‘Chasing angels or fleeing demons, go to the mountains,’ says Jeffrey Rasley, an acclaimed trekker and writing coach in his book Bringing Progress to Paradise: What I Got from Giving to a Mountain Village in Nepal. And this is precisely what my friends and I did to escape the energy-sapping demonic heat and humidity of Siliguri city. I headed for the mountains of Kurseong, a scenic, serene hill station in Darjeeling district.
Kurseong is roughly 40 kms from Siliguri, a distance that can be covered by car in about 45 minutes that is if you drive at a steady speed. But since we wanted to bask in the mysterious beauty of the mist wrapped roads, with clouds playing peek-a-boo, we drove at a slow speed, with car windows rolled down, and the crisp mountain air wafting in and out, creating its own music.
Our first stop was a tea plantation at Bagdogra, which is about 12 kms from Siliguri. We had seen tea plantations before but never actually got down to explore how the workers go about their assigned responsibilities in a plantation. So, there was a unanimous call to check-in and see for ourselves how the things worked. At what a pleasant experience it was! We actually got to pluck tea leaves there!
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| Tea Plantation at Bagdogra |
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| Trying my hand at picking tea leaves! |
After this initial pit-stop, it was a slow drive up the hills of Kurseong, taking in the landscape change low rising hills to dense mountains covered in endless shades of green! Here are a few photos from the trip, which turned out to be one of the best road trips of my life!
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| Kurseong Railway Station, a heritage site |
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| Mist laden mountains |
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| Pretty house dot the serene roads |
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| When in the east, do eat momos! |
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| And do not miss the Wai Wai! |
I call this trip best because the mountains not just gave me a respite from the seething heat of the city, but also gave me a much needed break from the mundane inanities that we so often get caught up in, while living a routine in the chaos called city life!
