AMS on the road: A trip to Kalimpong – Part 1

Over the last few years, 3 of us, myself, Asif & Mukesh (In Short AMS: Asif, Mukesh, Sourav) had made a habit of going on a short holiday during the summer. During the summer of 2016, we planned to go on a short trip to Kalimpong.

Those days we had a Tata Aria and this was our second long trip on that vehicle. Our first trip with Aria was to Dooars in 2015. More on our Dooars trip later. Let’s focus on Kalimpong!

Kalimpong is a hill station situated above 4000 feet from the sea level and is more than 600 kms away from Kolkata. This distance might feel like one can easily cover in a day but roads are not that good and hence it’s not really possible to cover that distance in a day.

Google Maps has made navigation very easy and these days one can confidently go to a new place without much trouble with Google Maps in tow.

It was 27th May 2016 and we started sharp at 6 AM. We wanted to ensure that we cover the maximum distance early since we knew the hazards of NH 34. We took NH 2 and reached Gopalpur within an hour and a half where we took our first break at the Azad Hind Dhaba. This place is a personal favourite of mine. The Alu Parathas and the masala omelette that they prepare are out of the world. Not to forget the tea of course.

After having a sumptuous breakfast we were ready to hit the road once again. We reached Burdwan and took a turn which connected us to SH7. The tyre pressure felt a bit low and so we took a break when we found a small shop where we could check the tyres. We had been pretty smart enough to carry a flask this time on our trip and had filled it to the brim with some tea from Azad Hind Dhaba. It was a good energy booster. Not that we needed tea to boost ourselves. It was just an excuse to have some awesome tea.

SH7 was a recently laid down road with very less traffic and we made quick progress towards our destination. At that stage, we were feeling like we would be able to reach Siliguri by evening itself. Siliguri was our overnight stopover. Very soon we reached NH34.

As we took the turn and entered NH34, Asif found the red light blinking on the dashboard which basically gave the signal of some problem with the engine performance. Asif immediately got the car parked at a convenient point and we 3 got down to analyse the situation. Asif was of the opinion that we should not take any risk and we should head back home (Tata Aria had some problems since it was an old vehicle and the service of Tata Motors had never been top class). I didn’t understand how going back 200 KMs would help if we have a real problem with the engine because we would get stuck anyway. Mukesh, who is our resident car expert decided to take a long walk to freshen up his thoughts on what should be done as I lit a cigarette. It was an indiscreet bus stop and Asif sat there and kept murmuring all the “what ifs” hearing which I felt like the trip was already canceled.

Mukesh came back after a lonely walk and we decided to call up our service engineer in Kolkata to get some guidance. He said that maybe some particle has jammed the fuel injector. Mukesh got behind the driver’s wheel and we decided to stop over near Malda and show the car at a Tata Service centre. I came up with a crude idea that if any particle has jammed the fuel injector then how about we refuel the car to the brim and see if the situation changes. The idea was quickly rejected by both of them but finally, it was decided to give a shot.

So we pulled up at the nearest fuelling station at Jangipur. We got the car filled to the brim while the pump attendant excitedly informed us that the owner of the Fuel Pump, Zakir Hussain was now a minister in the newly elected West Bengal Council of Ministers. We were hardly excited about the news because we were too concerned with the car at that moment. Our trips through Siliguri had always been fraught with various troubling experiences and the current problem was keeping us on our toes.

But lo behold as Mukesh started the car, there was no further signal on the dashboard and we were all set to continue our forward journey. We didn’t know what changed but we were happy that we could now drive towards Siliguri without thinking much about the car’s performance. The only problem was that we lost a lot of time. We decided to skip lunch to make up some of the lost time. Google Maps showed that we will face big traffic congestion at Farakka and Malda.

And that’s exactly what happened. As we approached the Farakka bridge it was a complete standstill. Farakka Bridge is basically a barrage over the river Ganga and is more than 2 KMs long. A few minutes crossover took us close to an hour and we lost significant time when we reached Kaliachowk, another famous bottleneck area. It was 2016 and the flyover over Kaliachowk was not yet built. 

It was almost 5 PM by the time we left the crowded areas and the sun was all ready to set on the west when we entered a 55 KM long stretch off the main highway. This road was very smooth and looked to have been built quite recently. It took us right through many villages and by the time we reached NH 31 it was past 7.30 PM.

The long drive had tired us quite a lot. The travel time was more than 13 hours already and remember we didn’t have lunch. We found a tea shop just on the outskirts of Islampur and decided to take a break. As the car came to a halt, we stretched ourselves and discussed the journey thus far. The traffic congestion on the way had really put us off but then it was a known risk so we had to take it on our chin. Next time, we decided we will start another 2-3 hours early and try to at least cross these traffic-congested areas earlier in the day when the traffic could be lighter.

After having 2 cups of tea and some biscuits to satisfy our stomachs, we re-started our journey towards Siliguri.

The drive through Islampur and up to Siliguri was very smooth. The only problem was that we were not so comfortable driving at night on a highway but there is always the first time. The horrible experience in the daytime made this part of our journey feel like a breeze.

We entered Siliguri around 10 PM and then navigated our way to our hotel, Saluja Residency which took us another 15-20 minutes. Because it was quite late in the night, we didn’t face much traffic congestion in Siliguri though we had spent a bit of time to get the exact location of our hotel. We had purposefully selected a hotel that was just near Savok Road so that the next morning we didn’t need to navigate too much and lose time in Siliguri traffic.

The hotel was a small one perfect for an overnight stay and the best part was that it had a good place to park the car. 

We checked in to our rooms and ordered some food immediately. We were absolutely famished. 

After having a real heavy dinner filled with Kebabs and other chicken dishes we called it a day and promised ourselves to start as early as possible tomorrow so that we could check-in at Kalimpong before 12 noon.

So what happened next? How was our Kalimpong stay? What did we do there? How was the return journey? Wait for my next blog to unravel the same.

Till then Stay Safe and a Happy Weekend!

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