Visit Calcutta and The East
For centuries the hill station at Darjeeling has provided respite from Calcutta’s fierce summer heat and also the ideal climate for tea planters to cultivate the ‘Champagne of the East’. The Raj era estates and bungalows can be seen today alongside the more recently arrived Tibetan population who fled across the Himalaya in 1959 to begin a life in exile. An early visit to Tiger Hill for sunrise reveals magnificent views of the world’s third highest peak, Kanchenjunga, while the region can also be enjoyed at a sedate pace aboard the famous narrow gauge railway, The Darjeeling Mountain Railway, also known affectionately as the Toy Train, built more than 100 years ago.