The Darling Darjeeling Escapade 

Darjeeling, after trek

As I bid adieu to the new friends I had made during the trek, two things were rattling my mind. I needed to find a place to stay soon and I needed to have a bath. I found a travel agency right outside the youth hostel and booked a cab to see some sightseeing places the next day. They suggested a hotel called Charlie, which is where I stayed. It offers a wonderful view of the Kanchenjunga, which is why I stayed there.

View from Hotel Charlie

It is owned by Santosh Rai, who was really helpful with the places to eat around and he also took me to this place called Nathmulls for tea. He introduced me to his fiancée who suggested good places for shopping. I had a bath and set out to explore the enchanting hill town. I had breakfast at Bonny’s and decided to go to Happy Valley Tea Estate.

Happy valley

I took a sharing taxi to Happy Valley. When the British set up Darjeeling as a hill station, they explored it for developmental options and planted tea seeds and saplings along the Himalayan range. The tea harvested in Darjeeling had the best flavour and hence it became synonymous with tea gardens since the 19^th century. Happy Valley was established in 1854. It is a 429 acre garden with a staff of 330. It is now a part of the Ambootia Tea Group. I took a tour of the Happy Valley.

                                       

Woman plucking tea at Happy valley

                                      
                                                                                                                                                                     

Sunset at Happy Valley

                                                                                                                 

With Junita Lama, the tour guide

Junita Lama, the tour guide showed me around the factory and plantations and explained the process in which the fresh tea leaves are plucked, withered, rolled, fermented, dried, sorted, graded and packed to produce a variety of teas like green tea and white tea apart from the traditional black tea. She explained how the production of green tea is different from the traditional tea as it is a difficult one wherein they conserve the anti-oxidants. I saw some amazing machines for withering and rolling but couldn’t take pictures as it wasn’t allowed. Junita also explained the plucking seasons and how they produce different flushes of teas. Check out www.ambootia.co

Museum and Zoo

I had heard about the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute and I really wanted to visit the museum in their campus. I saw Sherpa Tenzing Norgay’s shrine and the equipment which he had used to climb the Mount Everest. I also saw a lot of other mountaineering equipment and the belongings of many other mountaineers along with their pictures. It is a must-visit.

Royal Bengal Tiger

The Padmaja Naidu zoological park has been named after Sarojini Naidu and is the highest altitude zoo in India. You can see animals bred in alpine regions. The speciality is the animals which dwell in cold regions. I also saw the very popular Royal Bengal Tiger. The black leopard and snow leopard looked handsome in their fur.

Ropeway – the Rangeet Valley Passenger Cable Car

This is the longest ropeway I have ever been on. It takes 20 min to take you to the tea valley and another 20 min to bring you back. 

With Leena Bansal 

        

                                 

I met Leena Bansal –Miss Walking Shoes (http://www.misswalkingshoes.com/), a popular travel blogger, on the ropeway. It was a great co-incidence.

Tibetan Refugee Self Help Center 

Located on a hilltop, this had been set up for rehabilitation of Tibetans who followed Dalai Lama and escaped their homeland way back in 1959. You can still find the younger generations of those Tibetans making carpets and handicrafts. 

The good luck wheels

Women making carpets

The beautiful Tibetan artwork is captivating. It is amazing how these people have kept their art alive. You can even purchase items like carpets, shawls, wooden crafts and leather items here.

Tenzing rock

This is named after the great Tenzing Norgay. A comparatively smaller rock, tourists can try their hands (and feet) at trekking on a steep hill.

I also saw some places like the football ground, tea garden, a monastery and the Ava art gallery.

I ate breakfast at Keventers – it is said your trip to Darjeeling is incomplete without breakfasting here. It’s an open air restaurant with a beautiful view of the mountains including the Kanchenjunga.  

Keventers

 

The boat restaurant that one can see from the Keventers

I ate lunch at this place called Frank Ross Café. It is a pure veg café. On my last day in Darjeeling, I decided to give myself a treat and headed to this fancy bakery cum restaurant called Glenary’s.

Dinner at Glenary's

There are exquisite little tea boutiques in Darjeeling which have shelves lined up with exclusive tea from the gardens of Darjeeling. I went into one of these called Kho-cha – meaning ‘black tea’ in Japanese. The store in-charge Hemanta was an expert on teas. He told me they had teas from all the 87 tea plantations of Darjeeling. I had some First Flush White Tea which had a sweet flavour with mild astringency and some Rose Green Tea. 

Enjoying freshly brewed tea at Kho-Cha

With Santosh from Hotel Charlie - Nathmulls

There were various teas like Golden Orange Pehoe, Sencha green tea and Muscatel organic tea – second flush. Hemanta kept sipping tea as he spoke and told me he ends up having around 40 cups of tea every day. He has been working there since five years and hasn’t ever taken medicines from the doctor; whenever he isn’t alright, he makes himself a cuppa. Kho-Cha, Nathmulls and Golden Tips – all three are owned by the same person and are the most popular tea boutiques.

I was really tired and had an unmanageable runny nose by then. I had bought pink toilet paper from my trek, which was really handy for my runny nose, and it was the only thing which made me happy, because of its utility and the colour. I had to get back to work in Mumbai and had no strength or inclination to sit on a train for the next two days. 

Doesn't look as great in the picture, but was wonderful 

I flew back to Mumbai via Delhi from Bagdogra. Luckily, due to clear skies I could see the entire length of the North East Himalaya all the way to Delhi. It was a mind blowing view.

I could feel the typical perfect Mumbai weather as I landed. The next day as I woke up, I was so happy to see the bright day and the sun. By end of day, I fell sick. I had fever and cough.

The after effects of Darjeeling and trekking:

•         Started with a normal cough
•         Got fever, severe throat pain and body pain
•         Phlegm came out not only from my nose, but even from my eyes – yes, eyes. Every morning my eyes would stick.
•          I got severe throat infection – first pharyngitis and then laryngitis.
•         As I am writing this, my voice is like totally gone. It has been two days that I am dumb. My boss laughed at me when no voice came out of me when he asked me something but then suddenly he asked me seriously if my voice was ever going to come back. I am really worried for my voice, I know how dumb feels now. Also, I am afraid if I really lose my voice, I might lose my job as well. I don’t want people to say, “Heard about that girl whose voice went away after she came back from a trek and hence her boss had to fire her?”
•          I cough all night – I feel my rib cage is about to explode

Nevertheless, I only remember the gain, which makes my pain easier, and recommend YHAI – here is the website - http://www.yhaindia.org/

If you want to visit only Darjeeling, Raj Bhattacharya’s website is your best bet. I had contacted him too for advice; he has in-depth knowledge about everything you need to know about Darjeeling. Here is the link: http://www.darjeeling-tourism.com/  

Particularly loved the toy train story: http://www.darjeeling-tourism.com/darj_0000ba.htm

About sunrises in Nepal and sunsets in India

This is a map of the five day trek -

Day 1

We started the trek at 8 AM. We were taken to Dhotrey by jeep. We started our trek from there. We were supposed to reach Tumling(2960 m), which is 7 km from Dhotrey, which is basically in Nepal. We stopped on the way in Tonglu(3070 m). 

Mr Thapas wife

We were welcomed by Raju Thapa to his warm house. We sat on the porch sipping hot teas and coffees. After some rest, we started the trek once again. The trek was uphill as well as downhill. We reached Tumling around 3 PM.

Thandi wali pout selfie 

The pahari's were making hot pakoras on the hill, which they sold along with tea

Trekking uphill is not an easy feat at all. Your heart starts beating wildly but there are times when you need to keep going. I could feel my heart beating in my ears, mouth and everywhere – it pleaded me to stop as I wanted to my gasp for my breath. You open your mouth and take dollops of air in even though you are told again and again to breathe with your nose. I feel my heart has increased in size after the epic five days :P

The Nepal India border

War and peace :P

The YHAI volunteer Mr Suryavanshi showed us our rooms and we were served lunch. We were given four meals a day during the course of this trek – tea at 6AM, breakfast at 7AM (puri bhaji, aalu paratha or bread butter) lunch around 1 PM (mostly aalu and soyabean vegetable, dal, rice and roti with pickle and papad) tea around 4 PM (tea and two pakoras/bhajiyas/samosas) and dinner at 8 PM (same as lunch mostly).  The meals though simple, were very good as they were hot and made by the locals hosting us. They were very pleasant people who prepared the meals with love. However, we all were really tired of eating potatoes and soya bean at the end.

After lunch we went to our rooms. Kritika, Rishika and me shared a room called ‘Sweet Peas’. They had named the rooms very creatively.  The pink décor felt warm and homely. Just what you would want to come to after the first day of a strenuous trek. This was my most favourite room in the whole trek. The wooden houses are also supposed to keep you warmer in comparison to the cemented ones.

The pretty pink room

Trust girls to not only get a pink room, but even have shoes with a little pink :)

In the evening we had tea and played Antakshari. Lots of old Hindi songs. Later, a teenager, Nikhil Gurung played the guitar for us. We sang while he played the guitar. He had a natural flair and was a talented guy. He played some old and new Hindi and English songs and one Nepali song. 

One of our group members Akhilesh was so happy with his skills that he presented him money to get a new guitar for himself. The evening was fun. We had dinner and went to our rooms.

Day 2

We woke up to see the sunrise at 5.30 AM. The dew drops had frozen to ice. We waited for a good one hour to see the sunrise, which was worth it. You first see the sunlight glistening on the Kanchenjunga peaks and then see the sun rising.

Frozen dew

Sunrise in Tumling

We had to trek to Kalipokhri (3108 m) covering 13 km. We started the trek at 8 AM. It was a straight road. 

We started seeing frozen waterfalls as we made our way back to India. We stopped at a placed called Gairibas(2621 m) for lunch.

Bandana like Dilwale – indulge in some Bollywood fashion to remember the normal lifestyle when you are surrounded by gloomy mountains

We resumed the trek and reached Kalipokhri just before tea. Kalipokhri is a little lake with black water. It is a revered place. 

Kali pokhri

YHAI has some volunteers to help us at camps. They are trekkers who have trekked with YHAI earlier. The volunteer in Kalipokhri, Ganesh was from Chennai. He was a little demotivating but I guess that was his way of motivating. He scared us by telling us about a guy from an earlier batch, who slipped and fell trying to ice-skate and got stitches on his head and was sent back to Darjeeling. Some of us were numb with cold and fear. He was forthcoming during dinner and told us he owns a dog parlour back home in Chennai.

Day 3

We had to reach Sandakphu(3636 m) trekking 6 km uphill, the steepest of all the days. Though it took a toll on us, the views were captivating which melted away the fatigue. All along, beautiful pine trees were peppered with icicles.

Looked like a scene out of a movie. Finally we reached around lunch time. The volunteer at Sandakphu, Sourav, was a Bengali from Kolkata. He took us for a mini tour around our camp post lunch.

Sourav told us about some medicinal herbs and how pine leaves can prevent foul smell. He showed us the wild strawberry bushes and also took us to the only water basin of Sandakphu.

The only water basin in Sandakhphu

That too freezes at times; hence there is a water shortage. We saw ice being formed live on the leaves- as we were higher than where it snows. We were where the snow is formed. There was just one washroom for women and none for men. We hopped our way to Nepal to see the sunset from one of the peaks there, but couldn’t as the weather was really foggy. Nonetheless, we had fun playing with frozen ice. We came back for tea and Sourav told us stories about the mountain people and the Sherpa community – the members of this society are supposed to climb mountains really easily. He also told us about the evidence of the Yeti in the Himalaya. (The word Himalaya is plural; people often misspell it as Himalayas)

Sourav warned us that it was going to be very cold in the night. He said if you keep your water bottle outside, the water would freeze, hence he asked us to take some hot water in the bottle and put it inside of our jackets and sleep, that would also help us fight cold. It was around minus 16 that night. Sandakphu means ‘cold wind’. You can see the wind blow fast taking along little icicles. We were able to hear the wind all night – like soft whistles.

The only thing that is pretty regular about me is my period and hence I don’t like to mess up with it. I didn't take any medicines to postpone it and as a result I got it on the day coinciding with the hardest trek. I wasn’t surprised; this has always happened to me – my board exams (both 10^th and 12^th), university exam, important events, dances and performances of my life – my period was always there for me – on those very days! :) I was prepared. I took some pain killers as I didn’t want to pass out with pain on a mountain and kept trekking. However, as night approached and we were warned about everything freezing, this dangerous thought crossed my mind. What if the tampon I was wearing freezes inside me? I knew it was impossible, still I was worried :P  Once a nagging thought enters your mind, it doesn’t leave easily. Anyway, my brains were working five times slower due to cold. I told Kritika about my fears and she said it was an interesting thought. She is really bright and she didn’t laugh it off, and even said it would be interesting, which irked me even more. I wanted her to say “that’s so stupid”, but she is a lawyer in the making. She would rather have her laugh than reassure me. (Just kidding, both her and Rishika were a great help)

Day 4

We had to trek downhill and reach Gurdum (2910 m). It was a 14 km trek. We saw some beautiful flowers and it snowed on the way. While trekking uphill is tedious and saps out your energy, downhill makes your knees pain as they take the entire pressure of your body. We reached Gurdum around lunch time.

It snowed on the way to Gurdum

Trekking downhill

The volunteer at Gurdum was a Gujarati from Ahmedabad, Dhawal. I even knew of the café he owns – Café Rocks. After tea, we made an actual camp fire (with fire and wood) and had Maggie. Himalayan freezing temperatures, camp fire and Maggie is something you must indulge in if you are trekking the Himalayan range.

Beautiful night sky in Gurdum

Dhawal brought back Ahmedabad to me. The Gujarati spirit of making the most and the best out of any situation – he played party songs and we danced a lot. Little Nepali children were handed torches which they kept moving, giving an illusion of disco lights. The tempo was set as we danced the starry night away. We also did some star gazing. Shardul, a team member told us about this app called ‘Star Chat’, which tells us about the stars which we are interested in. It is basically a real time map of the sky. He was pretty resourceful himself. Chintan, Lohith and Vishnu took some pictures of the beautiful night sky.

Day 5

The last camp was at Rimbik(2266m) and the distance was 14km. We halted at Srikhola for lunch. There was a beautiful waterfall in Srikhola. Most of us bathed in the waterfall! (I didn't) It was really cold (I just know)

We left for Rimbik after eating. The camp in Rimbik was really beautiful. Basically all camps we stayed at were local houses which had some extra rooms for tourists and trekkers. We headed out in the market to eat Momos. Though the Momos were alright, we enjoyed the market and the chill. 

We came back and were talking when we were told about a Budhimaan baba who lived nearby, who was at the camp that day. This man allegedly cures people of illnesses with mind power or his connection to the supreme energy. I have been troubled by nagging stomach issues of late and hence decided to get his blessings. I don’t really believe in getting treated that way, but the people who live in the mountains have pure hearts and I just felt like asking him to pray for me. It felt good.

After the bara khana – as the Nepalis call the big dinner, we were given the certificates for completing the trek successfully.

We danced on Bollywood and Nepali songs which they played for us. Particularly, this one Nepali song – Piratiko Chata Odauna - a really upbeat song, we loved dancing on it with the locals hosting us.

The 27 participants: 

Shardul, Ashutosh, Franklin, Akhilesh, Pankaj, Chintan and me from Mumbai, Maharashtra

Virendra, Kamal, Jayant, Kapil and Arshad from Jaisalmer, Rajasthan

Vishnu, Kritika and Rishika from Kolkata, West Bengal

Akshay and Lohith from Mysore, Karnataka

Kishan from Ahmedabad, Gujarat

Trushala, Dr Rajashri, Pradeep ji, Suresh ji, Raju ji, Bidri Rajshree and Jyoti from Solapur, Maharashtra

Prinkesh from Pune, Maharashtra

Pradeep Kumar Rai and Dawa Sherpa were our guides who accompanied us during the entire trek. One would be in front and other at the back.

With Pradeep Kumar Rai

With Dawa Sherpa

 A special thanks to them :) They are swift, able and strong mountain climbers.  

We were driven to base camp at Darjeeling the next morning. 

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