Morning with Queen of Mountains

When we reached Darjeeling it was already evening. The jeep drive was tiring. But the whole drive was amazing as I had the window seat. The beautiful curvy road, river along the side and the whole drive as such was great. The best seat would be of that of driver. But he did not seem to be that exited. May just another day at work.

We didn't have to search for the hotel as we had booked the hotel from Siliguri. The hotel was decent for the cost. We had a good dinner and watched Govind & Akshay comedy at Multiplex. Night was more chiller than I thought.

Matty wanted to go in the train. He had planned to go to Ghoom in Train. But he was lazy to go to railway station to buy tickets. So it was me and MK who had too. But it turned out to be very interesting. The booking counter was not yet open and I needed a smoke (only when it was cold). As it is not legal to smoke in public area we moved out.There we saw the queen getting ready for the day. Myself and MK could not resist. As we entered I was scared as to what would guards tell. But they were very friendly and allowed to take pictures with her. Of course my mobile played a major role.

Queen of hills needs warming up for the journey. According to the driver she needs an hour or more to reach the required pressure. So they will start filling her say around 5 am.

That is MK posing beside her. He was as exited as me. It was early morning and there were none other than us and workers in the shed. Care takers helped us to take the pics.

Thats the guy who takes care of her.He got some more coal to fill in.

Actually we took lot many pics. I cant upload everything. This page is already full of pictures than words.

We got the tickets and managed to reach the station in time. There were so many kids in the train. People were taking pics all around the train. I took a picture when train started to move. This train journey is more like a fun toy train ride. Its very slow and goes beside the regular roa

We reached Ghum in an hours time. We got down there and few more photo sessions. Ghum is known for Monastery. And also it is the highest rail station located at an altitude of 2,225.7 meters (7,407 feet). A co-traveler took our picture.

Walk around 250 meters from the rail station you will get Ghum Monastery. We spent some time there. Then we returned to Darjeeling to have the best tea (!?!).

This story is a part of my travel stories from North East India called storiesfromnortheastindia. The places covered are Kolkatta, Darjeeling, Gangtok and many other in Sikkim.