Experience this beautiful hamlet away from the hustle and bustle of Darjeeling......

----Sealdah to NJP----
Planning a trip with your office colleagues is a task in itself. Getting leaves on the same day is like inviting death (sigh....)😪
Nonetheless we managed a short three day trip to Tinchuley, a small village near Darjeeling to spend some peaceful time in nature's lap, witness the mighty Kanchenjunga (if we are lucky!), the meandering tea gardens, the appeasing monasteries and the soothing long drives....
Though the preferred time to visit Tinchuley is during winters, we decided to be more audacious and experience the scenic beauty of this place in the peak July monsoons.

How we reached Tinchuley?
We boarded the Kachenkanya Express from Sealdah railway station at 8:30pm. It takes around 11 hours to reach New Jalpaiguri (NJP) Station, the ETA of the train being 7:35 am next morning.
Tinchuley is around 73 km from NJP which takes around 2.5-3 hours.

----NJP to Tinchuley----
Though NJP welcomed us with an unexpected bright sunshine for a monsoon month, the weather gradually took its real role. All misty and foggy with Teesta river flowing at one side and the captivating blue sky on the other. We had booked a Scorpio from the home stay itself for the entire duration of the trip.

Abhiraj Home Stay
We were welcomed with great amount of love and affection to this beautiful abode amidst the pine forests where the clouds come to visit you at your doorstep 😍.

We freshened up, had our lunch and headed to the hanging bridge followed by Teesta valley tea garden.

The hanging bridge was closed to access due to heavy rains, though the beauty of it enriches your eyes and is a great spot for some clicks 😉.

Our next destination was Teesta Valley Tea Garden. Being brought up in a place surrounded by sea, I did not expect it to be a great deal but the sight of the green lavish tea garden and it's surreal beauty cannot be put into words. Since it was monsoons, we were the only people present in the entire stretch of the plantation covering a 360° of our gaze.

We spent some time till the sunset and witnessed sirimiri which eventually turned to heavier showers and hence rushed back to our car fully drenched. 🤭

The drive back to the home stay was a kind we won't forget in a lifetime with fog and clouds making the visibility close to nil and the rains adding the thrill to the drive.

----Lamahatta Trail----
The best part of any place are their pretty mornings and the morning walks. The view from the home stay is as tranquilizing as the first rains. The breathtakingly beautiful scenes is worth the sacrifice of your sleep.

We visited the Tinchuley monastery which is around 10 minutes walk from the homestay as well as a Kachenjunga view point which is almost the same distance. Though the probability to view Kachenjunga range during monsoons in the thick cloud cover  is almost zero, the view point is worth a visit.

Coming back to the home stay and hogging on some "garam garam aloo paranthe", we spent some chill time in the midst of chirping of the birds, the hovering cloud cover over our balcony and the brewing coffees.

The plan for the day was a trek to Lamahatta. Although, there is a motorable road to reach the same, we decided to add some adventure to the journey by taking the forest trail.

The trail is safe otherwise, but during monsoons the leeches won't leave you alone. It took us around an hour or so to cover the forest trail and reach Lamahatta with leeches stuck to our legs and doing their job of sucking the blood.🤐
Every one of us indeed freaked out at the sight of blood oozing out from our respective legs and decided to call it off for further exploration and return back.
(PS:- Take the forest trail completely on your own risk)

----Tinchuley to Darjeeling and NJP----
The morning was as magnificent and charming as the mountains and the pine forests and we did actually had a view of Kanchenjunga range for some split seconds. (Hence coming here became totally "Sarthak")

Today being the last day of the trip, we left early bidding adieu to this beautiful home stay and their more beautiful people.
Since we didn't finish Lamahatta the previous day, we decided to visit it again by car and this was the best decision taken since you just can't miss out on Lamahatta. After reaching Lamahatta, there is a short trek of around 40 minutes to reach the pond and the unending pine forests.

Our plan was to cover multiple sights in between and reach Darjeeling. The wishlist included Gumbadara view point, Ghum Monastery, Batasia Loop and finally the mall area of Darjeeling.

We had our lunch in Darjeeling and spent some time in the mall area and bought the exotic Darjeeling tea and headed to NJP railway station to catch our train on time.
The drive from Darjeeling to NJP through Kurseong was unexpectedly mollifying. We reached NJP and boarded our train back to Sealdah, Padatik Express at 9:00 pm.

As Douglas Adams rightly describes :
"I may have not gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be...."

Cheers to such short trips that bring some adventure to our mundane lifestyle just like the little pretty showers on a scorching afternoon....
Do give a visit to this beautiful hamlet in monsoons for a new thrill altogether....