Whilst I was making my way to Darjeeling, my American friend, Steve, was getting to know the place. He went on the “Toy Train”.
On the journey up to Darjeeling, we did see a train track on the road. I thought this was disused until we heard a horn then saw the train itself. It was running parallel to us without any barrier separating us.
I’d heard the train gets booked up weeks if not months ahead. But Steve recently booked it. So I opened the train app and checked. Sure enough, there were some places! And I managed to get a window seat.
Today, I went to Darjeeling Station for the 90-minute Toy Train ride. It was a there-and-back journey. The start was delayed by 30 minutes. When we left, the two carriages were full.
When the trains return to the station, they always go to platform 2. I wondered why. Then I noticed that the engine, which is at the front, can detach itself from the three carriages. After which it goes forward, reverses, then attaches itself to the back of the carriages! It then pulls the train out of platform 2 and reverses onto either platform 1 or 3. Platforms 1 and 3 don’t allow this manoeuvre.
The weather was not great. It was quite foogy. So the views weren’t great. We stopped twice, one on the way to Guam and then at Guam itself. The train then reversed itself before returning to Darjeeling.
Earlier, Steve had told me the procedure for getting a permit to enter Sikkim. There were two steps. The first was to go to the police station and get your ID verified. I did this today. It was surprisingly straightforward. And it allowed me to walk around town.
The second step was to give the ID verification to the District Magistrate and get the permit. The DM Office was closed today.
After a brief sunny spell, and some welcome warmth, it started to rain. I went to a modern cafe, Himalayan Coffee, Steve had recommended. He later joined me. We also went to a bar, The Buzz.
As luck would have it, a band was rehearsing for later. So we got to hear some good music. Later our homestay owner said the band, Head Motive, were local celebrities.
We again had another delicious home-cooked meal at the Windchimes Homestay.
