Darjeeling Travel Pleasures

Enter Darjeeling in West Bengal in India and go back to the time of the rule of the British. This is a virtual London with a lot Victorian touch.

There are many places to see here. Starting from the Dhoom Gompa which is around 8 kms from Darjeeling, the statue of Maitriyie Buddha is very famous here. This monastery is a place that has the best stores of the rare manuscripts of the Buddhist era.

Then there is The Mall in Darjeeling which is the most commercial street here in the pristine hill station of West Bengal. With the best varieties of the hand knitted sweaters from Tibet and the best collections of souvenirs of the Himalayas, the Mall is a greatly fascinating shopping zone for all the tourists coming here. This Mall takes one to the Chaurasta which is a square which is also a bandstand and a pony riding zone for the children.

The Chowrasta is the crossroad and is a hub of commercial fare. This is the end of the Mall Road and is also the centre of the Victorian part of Darjeeling. The restaurants and the hotels here are a great attraction and provide ultimate travel experiences. The stalls and the shops are an inevitable paradise and the sellers here are seeing selling the wares from Bhutan. So get the best of tribal ornaments, rosaries, Thankas, woolen garments, Gorkha daggers, brass statuettes that are here for sale. There are lot of foreign goods also available here which are a great travel delight for all.

Then there is the Observatory Hill which is locally called the “Makal- Babu- Ko – Thaan” . Legend has it that the Red Hat Buddhist Monastery used to be here at this spot. This was called the Dorje Ling or the place of the Thunderbolt. Then in the 19th century , the Nepalis destroyed it and today the temple of the Shivas and the Buddhists stand here.

Go to the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute and experience this constructional elegance of the great mountaineer Late Tenzing Norgay. He was the great Sherpa who succeeded in climbing he Mount Everest in the year 1953 with Edmund Hilary. There is a display of his equipment that he used while climbing in this institute. There is also a zoological garden near this institute which has a great plethora of  wildlife. The yaks are very popular here as also the red pandas and the Siberian tigers.

Then there is the Passenger Ropeway here which is called the Darjeeling Rangeet Valley ropeway. This is located at the north point around 3 km from the city of Darjeeling. This is incidentally the first kind of ropeway in India.

Then you have the Tibetan Refuge Camp which is a great hub of artifacts, carpets and jeweller and has the best tourist pleasers to offer.

The Lloyd’s Botanical Garden is the other popular sight seeing spot here. This is where you get the best kind of fauna of the Himalayas so those interested in wildlife find this a great spot to go to and also enjoy seeing the horserace at Lebong. This is the smallest and also the highest racecourse in the whole world.

Then comes the tiger Hill which at a height of 8,482 feet is a greatly fascinating sight here. This has actually got a lot of international fame and is the place where people go normally to see the sunrise over the “Kanchenjunga” and the Great Eastern Himalayan Mountains. This is the place where you get to see the Mount Everest the highest peak here.