Eastern India Travel Guide

Never take a bus to Siliguri from any part of east India. The roads around are pathetic. Best and cheap option is to take a train to New Jalpaiguri station, only a few kms from the Siliguri town. Its a small town and used as a connecting point to Darjeeling, its famous sister. Siliguri is hot in the summers but the cold hills of darjeeling are not far away. The jeep ride is cheap but could be dizzy and nauseating for some. Finding a hotel in Siliguri town is very easy. Ask any rickshaw puller to take you to a good hotel. Rates are reasonable and food is okay. Once in Siliguri, don't miss the China Market and the Hong kong market. These twin markets are full of some wonderful stuff - pottery, watches, electronics, gadgets, carpets, shawls, home wear, swiss knives, and thousand types of tid - bits which can just do up the interiors of our home in a wonderful manner. Siliguri is also the connecting point to Gangtok (Sikkim). One doesn't need to spend more than 1 full day at Siliguri - at the market. Shopping is cheap. Don't miss out on the opportunity to visit both Darjeeling and Gangtok. Be wary of the touts at the bus stand though who could be misleading. Book everything from the hotel tourist support. After 10 pm, stick to the hotel. It's a day place.

The Salvation Army is a pretty good place to stay but often full, so have a back up.  Calcutta is a better transit place, travelling between India and SEA, than Delhi, fewer hassles.  If you're trying to get from India to SEA, like Bangkok, ask the hotel manager to organise it for you.  It's easier and they usually get you the best deal.  I've had a flight organised in this way for the following day.  Check out the book bazaar, books are extremely cheep in India and there is an entire district with little stores.  Don't be put off by having to travel around with a stack of books, instead send them home via book post absurdly cheap.  You'll have to get them packed specifically for book post at the post office.  Usually there will be two or three (unofficial) men sitting outside the post office to perform this complicated feat for a fee, negotiate with them.  Apart from the usual temples, try and find someone to take you to Tolly Ganj [sic] a former raj club now for mid-class club members.  The food is great and it feels like it's in the country with wide green grounds and a golf course.  Don't feel righteous by not hopping on a man-pulled rickshaw.  They need to make a living too.  But do be careful about which beggars you give money too... it's a well known fact that there are women with babies (hired babies if you will) who prick them with a pin to get them wailing and illicit sympathy, then give their beggar-pimp a cut of the money and are hauled away at the end of the working day in a van by said pimp.  Don't not give money, but just use your discretion.  If you go out at night be prepared to see the hundreds of homeless rolling out mats on the footpaths to bunk down for the night.  It is a little shocking for sheer numbers... despite all this Calcuatta is my favorite Indian city.  The people are extremely friendly, and there really is just so much to see.  Just walking around the streets aimlessly is a treat. 

As one other poster commented, this is well out of the way.  I went for one day, but ended up staying 3 days.  My entire time, I also did not see another (non-Indian) tourist, and I got curious stares and big smiles everywhere I walked.  I found lots of easy and lovely hikes all around town.  The food was not that interesting (with so few tourists--not surprising), but was just fine.  Mirik is right next to a small but lovely lake, and I spent hours walking around it everyday.  It is a pain to get to, but I highly recommend it. 

The only way to get here is by share-jeep, or taxi.  By taxi is relatively expensive, so after a difficult and *very* crowded ride here from Siliguri, I learned the trick for riding in a share-jeep:  Buy 2 tickets for yourself (they fit 5 people into a 3-person bench, and sometimes 6 people), and get a window seat.  If there are not enough free seats, just wait an hour, till the next jeep is leaving, and make your reservation for the following one.  My record on my last trip was--for a jeep that was designed to seat 8 people + driver--was 25 people!!!  (That includes the 5 hanging on the rear bumper and the 6 on the roof.)

In Mirik, there are lots of hotels.  I got off the jeep, walked over to one or two places, did a tiny bit of bargaining, and got a place I really liked easily.  For all foreign tourists, you have to register with the local authorities, but that took only 3 minutes, and the guy was all smiles and could not have been more friendly.  According to his sign-in book, only about 8 visitors per month have been coming to Mirik.  Get here before Lonely Planet gives it a big review and it gets overwhelmed/ruined with a flood of tourists.

Only one internet place in town (as of Fall 2008), and it was almost never working.  No ATMs at all.  No nightlife, except that the locals gather by the bottom of the town/lakeside each night, and loud music is played.  So if you pick a hotel there (as I did), bring earplugs, or, get a room not facing the lake.  (Better to bring earplugs, since the lake view from the hotels are one of the nicer aspects of Mirik.  Power outages are common.