Kalimpong and Baiguney Dec 2021! - Day 1

And as we continue living through another year with the dreaded virus not going anywhere, the four of us decided to go ahead with our yearly trip, ready to brave come what may! 

After a lot of deliberation, cancelling our pre-bookings to Binsar, finally deciding to go ahead with Kalimpong and Baiguney, we booked the air tickets to Bagdogra, the closest airport. This sealed our decision to travel!

Not knowing the exact whereabouts of either of these places, we had a vague idea that they were located North East of India. (Psst... we had mainly booked the rooms here as we wanted to visit North East, and Club Mahindra had their resorts and tie-ups in these places in the North East!)

We browsed through various online reviews to understand where exactly we were going. Intrigued by the fact that both the places were actually in two different states, separated by a river flowing the length of both these places, we managed to get a good idea of what all was recommended to be explored. 

Temperatures promised to be freezing, so we ensured we were well stocked up with winter clothing (or so we thought)

An early morning 2:45am travel to the airport for a 6:00 am flight, into which we were all loaded much before time, only to wait in the flight, all belted up, for the next hour plus!! The visibility was close to zero, and the pilot could move no where, until the fog cleared. Sleep getting the better of all of us, nodding away, waking up intermittently to check if the flight had taken off, which it finally did at 7:40, we slept through most of the journey. 

Bagdogra being a small airport, after collecting our baggage, we quickly found our pre-booked cab with a friendly driver, to take us to our destination for the next few days - Kalimpong. We did a stop at Laddoo Gopal - the only vegetarian restaurant in this stretch - of close to 4 hours travel before we reached Kalimpong. 

After an enticing, heavy brunch of masala dosas, roti bhajis, parathas, chole bature and chats ( He had good Jain options too!), we were a tad disappointed though that tea / coffee available was only the machine ones. I did have a cup of tea to try and stop that dreaded headache that was setting in!! Resuming our journey, after some breathtaking views along the way, which we could not resist capturing on camera, we reached our hotel (tired and just ready to rest it out for the next hour or so. ) The entire journey (well, almost) was along the river Teesta! 

The staff at the hotel told us that we had the room with the best view. She said we will be able to spot the K2 mountain tomorrow. What? Come again? K2? You mean Kanchenjunga? Oh well... We did not really believe her at that point, and did even try for a room on the floor above ours so that what ever mountains were visible, they would at least be without the intrusion of the house right in front of our balcony, in vain though!

After a quick rest, we stepped out for a trek (as the children would like to call it). More like a walk to get familiarised with the area. On our return, we waited for the hotel to be open for dinner. We went in to catch an early dinner of Thukpa (a local favourite), American Chopsuey, and Dal chawal with Bhajjis. Satiated, we hit the sack early, so that we could wake up early and try to catch a glimpse of K2, if that was really true! Ofcourse not before arranging for our tour cab to take us around Kalimpong the next morning. Wait till you hear about our exciting morning tomorrow!