Losing The Plot – The Darjeeling Railway Station

I´m generally a pretty patient guy. Many years of working long hours as an early years teacher, has further accentuated this gift. I´m not proud to say that today I kind of lost it.

On my second day here I went to the railway station to book the train back to Delhi. Lonely Planet inform me that even though my train departs from New Jalpaiguri this can be done at the local railway station at Darjeeling. True story, but it doesn´t prepare you for the wait that this might entail, even though the booking office can be almost deserted.

There are two main counters at the station. They are divided as one for the fun Toy Train booking office and the other being for all other trains bookings. I go to the appropriate line.

Now the booking forms required to be filled in by every passenger are kept officially with the clerk behind the smash-proof glass. Two signs are posted in front to him. One asks passengers to “Honour The Que” (sic) and the other says “Only one form”.

On Saturday there was just three people in front of me. New people arrive, but seem to push in the line to collect the booking form and manage to put in questions or two to the clerk before being prompted back into the line. It took me an hour and fifty minutes to finally make my reservation.

Today, I wanted to book the Toy Train ride on a steam engine to Ghum and back. There are two trains available each day. Only one person is in front of me at the the toy train booking counter. Great! This surely can´t take too long.

Oh how wrong! The guy in front of me is clearly making a booking from Siliguri. He asks for four options of train, and the clerk disappears.

I get the train number i need ready for her form and extract Rs240 exact fare from my pocket.

She returns 10 minutes later. The customer now wants the prices for each different class of each train. This takes her away for a further 20 minutes. I need a ciggie, but no smoking allowed. The customer makes his choice, but now he doesn´t have enough cash on him, tells her he will be back in 5 minutes and he heads off.

At last – my turn. The clerk decides she´ll wait for him to come back and quickly disappears out of the booth. She only returns when the original customer comes panting back to the counter. He sorts his cash for the clerk and she recounts slowly, and hands him his ticket. Great – my turn.

“Can I have a toy train ticket to Ghum for this morning please?” I ask politely.
“NO!” she barks.
“Oh really? Can I go this afternoon?”
“All sold out”
“Oh Dear! Are there any tickets for tomorrow?”
“Yes”.
Great! “I´ll take a ticket for tomorrow then please”.
“I can´t sell it to you. You will have to go to the counter there”.

She points out a queue of three people in the same kiosk that I had queued on Saturday. I´m about to start whining at her when as quick as Concorde, she suddenly bolts through the back door of her booth and vanishes for good.

I wearily make my way across to the adjacent counter. And wait...and wait...and...

In fairness to myself, since I have remained in my “cheapest room in Darjeeling” so I really I haven´t had hardly any sleep since Delhi, almost one week ago!

After 20 minutes, I am still no closer to the counter. “Oh FUCK IT! I announce in my booming voice to the queue, and probably half of the passengers on the platform. I stomp off out of the railway premise for a Gold Flake cigarette. Maybe I have just been in India too long.

Five minutes later and with greater inner peace, I walk back into the station. There on the other side of station is an old table, a floral table cloth and a woman from Joy Travel. She´s selling tickets on a train heading to the picturesque town of Kurseong 32kms away. It is named after the unique Kurson Rip - a rare white orchid.

The train is diesel rather than steam, but it runs the same 2ft narrow gauge tracks - it is actaully a UNESCO World Heritage site. It´s an eight hour trip, that stops off at several scenic points and another tea plantation. All refreshments are included! It´s Rs800, more expensive than the Ghum trip, but I have already been through Ghum. It´s lovely there but I can make the journey on foot quicker that the four hours the steam train takes.

Everything is sorted in five minutes. Crazy!