{"id":147,"date":"2019-02-10T08:04:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-10T08:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/\/?p=147"},"modified":"2019-02-10T08:04:00","modified_gmt":"2019-02-10T08:04:00","slug":"sunrise-at-tiger-hill-tips-on-stay-restaurants-part-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/?p=147","title":{"rendered":"Sunrise at Tiger Hill + Tips on Stay & Restaurants! (Part 5)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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We were in Darjeeling for 4 days, 2 of which went in reaching Darjeeling & leaving Darjeeling. That left us with 2 days for sight-seeing, of which we only went out on one day. As of the second day, we found our courage somehow to go to Tiger Hill to see the sunrise. And, that\u2019s that. After that, we skipped many of the best places. I regret that, but given how sick, tired, sleepy & cold we were, I suppose I can allow that. <\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

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~~SUNRISE AT TIGER HILL~~<\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
We got up early around 3:30 AM. Got ready by 4:00 AM. It was 6 degrees in the morning before dawn which is why I wore 4 t-shirts plus sweater plus jacket. And additionally, a beanie, scarf, gloves & 2 pairs of socks! Wow, so much & I was still cold!<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
We left as soon as we prepared ourselves, physically & mentally. It was a long ride till Tiger Hill. I was already unwell. We all were sleepy, cold & tired & yet excited & hopeful. Those are definitely some weird combinations to feel for one person, so no wonder I felt sick to my stomach.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
So, anyway, after the long ride, in which I mostly slept, we reached there by 5 AM. We had to stop way earlier & walk an uphill climb. I was practically walking with my eyes half-open, struggling to walk. After a while I was tired & out of breath. When I opened my mouth to breathe, all the cold went in, giving a sore & itchy throat. All in all, it sucked! We finally survived & reached the top. It was crowded & all the best seats were already gone. People were just standing in a semi-circle. <\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
So, at Tiger Hill, you see the sunrise at one end & on the other end, you see the rays of sun hit the snow-clad Kanchenjunga making it goldenish red & that effect is stunning! We must have waited at least 45 to 50 minutes when we could finally see the sunrise & Kanchenjunga! It was a sight to behold! <\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

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When you watch something like that live, it changes you.<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
Time stops & people stop & it\u2019s just the beautiful & wondrous view.<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
It\u2019s magic!<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
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Most of the guides have a preset places to cover. So, after covering Tiger Hill, they usually go for Batasia Loop & Ghoom Monastery. But, it took a lot of time for us to get back to the City from Tiger Hill because of all the traffic of tourist cars who were there for the same. So, we ended up just going home.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

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~~OTHER PLACES WORTH VISITNG IN DARJEELING~~<\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
I honestly wanted to cover most of these places, so if you are in Darjeeling, do go to these!<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
Batasia Loop:<\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
Batasia Loop is a must-visit in Darjeeling. It has a war memorial in the center & also a garden. It\u2019s quite close to Darjeeling city. You can go here after your visit at Tiger Hill.<\/span><\/div>\n
Ghoom & Dali Monastery:<\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
These two are the most famous monasteries in Darjeeling. You can make some time to visit them.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
Darjeeling Himalayan Railway:<\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
I was excited to ride in a toy train, but we ended up skipping it. The ride is from an authentic original steam engine train. But, we couldn\u2019t find that. And, secondly, they are quite expensive with Rs. 800 to Rs. 1000 rate for a 2-hour round trip. <\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
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~~ STAY AT GANGTOK~~<\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
We stayed at Pradhan Cottage near Convent High School. We had booked it on AirBnB. While we loved the interiors & the entire cottage experience, we weren\u2019t so happy with the location. It was a bit out of the City & not even on the main road. You have to go 3-4 levels down to reach the place.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
Apart from the location, everything else was perfect. So, I\u2019ll surely recommend it. Check it out here<\/a>.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

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~~RESTAURANTS IN DARJEELING~~<\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
Just like we dropped going to a few sights, we also dropped going to a few restaurants that were on my list. Most of the times, we ate at the cottage. Only twice did we go out.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
Frank Ross Caf\u00e9:<\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
This Cafe was a must-visit for my Darjeeling Restaurant Bucket List & so was keen to have the food here but was quite disappointed. This caf\u00e9 is known for its English breakfast, South Indian food & hot beverages. Of these, we only liked the Darjeeling Tea. South Indian food & sandwiches were not good. Despite amazing reviews, it was a complete disappointment.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

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Glenary\u2019s:<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
This is the place where you can go for breakfast, lunch & dinner on the same day & won\u2019t be disappointed. Its d\u00e9cor & ambiance is amazing. Service is really good. Food is absolutely delicious. It has 2 floors. On the ground floor, is a lovely bakery which is just out of a Disney fairytale. On the first floor is the restaurant with little balconies that have a stunning view! If you\u2019re planning to visit, go around 4 PM so you can enjoy it at its best!<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
We visited during Christmas-time, so it was wonderfully lit & beautifully decorated. Check it out!<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n
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Some other good restaurants are Sonam\u2019s Kitchen, Keventers & Kunga restaurant.<\/span><\/div>\n
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~~OVERALL TOUR EXPERIENCE~~<\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
We went on an 8-day long trip after years! I had way too many expectations from it & compared to that, it turned out to be quite okay. The cold was really unbearable, so I think it should\u2019ve been better to visit such places in summer. I also came to the realization that I prefer beaches to mountains. With all the mountains\u2019 twists & turns, the whole thing just made me sick, so I hated the internal travelling part.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

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I guess Sikkim went quite well, because I enjoyed the Ropeway, Banjhakri waterfalls & Ganesh Tok. I also loved M.G. Market quite a lot! I didn\u2019t enjoy South Sikkim much because of the travelling, so well that was okay-ish. And lastly, Tsomngo Lake was quite beautiful matching my expectations. So, all in all, it was good. About 6.5\/10, I\u2019d say.<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n

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As for Darjeeling, well, that\u2019s complicated. We all wanted to visit this place since a long time & what we got was just unbearable cold. We didn\u2019t go to many places either. But, the best point was the gorgeous sunrise at Tiger Hill! So, just for that, I\u2019d day 8\/10 for Darjeeling!<\/span><\/div>\n

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I’ll be back again in a couple of weeks as I’m travelling to Pondicherry this week! So, stay tuned!! In the mean time, you can check out all my Sikkim & Darjeeling posts.<\/span><\/div>\n
Day 1<\/a>, Day 2<\/a>, Day 3<\/a> & Day 4<\/a>!<\/span><\/div>\n

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Until next time,<\/span><\/div>\n
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We were in Darjeeling for 4 days, 2 of which went in reaching Darjeeling & leaving Darjeeling. That left us with 2 days for sight-seeing, of which we only went out on one day. As of the second day, we found our courage somehow to go to Tiger Hill to see the sunrise. And, that\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1111,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/IMG_1604-01-06.jpeg?fit=1511%2C1600&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":148,"url":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/?p=148","url_meta":{"origin":147,"position":0},"title":"Darjeeling Journals! (Part 4)","author":"Aishwarya Shenolikar","date":"February 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"~~GANGTOK TO DARJEELING~~On our 5th day of the tour, we left from Gangtok for Darjeeling. It was about a 3 hour journey. Thankfully, the roads were really good for the duration of this journey so it didn\u2019t feel like 3 hours. In Darjeeling, we had booked an AirBnB cottage named\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel!"","block_context":{"text":"Travel!","link":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/?cat=8"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/IMG_1604-01-04.jpeg?fit=1133%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/IMG_1604-01-04.jpeg?fit=1133%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/IMG_1604-01-04.jpeg?fit=1133%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/IMG_1604-01-04.jpeg?fit=1133%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/IMG_1604-01-04.jpeg?fit=1133%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":151,"url":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/?p=151","url_meta":{"origin":147,"position":1},"title":"Gangtok Journals! (Part 1)","author":"Aishwarya Shenolikar","date":"January 21, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I was just listening to this soulful song with some lyrics about clear blue skies & it took me back to my trip to Sikkim & Darjeeling. Since it has been over a month now, I thought it was about time that I write about this adventurous, exciting & long\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel!"","block_context":{"text":"Travel!","link":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/?cat=8"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/IMG_1604-01-01-01.jpeg?fit=1133%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/IMG_1604-01-01-01.jpeg?fit=1133%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/IMG_1604-01-01-01.jpeg?fit=1133%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/IMG_1604-01-01-01.jpeg?fit=1133%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/IMG_1604-01-01-01.jpeg?fit=1133%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":137,"url":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/?p=137","url_meta":{"origin":147,"position":2},"title":"Pondicherry – Stay & Restaurants. (Part 3)","author":"Aishwarya Shenolikar","date":"March 21, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Hello Everyone!I have written 2 posts on Pondicherry so far. They turned out to be quite long just like my stay there. That\u2019s why, I decided to write an altogether new post about my stay & most importantly for restaurant recommendations! Here we go!~~AIRBNB STAY IN PONDICHERRY~~I had tried AirBnb\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel!"","block_context":{"text":"Travel!","link":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/?cat=8"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/IMG_20190218_183741_Bokeh-01.jpeg?fit=1128%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/IMG_20190218_183741_Bokeh-01.jpeg?fit=1128%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/IMG_20190218_183741_Bokeh-01.jpeg?fit=1128%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/IMG_20190218_183741_Bokeh-01.jpeg?fit=1128%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindscapeinwords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/IMG_20190218_183741_Bokeh-01.jpeg?fit=1128%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":150,"url":"https:\/\/mindscapeinwords.com\/?p=150","url_meta":{"origin":147,"position":3},"title":"South Sikkim Journals! (Part 2)","author":"Aishwarya Shenolikar","date":"January 26, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"We visited Namchi in South Sikkim on Day 2 of our Sikkim & Darjeeling tour. We could only get 4 days\u2019 booking at Gangtok which is why we couldn\u2019t do the North Sikkim tour which includes Lachung, Yumthang Valley, Zero Point & Gurudongmar Lake. 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