed.

Morals: When in these areas, never assume anything about the weather, it can change in matter of minutes hence don’t pack your warms while leaving for journey. Always check your lights before the journey, in times of fog, lights work efficiently to warn the ongoing traffic of your being in front. Small places on the road can sometimes serve great food and also provide a breather, so keep experimenting on the way. If you have found a room but need some time to check a few other properties, make sure you request the hotel to hold the rooms for you while you get back.