We (Sneha and I) had decided to go to Sandakhpu almost four months in advance. Our tickets were booked, our trip itinerary finalized and even the food for the trek was finalized. But, Sid alias Bunty had not finalized anything. Bunty had not booked flight tickets, neither did he have proper clothing, nor did he know where exactly we were going for the trek.
Day 1:
Sneha and I took a flight from
I booked a hotel called “Rumati Bunglow” and the hotel authorities promised us a free pickup that excited us. This ride however took us to “Rupasi Bunglow” and not the original place. It was nothing less than a dance bar with jarring music and each floor having a different coloured light. First floor was green, Second floor was blue and so on.
We were shell shocked and decided to sleep quietly.
Day 2:
Jaideep, my roommate during hostel days, had earlier in the week offered to book a hotel near his house but I had refused. I learnt a bitter lesson and should have taken his help earlier. I called him early in the morning and told that we are coming to his house. We skipped breakfast as we did not want to try anything new in the hotel and reached his place by noon.
After the initial hostel talk we decided to visit Victoria Memorial. The memorial has lovely architecture, paintings and interiors. I also clicked a snap of one of the flood lights of the
We then went for lunch to a Bengali restaurant where Farhan and Shreya joined us. Lunch was great and I gorged on the Bengali fish especially a dish called “Patoli” or “Patori” (not sure what the exact name was). It was a dream come true eating such a lovely dish.
We decided against going to
Later in the evening we reached the railway station and caught the Darjeeling Mail to New Jalpaiguri (NJP. In the train we ate some junk food and tried the authentic “Mashla / Jhaal Muri”.
Day 3:
I love train journeys. It is my “second home” according to Sneha. During our journey we met an old couple and their grand children traveling to
At around 08 00 hrs we reached NJP where Sunil Gurung and Bhutia picked us up. Bhutia was a thirty seven year old Kargil war hero who looked like a twenty year old. Over breakfast we decided to wait for Sid, who was joining us finally. Sid was taking a flight to Bagdogra and we decided to go there. I used to stay in Bagdogra as a boy and as we drove to Bagdogra I could recognize the route to the airport, the Air Force station, the railway track, the over bridge, the road to Bengdubi Army camp, not to mention the place where four of us (parents, sister and myself) met with a scooter accident while going to Mirik, etc. I felt nostalgic and happy as even in my wildest dreams I never imagined to go there again in life.
Seeing Sid in the Airport was a joyous moment for us as we waited for almost six hours. Finally, our journey to Maneybhanjan began amidst evergreen trees, thick fog, and beautiful tea estates which no snap can ever capture perfectly. We stopped at Mirik, a picturesque place with the famous lake, for tea and snacks.
After a three hour drive we reached Gurung’s house. The house had wooden walls, nicely decorated rooms with lots of Chinese and Tibetan show pieces. The food they gave us was delicious and we ate for almost an hour till we could no longer squeeze food into our stomach. Keshav Gurung gave us a briefing about the trek which was to begin the next day after which we slept talking cricket.
Day 4:
We thought we woke up at 08 00 hrs but the time was actually 05 00 hrs. The early sunrise in eastern part of
Our bath was the last bath for the next four days and we headed towards the lovely breakfast. Once again we ate for an hour squeezing food into our stomach. There was some last minute confusion as Sid and I did not have proper raincoats and we had to wait for the tailor to give us plastic raincoats. We met Sunil, Galjee and Dorjee who would be our leaders for the trip. Each of us got trekking sticks to walk and a bag with water, chocolates, raincoat etc. Never underestimate the trekking stick. Sneha got a special camel bag which had a pipe protruding out to sip water.
Our trek begins……..
The first two kms of the trek was the toughest as we walked on a steep road and our legs were complaining till we got used to it. The trek was mainly on Nepalese soil and we saw bamboo shoots which cost ten times more in cities as compared to the hills. There was moss in the hills that is sold in cities as a decoration item. There were pine trees, rhododendrons, creepers everywhere. Apparently there are thirty six varieties of rhododendrons in the hills.
We stopped for tea at Chitre Gonpa, a village with three houses and a monastery. On our way Sunil tried catching toads from a pond and Dorjee told his love story while he sang lovely songs. We stopped for lunch at Lamaydhura and had to do with the food served by a small hotel because our special lunch went away in a Land Rover to Meghma. The foreign tourists who were trekking were fast and they moved at brisk speeds unlike us. We took the short cuts which were tough but fun. After tea at Meghma we proceeded towards Tumling. In all we trekked 12 kms which seemed like 20 kms.
At Tumling, we saw railway protection force conducting a camp for children who live on the platforms. We spoke to the kids and took snaps with them. The evening was not the quiet evening that we expected to have. There was a Bengali family with noisy kids and even more noisy parents. There were Spanish tourists who tried learning Nepali, Sid was playing Table Tennis on the dinner table with some tourists and guides; Sneha was running away from the kitten that kept coming next to her.
Later in the evening beside the fireplace we had Thumba, a local drink made up of wheat and millet, with our feet soaked in hot water as Dorjee sang some songs. After dinner, we kept contemplating whether to use the toilet or not as it was freezing cold and a small drop of water on the body meant piercing pain.
Day 5:
Sneha and Sid woke up early and ventured out in the cold. They froze. We had a lighter breakfast which constituted of Pita bread and Tibetan bread.
The trek started and the first six kms were a little difficult. After a tea break at Garibas we had an uphill climb and it made things tougher. During the trek Sunil kept making bird noises and when the birds responded he could identify the bird but he was confused between Sid and me because both of us call each other Bunty.
We stopped for lunch at Kaykyata and the weather deteriorated. It started to drizzle and Sunil wanted us to take the Land Rover to the destination because in the hills the rain is accompanied by hail stones. Sneha did not want the ride and we trekked at a brisk pace avoiding the rain which we could hear falling a few kilometers away.
Kalapokri looked like a ghost town with deserted houses covered in fog and moss. We reached there in the afternoon and were put up in a tree house like room and served hot chocolate. In the evening we had Thumba, salt water for legs, hot water bags for the body pains and great food once again with our favourite food item - the tamarind chutney.
We trekked 12 kms in the entire day. The noisy Bengali family met us even here and one particular lady was the noisiest of the lot. I thought the best way to make her quiet is to strip her clothes off in the cold. Unfortunately, she was not pretty.
Day 6:
This was the toughest day of our trek. It was just a seven km trek but the weather was bad and the climb steep. The previous days leg pain troubled Sneha but she did not give up. The climbs were at sixty degree angles in some places. The height was getting on to my head and I had mild mountain sickness. Sid had leg pain too. All of us were struggling a bit. The last one km was never ending and when we reached the top we felt as though we had conquered the world. All of us were excited and took snaps, shook each others hand and felt satisfied. We even gave Sneha a guard of honour for battling the conditions by raising our trekking sticks.
We had finally reached Sandakphu.
We stayed in a VIP bungalow with a fireplace. Thankfully it was nothing like the “Rumati Bunglaw” that we stayed in Kolkata. None of us had the guts to go outside or to the toilet because of the cold and all we did was to talk the whole afternoon and evening. In the night, it took us a lot of guts to go to the toilet.
Dinner was simple relatively - Dal, papad, noodles, chicken, Gulab Jamun, etc. For all those who worry about food this trek is a treat as none of us lost weight instead we might have put on some.
Day 7:
I am not a great believer in these things but that day was special and a miraculous thing happened. While we were returning from the
We started our downward trek towards Srikhola. On our way we parted ways with our Bengali friends. One of our Bengali friends was upset that the Kolkata Knight Riders had lost their game. Our legs hurt more than they did when we went uphill. On our way we saw strawberries growing in the wild, small villages with every house having a pretty garden outside, etc. We had lunch in Gurdum and continued our journey as Sunil told us stories about an invisible soldier in Nat hula, the Gorkhaland independence, etc.
We reached Srikhola after walking for around 15 kms. It looked like a European village with a river on the side, a wooden bridge, houses with flowers, pathway made up of stone, etc. In the evening we took Thumba & its recipe while we spoke, spoke and spoke. I think the Thumba made us talk more.
The temperature was around ten degrees and we felt it was not cold. We were used to lower temperatures by then. We had a good dinner and used the toilet without any fears. The toilet had a pipe which never had a tap and the water continuously came from (from the river) and whatever you did in the toilet went back to the river.
Day 8:
This was the last day of out trek and we walked to Rimbick with the river flowing by our side and a dog following us hoping that we would give food to it. We compared the dog with a bunch of cricketers as it showed resilience and persistence. Suddenly we started seeing people, dogs, vehicles, etc. We saw kids going to school where some of them had
Our trek came to an end finally. We walked 53 kms in all.
From Rimbick we took a ride back to Maneybhanjan where we had our great lunch once again. This time it was “Momos” and we ate till we could not breathe. After bidding adieu to Gurungs who took care of us like their own family and gave us gifts we drove through
Day 9
Delo House is located on a hill top from which you can see surrounding mountains and rivers. We got up and walked around the lovely gardens of this resort. After breakfast we visited the local market in Kalimpong where we purchased Thumba container and some other trinkets. On our way to the foot hills we went to a Buddhist Monastery which was next to a Helli Pad and
The drive to the foothills was both exciting and disappointing. We were heading towards the Teesta for rafting but it also meant that our trip was coming to an end.
We got into our rafts after wearing the life jackets and hearing the instructions. The water was not very rough but it was rough enough for us and as the rapids would come closer Sneha would bend down as per the instructors command and some more water would splash us hard. As we enjoyed ourselves in the river a photographer kept clicking snaps at every moment from a bike on the road which flows alongside the river. Sid and I even jumped into the freezing water which comes from the glacier not so far away. For a moment the breathing stops because due to the cold water. It was an adrenaline pumping ride for us.
There were tiny shacks where we changed our clothes and after lunch in a small but good hotel we headed for NJP. Sunil bid us adieu as he did not want to enter the plains due to the Gorkhaland agitation which could have turn violent. Sunil took immense care of us at every stage of out trip. It was nice to have him with us throughout.
We got dropped off at NJP railway station which was as isolated, dirty, mosquito-ridden and under-developed as it was maybe sixteen years ago when we lived there. No wonder people in that part of the world are upset with the lack of government efforts.
We met the same family as we did during our onward journey. After eating the bland but decent train food it was time for us to sleep.
Day 10
Kolkata was a different world as compared to what we had experienced in the last five days. Sid left to his friend’s house and we finally took Jaideep’s advice and stayed in a hotel called ‘Green view”. It should have been called “clean view” because everything was nice there unlike our earlier “Rupasi Bunglaw” experience.
Later in the day we went out with Jaideep and Shreya to a restaurant called “Peter Cat” where the food was different and delicious and then to a place called Swabhumi which had goods produced by the local craftsmen.
We drove around the city roads to wile away time and reached the airport on time. Sid came from his friend’s place and took his flight to
Finally, we reached home and slept at around 03 00 hrs.
Maybe someday Siliguri will have a technology park and I would get a chance to visit that place again J
