Summer of 2009 – Day 8

Humph… The time has come to leave back a week’s full of refreshing hills, clean air and pristine waters only as memories to cherish!

We had our train back from NJP at 1300 hrs and so we started early by 8, so as to reach there in time. It took 4 hours for us to reach NJP. Meanwhile all this time I had been checking on the status of our ticket from my iPhone and it was stuck at W/L 1. Hoping for it to get thru when the charts are released, we waiting impatiently at the station with increased heartbeats. When the charts were out, our jaws dropped as our ticket was still at W/L 1 and looking at the heavy rush of tourists this season, there was absolutely no hope. When the train arrived, we tried to find out from the TTE if we could be accommodated in any class, not necessarily 1st AC, and he expressed helplessness!

So here we were, stranded at an unknown place with no tickets and brain blanked out. We just sat at the platform watching our train moving on, sans us. Time to call up our friends and seek help. Enquired about the flights from Bagdogra and found that there were none left for today. So we had no option but to spend the night here at Siliguri and try for some flight tomorrow. And that is what we did. With the help of our friends, we lodged ourselves at a decent hotel and got our tickets on a flight tomorrow. I would consider that as very lucky indeed, because chances of getting a flight ticket at this moment were bleak owing to the heavy rush of tourists. I still don’t know how, but we got the tickets and it cost us Rs.31,000! The way the airlines vary their fares based on various factors on a particular sector!

By the time we checked in to the hotel and go fresh it was already evening. Siliguri… what do we do? Sit back and wait for tomorrow? No way… it should be just another place on our holiday trip! And so be it. We enquired about Siliguri and found out that although there is absolutely nothing to see around, but we can try Savin Kingdom, a small amusement park a kilometre from our hotel. We walked up to the park which is on the Darjeeling road, and dashed right in. We tried all rides and games and had uninhibited fun as if we were children!

After having spent nearly 2 hours there, we are back in our hotel now. No hush, our flight is late tomorrow and we can sleep to our hearts desire.