With love from Darjeeling…

It was a winter morning and that is when I arrived to this beautiful land. The place which is full of clouds, forests, cold, valleys, scenery and you name and it has. The place full of beautiful landscape and more beautiful people.

I was again out to fall in love with a new place, a place known as the Queen of Hill none other than Darjeeling. I was out on my business trip (that is what I quote when I am travelling) trying to explore the new destination. I was already in the middle of the beautiful Tea estates before I could realise and smelling the tea. There was that fresh green smell of the forest on the road that I was travelling on. I was leaning out of the window and the wind silently tickling my cheeks. It was the best touch that I had ever had. The whole way I could see was tall trees. Just talking with my driver I was trying to know the place for my better as I was going to spend the whole week in this new place and so that in future I can convince people to go there for a vacation which will fund my next vacation. So leaving business for a while I come back on my talk.

I could go on and on with this journey, the hills and the roads seemed never ending but it’s all about the journey and not the destination when I am travelling. There is always a curiosity of what I will find in this place or rather what this place has to offer me, to lure me in coming back to it again and again. In a way this place has convinced me to be here and leave my heart in return.

Talking about the place and travel and leaving the heart and falling in love makes me write about this guy that I met on my journey. Not that I don’t meet many people and stay in contact with them but then this guy had something more to attract me than any usual. And the worst / best part was we kept on meeting at every destination. My trip started from Jaldapara, the Jungle near Jaigaon. It has a Bungalow called Hollong, which is usually meant for VIP guests, but unusual conditions and contacts made me enjoy the stay over there. So I was there alone in a room sitting with the cup of hot coffee and enjoying watching animals too up and close. So then I didn’t have much to do I thought of having a nice walk as it was still day light and a walk nearby couldn’t hurt, also there will always be someone new whom I can talk to!

So I was out for a stroll and there came a roaring sound of a car who came in and there were some new guests at the entrance. So I was also curious to know who they were so that I will have few more people to add in my list. But there was some more time to entertain the new guests so I continued my stroll and saw few bison and wild boar and sambar and many more elephants. I thing about this place is they had a very unique way of calling animals near so that their guests can have up close and personal encounter with the animals. I was so struck with the sight of the animals so near I actually forgot having my hi-tea. Then there was a guy from the management came to call me to have my tea. This was again a good way to strike a conversation with the guy and get information about how to get a stay in this particular bungalow. But that was not necessary as this is an authentic place and I would like to be it that only.

So I was still there sitting on a bench and waiting for few more animals come near. There a family and few more people waiting along with me, but as the light starting going low there were 2-3 people whom I can consider as enthusiastic people. So again I was curious to talk as there were minimum conversations today, and being a Gemini this doesn’t suit me at all. So there was this guy too calm, I guess his parents had left to the room by then and he seemed to be too interested watching and waiting for the animals there. And it was interesting to talk to him and know what he is up to. Maybe I am too nosey but how does that matter as long as it was just for the trip. So I walked up to him and just randomly started talking, but I don’t think so he was interested in talking much, so it was just the name and for why they were here. There was only 1 liner answers from him. So for my knowledge they were here for some wedding and extended trip. That’s all for the day.

After dinner we again came back to the viewer’s area and there were again few people as it was pitch dark already and nothing much was visible until the guy came with a big torch. And there were few more bison then. This was a real sight but then I was waiting for the big Rhino, it was getting darker and colder so I started walking towards my room and then I had a company. Mr. Parag, the guy about whom I was discussing before was walking with me and we had few talks to exchange. There is a common hall with a window facing the ground where the animals come to fed themselves. We decided to sit there until the Rhino visits us. And he really took too long to visit, by then it was mid-night and the only few sentence changed into long talks. There were we talking about new destination, places of interests, food, and stay and so on! But then our attention was diverted to the Rhino, yes! Finally he came to pay us a visit. It was almost mid-night then seeing the huge creature in the torch light was amazing. After that there was no energy left to continue the conversation and we were back to our rooms. It was literally to sleep in the jungle.