It was an early dawn when I reached New Jalpaiguri station and the morning chill was piercing our bodies. The Siliguri town is gradually waking up from its sleep. As I were nearing Siliguri we were so tired that we did not know when we gave in to sleep. I was awakened by the first morning sunrays coming to my eyes. I pulled down the window glass pane a little and the outside breeze was so cold that I started shivering. Thick lines of the pine trees caught our eyes all around along the road. At some intervals were one or to rectangular wooden box houses. The car stopped and the driver informed us that I had reached Mirik and it was time to have our breakfast.
At Mirik we completed our breakfast with hot and mouthwatering ‘chicken thukpa’ (noodles with soup) and black tea. Then the car again sped up. Then my sleep vanished. After some time we were through India -Nepal bordering town Pashupati and then arrived at Sukhiapokhri. We had one more tea session at Sukhiapokhri. I was pretty excited after we left Sukiahpokhri and was heading towards the small Nepalese town Maneybhanjan. The sky was covered with thick layers of cloud all around. The tips of the tall pine and juniper trees have touched those layers of the clouds. This is the first time I visited some place for birding which is more than 2000 meters higher than MSL. I left behind Maneybhanjan and on our way met our new friend Mohan Thapa who will be looking after our lodging for the next two days and requested him to make an arrangement so that we could stay at least one night at the Batasia Forest Bungalow. Otherwise we will stay at Mohan`s house. After we left Maneybhanjan and were heading towards the small hilly settlement named Batasia the surrounding areas were almost empty of people along the 14 km stretch of the road and all the surrounding hilly terrain were full of thick forests.
[I]Batasia Forest Bungalow /I]
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