A Daredevil Road Trip to the Queen of Hills- Darjeeling !!

Sudden trips with friends have always been the most exciting and thrilling trips anyone can bet for !
Why to go to Europe to visit the Alps when you have the untouched beauty of Kanchenjunga and you can spent the entire day gazing at it from this beautiful place- Darjeeling and yes ofcourse the name " Queen of Hills" makes the perfect justice to it .

We, a group of 3 friends started for Darjeeling from Burdwan on 28th of October 2020. We saw its a 16hrs drive from Burdwan to Darjeeling. We started at 3:30 pm from Burdwan , for few kms the roads are decent but after that there were less roads and more potholes . Yes Government needs to give atleast decent roads for road trip enthusiasts. Nevertheless it indeed improved our driving skills..lol.  We took some breaks in roadside Dhabas and stalls, there are few where you can have food and take rest for a while..We drove the entire night...

We reached siliguri at around 6 am in the morning , felt like so relieved after the hell of a journey. Siliguri is indeed a great place with some natural touch. We had tea and started for Darjeeling.
Let me tell you we have pre-booked an AirBnB homestay - Heyagriva. From Siliguri it normally takes 2.5 hrs to Darjeeling and trust me the twist and turns in the hilly roads are just too thrilling and fun to drive. Ofcourse it's a fun if you know driving in hills or else it's scary.. haha..but again it's fun and the journey is exciting specially the hair pin turns.
We reached Heyagriva at around 9 am. We booked the homestay with the hope it will be good , but it turned out to be heaven 😍. Host Paulzor and his family are so welcoming and are very good persons. The view from the private terrace is just mesmerizing!! You can checkout the Homestay in the link I will share at the last.
After a 17hr drive we were bit tired and and we preferred to have breakfast and then took some rest.
Weather in the morning is bit warm but as the sun sets it starts becoming pleasant. In the evening we went out and walked to mall road , it's just 10 mins by walk from Heyagriva. The Mall area will give you a kind of European streets. The atmosphere is very lively. You can do lots of shopping in the mall market and the price will be very reasonable and if you have the talent of bargaining you will get things at very less price.
We have heard of Glenary's is one of the famous place to chill out. We went to the Glenary's Pub , there was a live music going on and the atmosphere was very lively and you will love the ambience.
We spent a couple of hours over there and then by 9 normally the market closes in Darjeeling and we returned to Heyagriva. You can have drinks , hookah in the terrace and another beautiful part is there are 4 playful dogs in Heyagriva and that will make your stay even special. We had some drinks and the weather was getting chiller with time which you will love it. You can simply gaze at the stars , it was a clear sky luckily. That's all for the day..we went to sleep.

Day 3 of mine started with the desire to see sunrise. Normally you will like to see sunrise from the tiger hill but we had other plans for tiger hill.
From the terrace of Heyagriva you can see a beautiful sun rise . Sunrise happens at 5:30 am and my goodness it's just beautiful to watch how the colour of the sky changes to orange and I was lucky to witness the golden Ring .
We thought to have breakfast in another famous place known for English breakfast in Darjeeling - Keventers
The view from Keventers is beyond explanation, breakfast with the view of snow capped Kanchenjunga is just what you call a perfect breakfast with the best view you can ever have. Talking about the breakfast for non vegetarian there are many choice but for the vegetarians you have pretty less choice . It's bit expensive but you can always enjoy the ambience once
After breakfast we thought to go for  local sightseeing, just opposite of Keventers there is a small place where you can hire cabs for sightseeing. For a day they will charge you around 2000 to 2400 INR based on what you want to cover.
We started with Peace Pagoda which is a very silent place and you can have some real peace of mind there, just adjacent to that there is a Japanese Temple , you can see the architecture of the Temple and can read about the culture.
Next spot was Batasia Loop , it is a place for the Gorkha Memorial. You will find toy train tracks around it , you can spent some hours there.
Next we went to Tea Plantation , you can taste the Darjeeling tea over there
After that we went to Rock Garden. This is really a cool place to hangout , you have waterfalls and you can feel the chillness of the place. We also spent the afternoon over there. There are few stalls where you can have the momos as well.
After that we returned to Heyagriva took some rest and went to the mall road in the evening for shopping.
There are also some other places like the Darjeeling zoo , Mahakal Temple , Ghoom station.Monasteries are also there but because of Covid -19 all are closed.
We did some shopping in the mall market had food in the Fiesta Restaurant which is just in the centre of the mall and yes that's all for the day

Day 4 is the most exciting day and we decided to do something which in general people donot do. We were to visit Tiger hill on cycle . There is place adjacent to Tom n Jerry cafe where you can get rented Mountain cycles. Our Homestay host- Paulzor has helped us to get the cycles. We were very excited to cycle to Tiger hill. Normally people take cars or bikes to reach Tiger hill. It's a 10Km journey from Mall road and it's almost complete uphill journey. It took 2.5 hrs to reach Tiger hill and trust me you will get tired so have water with you. I always think - "If your legs get tired .. keep trust on your heart". At one point we thought to give up but the never give up attitude kept our zeal alive and yes we did it . The view from tiger hill is worth the pain and struggle of cycling 10km uphill. That day we could see the peak of Mount Everest also. It's the pleasure to witness the natural beauty. We took some rest over there and started our downhill journey afterwards. Please make sure you come back before 5 as it will be pitch black and may be not safe too. The way to tiger hill is also through a sanctuary. After 20kms of cycling we were little tired..but ofcourse it's a lifetime experience to cherish.
We went to to mall market in the evening to wrap up our never ending shopping..and yes thats how our Darjeeling trip remains one of the memorable trip of ours.
Next day morning we packed our bags and started for Burdwan at 7 am and reached home at around 11:30 pm.

Happy Travelling

Points to note:
1) Heyagriva Airbnb link - https://www.airbnb.co.in/rooms/9797571?source_impression_id=p3_1604742063_mniJXVDNXX2SUCcQ

2) I will not recommend road trip from Kolkata as the roads are not worth for Road Trip. Better take flight or train

3) Cycle rent is 700 INR per cycle per day

4) Heyagriva uses an ancient method of Sanitization.

5) Total expense for 3 person in road trip is 30000 INR