A century aged 'legacy' serpents by way of the sequestered hills from the Kanchenjunga carpeted with forests and tea plantations, hewn inside a multi-colored avian and floral metropolis and equally vibrant clusters of tribal villages with giggling Bhutia and Lepcha ladies. The 'legacy' is affectionately called the 'toy train'. What tends to make the sojourn so singularly rapturous, besides the panoramic backdrop, is the path as a result of a treacherous 88 km of undulating and steep gradient on a two foot narrow gauge that celebrated its 125th birthday this July. Leaving the hung-ho apart, welcome towards the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, a Globe Heritage and also a prized remnant of the British Raj - that ferries between Siliguri and Darjeeling. A brainchild with the Eastern Bengal Railway agent, Franklin Prestage, the engineering marvel moves on adhesion and chugs its way as much as Ghoom - Asia's highest railway station at seven,407 ft.

The Tour Map
New Jalpaiguri - Sunk - Tindharia - Gayabari - Kurseong - Toong - Sonada - Darjeeling

The Tour Itinerary
What's peculiar about the railway is always that everytime the gradient is as well steep, the tracks are brought back again a few yards plus the climb commences at a slightly diverse stage, sketching a z-shaped zigzag-not as soon as, but six times from the 51-mile-stretch from Siliguri to Darjeeling.

The 8-hour voyage from New Jalpaiguri commences at about 9 AM every morning. Forests melt into countless expanse of manicured tea-plantations that look like large actions on the hill, as you attain the initially station Sunk (146.5 mt). The 1st spiral loop commences as the prepare painstakingly puffs via an virtually impenetrable thicket of Sal, Toon, Teak hewn with purple bougainvillea, the scarlet poinsettia and also the exotic mauve orchids that cloister a planet of spectacular elegance of roaring waterfalls and gurgling streams.

At in regards to the 22nd km, is yet another difficult loop. The travellers then encounter their first reversing zigzag as the train whistles as a result of its next loop at Chunbati (2,000ft) scaling higher heights to achieve the sta at Tindharia (2821 ft)!!!

Soon the train heads for another reverse, the final 1 at three,400 ft just after Gayabari Station the place the line runs close for the edge of a precipice with all the Pagla Jhora or "Mad Torrent", a thundering waterfall inside the distance which in its fury washes absent street and track, homes and retailers every single couple of a long time cutting off Darjeeling for days in the course of the monsoons.

The subsequent a single, Mahanandi Station at about 48 km, offers a person a glimpse with the source of your river. One more kilometer or so, and also the Kurseong STA (4,860 ft), or "The Land in the White Orchid" emerges, as the train whistles through the streets and shops with little children screaming in excitement.

The prepare heads for that Toong STA (five,565 ft) together with the mighty Kanchengunga inside backdrop, hypnotizing the beholders as well as the thought of chasing this kind of heights in a Tom Thumb Carriage, tingling their nervous system. Piercing by way of dense fog, the practice reaches Sonada Station (six,552 ft) - known for its wild bears, bounty of fruits, vegetables, milk and Darjeeling tea gardens.

From right here the prepare snakes along twisted paths with you the Senchal Lake, Tiger Hill, Kalimpong plus the many tea gardens to alight at the Indo-Nepal Border - Ghoom (7,407 ft) - enveloped eternally in a very mist and dotted with a legion of colourful monasteries. From right here the train gets going descending in direction of Darjeeling to achieve the most spectacular engineering feat on the line - the double loop at Batasia, aptly called the "Agony Point" immediately after the churning it does to one's stomach - using the exceptional snow-white peaks of Kanchenjunga as being a backdrop. At Batasia, there's a memorial for the Gorkhas. After a painstaking path, the prepare normally requires its final drink of water before teetering precariously on the hillside to reach its remaining destination, the Darjeeling STA.

Appropriate from big-wigs from the literary earth (Mark Twain referred to as the journey his most pleasurable day on soil) and nature enthusiasts towards the Bollywood - the toy train so synonymous with Darjeeling - continues to mystify its friends with a journey a person of its kind.