A month later, we booked our trek with India hikes. Six months from then and off we went, high again in the air, in the same direction we went exactly six months ago. Getting down at Kolkata, we boarded the connecting flight for Bagdogra and were off to New Jalpaiguri were the shared transport would come. We took a cab from the airport looking around at the familiar yet different surroundings and reached NJP within an hour with a charge of 475, booking a prepaid cab at the airport itself.
Hotel Breeze did not look all that breezy, but it served the purpose of an economical place to put up for a night. Looking back a few hours, we imagined how we had gone about buying the bare necessities for the trek. The trek shoes, the bag, the poncho, the thermals, the borrowed jackets and how we would get our trek poles from the base camp. How well connected we were thanks to the whatsapp group and how the earthquake posed a threat to our trek. We talked on and thought on till sweet dreams took over and the next day began with the first walk with our luggage. A few seconds and we switched to a manual rickshaw till the station for 30 rupees.
Upon reaching the station, we found the rest of our group who were supposed to start alongside us from NJP, all except for two: A Mr.Rajesh whose train was delayed and a Roopesh, who said he will reach soon. My first impressions of Roopesh were like those a long known friend when he finally hurried into the station looking around for a place to take a xerox. The four in our jeep were good to go.
Just before sunset, we finally reached the very place whose first utterance we heard six months ago. We were here and it was beautiful. A little converted shop below and a couple of rooms above made the india hikes base camp, with Mr. Subba, the person in charge, also the owner of the shop which sold trek goods like the amazing two left handed water proof gloves we bought. A common swallow family with many little off springs peeking at us was a sight to behold. Barring the little chirps and the occasional whirring of the vehicles, and some banter between people who had just come down after finishing, there was no other penetrating sound. We met Mr.Sudipta, who would be taking care of the place and doing a lot of management behind the scenes for IH. This then followed up with a little briefing by our lanky leader Prateek, who cautioned us against doing anything not expected. In the middle of the briefing arrived the missing remaining contingent, coming from !NJP. We also met Shiben, who was going to be the sweeper for the rest of the journey who turned out to be the most regular companion with us throughout the journey.
Day 1: And we heard from Roopesh about how every gram matters. How the bag will feel lighter everytime, we brush our teeth because we squeeze out some toothpaste, how the extra clothes never matter, because you are too tired to change, how min weight is of max importance and off we ran, trying to reduce as much we could off those giant bags.
A few minutes and we got our brand new golden trek poles which Roopesh promptly screwed out and had immense trouble and getting it back to normal. Then came running, our trek guide, the charming Dawa. A little stretching and off we went. 2 minutes into the trek and we could already feel that this was not going to be easy. Slowly we made our way going higher and higher till we reached out lunch spot finally, which I forget now.
Then, after what appeared like days or months of walking, we finally saw a place which looked like humans could be existing in. The bags felt like someone had replaced our clothes with heavy stones as we barely crawled into our camping site. A small hut with a roof top became the banter place as people took turns to talk about their previous treks, today's heat, flipkart esops and what not.
Bakhim : was where we had reached at 9000 ft, the cold was already getting to us when the rain gods started to pur down some water. When the rains decreased, we walked back to our camps and I had a lot of black tea to keep myself hot along with the fantastic biscuits. I found that Dawa's voice would be the alarm for the next few days for the availability of food. Getting into our tent, we finally slept well and long. The next morning was the first day without concrete toilets.
The place with the silent T :
Inconvenient for the first day, we managed fine and walked the green two kilometers to reach Tshokha amid mild drizzle around 11 am. This was the day people talked away to their heart's content. Unending talks about everything that is wrong in the world kept happening and it appeared that if we just went back to the society, we could change it in seconds. This was the first place from which the beauty of the majestic Kanchenjunga range was visible from close.
And this was the only place where Rajesh told me a lot about Adobe and Flipkart, Roopesh shared his inclination to believe an astrologer who wouldnt charge money, Ramki, me and Roopesh talked about a few things. And then, it was dark. Rajesh Flipkart and Sreejith had a deep passion for photography along with a deep interest for lighted tents which they forced me into. Having only a mechanical light, I still remember rotating that light for well over half an hour and then when I finally asked if I can stop, I was handed a battery light.
Phedong:
Early morning and slowly we rose to the dazzling beauty outside. The sun coming up made for a very pleasant feeling when the heat finally came along. We got ready and packed everything, ready to move. We were told that this would be the toughest day. As a group, we slowly started nodding our greetings to the the Netherland friends and slowly walked through the scant houses, the monastery and it's small heart shaped lake. Each step taking us higher and higher, actually too high for comfort. The route, had wooden logs placed perpendicular to the direction of walking, leaving us feel like miniature trains.
The walk speed slowed down to a crawl pace and the destination never looked like it could get closer when a hint of snow and the distant white brought us back the motivation we needed. Slowly, we reached our destination, at 4pm, Dzongi.
The Matching Mufflers place: Dzongri
Kockchurang
Thansing
River Bank camping : Lamuney
Samiti
Kockchurang
Phedong:
Tshokha!!
Yuksom
Khechoperi
Siliguri
And bye!
