Gangtok & Darjeeling — Five Nights with a Full Gangtok Day

North from Bagdogra along the Teesta, about four and a half hours as the valley closes in and the road climbs into Sikkim. Gangtok runs along one ridge at around 1,650 m with the town terraced down both sides. The afternoon is unscheduled — the altitude is modest but the drive is long, and MG Marg at the top of the ridge is pedestrianised and is where the evening happens if you want to walk into it.

East along the old Silk Route toward the Tibetan frontier, climbing to Tsomgo at about 3,780 m — a glacial lake in a bowl below the pass, frozen from December into spring and hung with prayer flags. Baba Mandir beyond it commemorates Harbhajan Singh, a soldier who died near the Nathu La in 1968 and whose post is still notionally maintained. The altitude gain in a single morning is considerable, so the afternoon returns to Gangtok and stays there. Nathu La is a separate permit and not included.

The day the shorter route omits. The Namgyal Institute of Tibetology holds one of the largest collections of Tibetan works outside Tibet — thangkas, manuscripts and ritual objects — and is closed on Sundays and public holidays. Do-Drul Chorten nearby was built in 1945 and is ringed by a hundred and eight prayer wheels. The afternoon takes Tashi and Ganesh Tok for the Kangchenjunga view when the weather allows, the Directorate of Handicrafts, and the flower exhibition centre.

Down to the river, across into West Bengal, and up the long ridge to Darjeeling at about 2,050 m — 117 km and five hours, with the Rangeet valley below and tea gardens on both flanks for the final stretch. Into town in the afternoon. Darjeeling was built by the British from the 1830s as a hill sanatorium and then as the centre of the tea trade, and both origins are still legible in the streets.

Out before dawn to Tiger Hill for sunrise on Kangchenjunga, weather permitting — clearest in October and November and again in spring, and never guaranteed. Ghoom Monastery and the Batasia Loop on the way back down, where the railway spirals around a Gorkha war memorial. The rest of the day covers the Padmaja Naidu zoological park with its snow leopard and red panda breeding programmes, the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in the same grounds, and a working tea garden below the town.

Three hours down to the plain, losing two thousand metres through the tea estates and then the forest belt at the bottom. The road shares its alignment with the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway in places, so the toy train appears alongside if the day's service is running. Bagdogra is on the flat at the end of it, and an afternoon departure leaves proper margin for a mountain descent.