By E Kay
A beautiful lake side town nestled in the mighty Himalayan range
About 37 kilometres from #Siliguri, a commercial hub of #WestBengal, the route to this lakeside town is mesmerising with the numerous tea gardens along the way that starts right after leaving the hustle and bustle of Siliguri.
We managed to catch a colourful shared cab in the early hours of a Monday from Siliguri junction after a sweltering train ride to #NJP. It was extremely hot even at that time of the day, but once you reach the highway that passes through the #Mahananda #WildlifeSanctuary, the sheer beauty of the scenery is all that matters.
#Mirik was not such a popular destination until a few years ago. A hidden gem of West Bengal, this scenic lake town is nowadays often used as a halting place for tourists making their way to Darjeeling. We did the same and rightfully so. The place is small and homely and makes for a pleasant break in journey. We found a hotel overlooking the serene Mirik lake ( #SumenduLake ). The lake is a good place for strolling, taking short boat rides and just lazing around. We were told that on clear days we get a good view of the mighty Kanchenjunga from this site. However, unfortunately we were not lucky enough to witness that. Since we had just an afternoon at Mirik, we visited only the nearby Bokar Ngedon Chokhor Ling Monastery which was about a kilometre and a half from our hotel.
After spending some time at the monastery, we rushed off for the main destination of our halt. A visit to #Pashupatinagar, on the other side of the Indian border in the neighbouring country of Nepal. And we needed to rush as we were only using public transport this time around. So we rushed off to the main market area, where we were told we would get cabs to the border. Fortunately for us, we got one of the last cabs there.
We squeezed inside the already crowded jeep and made our way to the border area which is about 15 kilometres away from Mirik.