NJP/Siliguri to Darjeeling during Bandhs

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Siliguri to Darjeeling

Siliguri officially sucks. Do not stay there unless you have to.

To get to Darjeeling you have to get the train from Seldah station to New Jaipuiguri (NJP) and then get a shared jeep from Siliguri (around 4 km from NJP by auto rickshaw Rs115) to the hills (100rs for each seat - we bought the 4 back seats!!)

We really wanted to go to Darjeeling but we found out from our hotel that the area was on strike. Darjeeling has these strikes or 'Bandhs' frequently as they are fighting for an independent state from West Bengal that they call Gorkhaland. During the strikes there is no movement of transport along the main highway linking Siliguri / New Jalpaiguri (NJP) to the hills of Kurseong or Darjeeling. This also means the Sikkim province (being landlocked by Darjeeling, Nepal and Tibet) is also cut off during Darjeeling bandhs. From what we understand all trading stops during the bandhs especially government offices and banks. We saw queues outside ATMs the day after the strike was called off.

Anyway so we heard that this round of strikes were possibly continuing until the 25/01/11, we decided to go to and stay in Siliguri for 1 night on the 24/01/11 anyway to check Darjeeling was definitely opening the next day.

For the night we stayed in Hotel Sinclair after walking down and looking at the hotels situated on the majority of Hill Cart Road. If not already full, the hotels were not of good quality and being shown a room with a round bed really topped it off!
So we ended up at Sinclairs, which cost 3000rupees (negotiated from 3800) plus taxes unfortunately. We were so fed up at this point we took it. The room was clean and spacious but nothing special especially for the price! The showers were warm and got cold after 5 mins. The pool was minging and obviously deserted and the facade of the hotel seriously needs to be renovated. The wifi did not work the whole time.

So the bandh was lifted ad expected so we caught a jeep on the main Hill Cart Road to Darjeeling (3.5 hours). Travel sickness pills required!

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