School Tour : Calcutta / Dharamshala / Khatmandu / Pokhara
(these notes are written on 12/5/1989. i was in class 8 then. now when i read this i realize how bad a writer i was then) :p
on 11th may 1989 we left our house at 4.30 pm. we went to the station and waited. the train started at 7.15 pm. after sometime tasneem and i played cards. after playing some games we started talking. then a man from the tour company came and asked us to wash our hands and have dinner. for dinner we had delicious shrikhana, puri, pulao, curry and potato vegetable. after a while we went to sleep. in the morning i woke up at 5 am. i brushed my teeth and freshened up. i started writing these notes after that.
at 9 am we had breakfast of sandwiches. the day passed happily. at night our class teacher made groups for the trip. we were 4 in one group. our group included tasneem, arwa, hetal and me. we were to follow sister daisy.
next day we reached howrah station. we had to carry our own luggage. we were soon exhausted. we reached our hotel and it was horrible. our teachers refused to let us stay there. later we were shifted to another hotel which was much better. the name of the hotel was meghdoot. we travelled by the metro rail. (i remember how in awe i was with the whole concept of underground metro. i loved the ride and wished we had something like this in mumbai) i called vinita (my aunt who lived in kolkata) and told her about our transfer. she came with her parents to see me. she got me some yummy bengali sweets which i thoroughly enjoyed.
next morning we went sightseeing. we visited the belur math kali temple, jain temple, indian museum and victoria memorial. after the sightseeing we left for the airport. we checked in and completed the formalities. our flight was delayed by a few hours and we had to wait at the airport killing time. this was my first plane ride and i thoroughly enjoyed it. the dinner on the flight was really bad. i did not eat at all. after we landed we were checked into our hotel called blue diamond. we had our dinner and went to sleep. next day we visited the pashupatinath temple, swayambhu temple and water garden.
the next day we were awake at 3 am. we got ready and were taken to a place called nagarkot. the sunrise there was superb. we also shopped and went to bhaktpur. next day was free for shopping. (i remember buying 2 erasers for my brother and me. they were oval in shape and came packed in an oval shaped box. i still have the small box.) we went to the casino in the evening. (since we were underage we weren't allowed to play the normal games there. but we were given coins to play the slot machine. i remember winning a lot of coins and then buying myself something out of the money) :p
next day we left for pokhara. we reached in the evening. i loved the place. it was a valley and had lovely trees and pastures around us. we went to see a waterfall the next day.in the evening we went boating. next morning was free for relaxing. we went to kakarbitta in the evening.
next morning we left for india by bus. we crossed the border and reached siliguri. from there we left for darjeeling. we reached darjeeling in the evening. next morning we went shopping. afteer lunch we left for sightseeing. we visited the himalayan mountaineering institute, zoo, the tibetian refugee center, race course, tea gardens, tansien rock and the ropeway.
next day a few girls went to catch the sunrise. i did not go. my friends were too lazy to wake up. next morning we left for calcutta. on our way down the ghat we were caught in a traffic snarl as there was a big accident ahead. we reached bagdogra airport 2 hours late and missed our flight. we had to travel to calcutta by bus. it was a tiring journey as we had to travel all night. we missed our train to mumbai because this. when we reached calcutta we did not have any hotel booking. we went back to stay at meghdoot. everyones parents started calling to know the status of our journey. the trains were full. we did not have reserved tickets to travel back. our tour people bought regular tickets for all of us. there was just one bogie and so many of us. there was other general public too.
when the train reached our station, i managed to get into the bogie and find a place for myself. my friends could not climb in. lots of girls were left behind. one teacher stayed back with the other girls and the others came with us back to mumbai. the train journey was bad. there was no place for much movement. half our luggage was left behind with the other girls. we reached mumbai after 2 days. the journey back was a nightmare. my friends came back the next day. i will never forget this trip. even though it was bad in the end, i did have fun.
(that was one crazy trip! the last leg was tiring and a nightmare! but the fun part of the journey cannot be forgotten.)
