Jaldhapara Wildlife Sanctuary - Accommodation

reddragon

I wanted to visit and stay for 1 night at Jaldhapara Wildlife sanctuary.
In LP it states there are 2 places to say there and both must be booked “well in advance” from West Bengal Tourist office.
I have tried unsuccessfully to email the West Bengal office to book. Does anyone know if it will be ok to just arrive and get a room? We will hopefully be there on 20 FEB.

ddutta

LP is right , you need a prior booking for Jaldapara . But since Feb. is not a high seoson in Bengal , you may take the risk of spot booking. Anyways have you tried these numbers for booking ?
Tourism Centre, Govt. of West BengalM-4 Building, Pradhan Nagar,
Hill Cart Road, Siliguri - 734403
Phone : (0353) 2511979, 2511974, 2432561
Tele Fax : 2511979, 2432561
E-mail : maitl@dte.vsnl.net.in

Tourism Centre, Govt. of West Bengal3/2, B.B.D. Bag (East), Kolkata - 700001
Phone : 22485917 / 22488271

Manager, Jaldapara Tourist LodgeP.O. - Madarihat,
Dist. - Jalpaiguri
Phone : (03563) 262230


For details log on here :-http://coochbehar.nic.in/Htmfiles/Dooars_Agents.html
http://www.wbtourism.com/wildlife/ja...ay.htm#reserve

__________________
"If you smile at me I will understand, because that is something everyone everywhere does in the same language"

Bengal Tiger

have a look at this site and read the subsequest exerpt from another site too -

http://www.sinclairshotels.com/dooar...rs_places.php3

Jaldapara Sanctuary is of 26 sq. km where one-horned rhinoceros, elephant, sambhar, barking deer, spotted deer etc. can be spotted.


genaral Information
How to reach:
It is 3 hours from Siliguri. The nearest airport is Bagdogra, 140 kms from the sanctuary

Where to stay:
Accommodation is available in the forest lodges in Madarihat, just outside the sanctuary.

so you could try in the forest lodges of madarihat !!!! ( there dont seem to be too much concrete info in the websites)


you could also try to contact the agency called HOLIDAY COORDINATORS at 91-33-464 1614 (O) / 415 0423 (R) (holicoord_cal@yahoo.co.in). they'd most probably charge you some extra monet for finding you a hotel though.

reddragon

Thanks guys for your info. I have tried a few numbers that you have given me but to no avail.
I might just wait until I get to India (3 Feb) and give them a call then, seeing as its not high season then.
If I can't get a booking, then so be it!

machadinha

I stayed there in the early nineties, had a great time and no prior booking required. Around the same time too (early feb.), pretty chilly I can tell you, take some warm clothes/blankets before you go.

Where I stayed was in Mahadirat, Jaldapara Tourist Lodge, a bus from Siliiguri will drop you off right around there, at the time it was 50 Rs. for a dorm bed, 75 for a jeep ride, 50 for an elephant.

I made the mistake of staying there for a day and regret it to this day. Crashing through the bush on an elephant is great fun but it's not like the wildlife will sit around to see you coming. The fact that we had an Indian father with his expat son onboard who wanted to make it really clear in no uncertain tone of voice that he he knew all about the local chittals etc. (think Kumars meet Kipling) didn't help to improve matters much, nor did the situation when I finally asked him to shut the **** up so we might see something. Anyway, staying around for a couple of days in any park might be your worth really. They're usually indecently expensive once you're used to Indian prices; think what it would cost you in the West though and just enjoy the ride.

Ah speaking of prices the abovementioned place was adequate but nothing more, keep in mind these people are forest guards not necessariliy tourist caterers, i.e. they'd make you food but not enthousiastically. Other places I was quoted were Madarihat Tourist Lodge, and Hollong Forest Lodge right in the forest it seems but I couldn't tell you much about it. I asked around it for it in Siliguri but don't ask me where. Hasimara (another town) was also mentioned as a place with a youth hostel for 10 Rs. (!) at the time.

machadinha

nb Actually we did call ahead from Siliguri prior to visiting so if that's required or not who's to say, that call is enough probably. The mahouts and their elephants are really friendly and even that would merit a prolonged stay. Don't expect to be able to exchange more than two words of course but sometimes these things don't matter.

As for temperatures at nighttime it would drop to 0'ish or maybe 5'ish not to exaggerate, that's frigging cold in a T-shirt I can tell you. I managed with a sweater and two pairs of pants and a blanket I aquired for 100 Rs. after much haggling. Darjeeling in January was the limit and I got what must have been altitude sickness which makes no sense at that height but what with being cold and tired at the end of my ride it's possible. The upshot of it all: if you've been travelling in the southern regions you'd be surpised how cold India can get. I never travel without my (Indian) blanket since.

reddragon

Thank for that info Machadinha.
Lucky for me I'm heading off to nepal so I'll be there with all the thermals I can carry!!!
I was thinking of just doing 1 night thing but may now reconsider, I don't have much time in this area and I really want to spend some time in Darjeeling so I'll just have to play it by ear!

machadinha

Hmm aye as you wish Reddragon. I can see your point, I was doing the last leg of an all-India tour in 3.5 months (can't figure out how I did it in hindsight but I did and pretty relaxedly too) but so I was getting into a bit of a fix with wanting to see this and that in the end. Darjeeling was a place I simply had to go but I got so ill and nasty there it didn't do me much good. I did have some great walks in the sunny daytime there though. Anyway not rushing it and esp. if you want to see some wildlife in any park taking your time is probably a good idea. There are supposed to be rhinos at Jaldapara but not many, as for the tiger situation they were kind of elusive about it but some may be around. All I got to see with the abovementioned ride was some monkeys you see in any town and the sight of a fleeing deer's ass. It was fun though, being on an elephant (you get to sit in a howdah or basket with assorted morons if you're lucky as described) is really great, it's a lot higher than you might think and when the elephant crashes through a brook well you go almost vertical, plus the howdah feels like it's gonna go topsy turvy to ollie's belly all the time. The jungle itself is great and I actually got to see the Bhutanese mountains and the Assamese border or thereabouts, closest I've been to either place so far.

As for Darjeeling this was not meant to put you off, it's a great place. Make sure you got some warm gear (seems you do) and get a hotel with a heater (the cheaper ones just sit out the winter. In fact mine had an open charcoal heater that they would be so friendly to bring in. This would mean you had to open the window not to die of carbonmonoxide poisoning or what do you call it, making it just as cold again and a little more smoky. They gave us plenty of blankets for sure but I just couldn't get warm even with a blanket or five and a woman next to me. I took to drinking to stay warm which is readily available and a common solution but isn't helpful if you're suffering from mild altitude sickness, it gets you disoriented and aggressive. Likewise, they would heat up their woodstove shower heater once a day so you could have a bath. The downside was it would give out halfway through your shower and well you'd have a stiff willy and many things else stiff

A wonderful time all in all but I'd come better prepared if I came back. Like I said walks in the vicinity in the sun are great, check out the snow lion reserve, and sunrise over Mt. Kanchenjunga is simply unforgettable and made it all worthwhile (and... need I say it? godawful cold too.) The only time maybe I really regretted stubbornly not having brought a camera. (Also funnily the only time I asked some fellow tourists to send me one of their pictures actually and they looked at me like I was from Mars if not from a distant place like India. Some people...)