The Singalila Pass Trekking Experience: A Day-By-Day Log

Last 5th January, I had returned home from my second trekking experience. This time, we had gone to Singalila Pass - starting from Uttarey in Sikkim and ending at Rimbik in West Bengal, going through Kalijhar, Singalila Pass and Phalut. We had started off from Kolkata by bus on 27th December night, and had returned back on 5th January noon. Before I forget, I'll jot down here my day-to-day memory of this trekking experience. I'm jotting them down in a very factual and raw format - just as I'm remembering them. This will become a HUGE article any maybe monotonous at times, but I'll presently leave it just as it turns out to be.

The Team:

Day 1-2 (27th -28th December):

Our bus from Kolkata to Siliguri was scheduled to start at 8:00 PM from the Esplanade bus stand. We had decided to meet up at about 7 PM. The four of us - me, Saikat, Nandini and Noirita, along with some (or all) overly worried family members, were all there within about 7:10 PM. After meeting up, we stowed up our luggage in the back space of the bus, and waited. The bus finally started off at about 8:45 PM. We were finally on our own - we were finally starting off for the trek trip for which each of us had already gone through a lot, and given a lot. How exactly we had managed to come to this point of actually being able to successfully start this trip is itself a long story. But I'll not go into that now. But we started off finally. The journey, scheduled to take 12-14 hours, took a handsome 18 hours, thereby upsetting our next plans. Upon reaching Siliguri, we had planned to commute to Uttarey, our trekking base, on the same day, but at that time around 4 PM, there were no vehicles ready to take us that far. One made an offer, but for a hefty Rs 2400, which was beyond our budget. Another agent promised it at Rs 1400, but then on second thoughts partially retracted, and we had to curtail the journey to take us only till Jorethang, since finally no car could be arranged till Uttarey. So, we opted to reach Jorethang for Rs 1250 - the farthest up we could reach that night. The journey from Siliguri to Jorethang took around 3.5 hours and we reached Jorethang at the extremely inconvenient time of after 8 PM. In these hilly areas, the localities shut down after about 7:30 PM. So, on reaching, we found the entire place shut down. Placed in an extremely inconvenient position, we had to scout quiet a while, exploring through the dark alleys and roads, from door to door, before finally landing up an accommodation. Double bedded rooms were available at Rs 200 each. Not really being in a position to bargain about the cost of accommodation, we had to settle for what we regarded as a quiet higher price than what we would have got in daytime. However, the rooms we got were quiet comfortable. For dinner, we had rice and dal and a sabji - during that time, they provided no other options. Since we planned to start our trek the following day itself, after reaching Uttarey, we re-arranged our rucksacks to provide for two large ones for porters, and slightly lightening the ones of the girls, for whom this was also the first trek experience. We slept well that night.  

 

Day 3: The next morning, we were to start for Uttarey. We had planned to reach Uttarey by road as early as possible, and then start the trek for Chittrey the very same day. Since we were already one day behind our original schedule, we were opting to cover up as much as possible on each day. With this thought, we started looking for cars in the early morning, but none were to be found in the morning on the share basis. So after some deliberations, we reserved a car for Rs 1000 (which, as we came to know later, could have been much lesser) and started our journey to Uttarey. During the journey, we realised that this part could really not have been covered last night directly from Siliguri, as we had then wanted. The path was a moderately steep winding one, uphill through fogs. It took around a good three hours (or a bit more) to reach Uttarey.

At Uttarey, we had to arrange for a permit and hire porters before we could start for the trek. We had decided upon two porters for our group of four. After getting out of our car, we were kind of surprised at not being flocked by the locals in offering of guides, porters or accommodation, a treatment we had received last year at Maneybhanjan - the base of our last year's trek to Sandakphu. Anyways, after a bit of walking around, we found a man who operated a 'Green Valley Treks and Tours' and was also the owner of a lodge and a schoolmaster. We decided to further our trek preparations with this person - Mr. S. B. Subba. We unloaded our luggage at his place and released the car (so far, we had not released the car, owing to uncertainties). On discussing our plans with Mr. S. B. Subba, we were told that the arrangement of permit would require a day, since the office and person required to issue the permit was not within reach that day (it was at Dentam - a nearby village). Also, it was prudent to halt here for the night and start the trek the next day. He also gave various other details regarding the route, filled in a lot of various missing information and assisted us a lot. He gave the exact details of where we would require the tents, how we would acquire our foods, etc. - no trekkers hut was available at Chewabhanjyang and Kalijhar. We would have to share with the army (or guards) at Chewabhanjyang, and Kalijhar would require tent. The sharing of army quarters would require a bottle of Rum as a gift to the army or guards up there. Also, the porters would have to cook and bring back food from Chewabhanjyang on the night we would camp at Kalijhar, since we have brought no cooking provisions and Kalijhar provided none. Mr Subba said that he would arrange for us all these things. We stayed at Green Valley Lodge that night, in a room which had two beds - each supposedly a double bed, but which under normal standards had dimensions of single beds. The room also had an attached bathroom with a geyser. All this at the very modest cost of Rs 130. But the foods were costly - one plate momo costed Rs 20! In effect, the saving of accommodation was more than covered up in the cost of food. In the evening, we went out with a list of items, to buy the rations which we will need at Chewabhanjyang and Kalijhar, where we must make our own food arrangements. However, when we had started out for our bazaar, the shops in the locality were shutting down. But we did manage to get our stuff. That night we laughed and talked quiet a while and finally went to sleep.  

 

Day 4 (30th December): We woke up before 6 AM, which by trekking standards is quiet late rising. We met the two porters who were to accompany us. We also learnt that tent had to be carried for them (of course!), and also that Mr Subba had provided us some utensils at no extra cost. He also took only 3 days' cost for the tent of porters, though it would be there for at least 5 days. The porters had to be provided one day's extra fee for return. And for their extra toil at Kalijhar in bringing us cooked food from Chewabhanjyang, we were to give them Rs 100 each. The permit officer had arrived, and the permit for 4 of us, the 2 porters and all costed us a total of Rs 275. After a breakfast with 4 pieces of toasted bread, one boiled egg and a glass of tea, we started off on our first day of the trek.

The trail started along the base of a hill, with a easy climb along a rocky and uneven trail averaging around 3 feet wide. I was quiet happy with this trail, as this very different from the road-way (motorable!) route I had got at Sandapkhu trek last year. This one had all the looks of a proper "trek" trail. At the start, we had to cross a few streams, and in one of these, I wetted my shoes. Trying to be extra careful, I lost balance, and had to step down fully inside the running water to avoid total tippling over. Nandini and Noirita crossed it much more gracefully, and Saikat wetted the lower part of his shoes - up to the inner sole such that his socks did get wet, but none like mine - I had completely stepped down in the running water. Immediately after crossing it, we rested a bit while I wrung the water out of my socks, and Saikat changed his pair. Having no better option, I kept on with the wet socks and shoes - changing to a dry pair of socks would not have helped since the shoe was totally soaked up. But due to the cold and the tiredness, I did not really feel the wetness during the rest of the trek. Some way up, the trail became extremely steep. Exhaustion crept in, perhaps even more so for Nandini and Noirita who were first timers. At certain spots, balance was not possible for us just on our foot, and we had to use our hands also for the climb. We progressed slowly. I wonder what I would have done had I got this kind of trail on my first trek experience. In comparison, I must say that Nandini and Noirita were doing quite well, given this was their first trek, and first day too. The porters were also following some 'short-cuts' to save some time seeing our pace, and these short-cuts were all the more steeper. 

 

Finally, after much toil, we reached a spot somewhere near Chittrey - which was a halt on our way to Chewabhanjyang. There was a single lonely hut on our route at Chittrey (we probably bypassed the main village), but it was probably not a trekker's hut. It was situated on a stretch of a plain field. It was looking beautiful, and we took some snaps. Had there been sunlight, the snaps would have come out much better - but it was already cloudy and foggy at that time - around 12:30 PM. 

We rested a bit there. Noirita, I suddenly saw, had lied down straight on the field in resting - which was a thing to be avoided in the middle of a trek. I immediately ran up to her and made her to sit up at least. After about 20 minutes of resting and drinking water, and eating tid-bits (primarily biscuits), we again started off to complete the rest of the day's trail. The way from here was again steep - at least so it appeared for amateurs like us. I would have been badly exhausted, had it not been for the frequent pauses we were making. 

 

After about another two and a half hour of continuous uphill trek through sparse forests, we finally got a view of a fence at a hill-top. This, we were told, is the Chewabhanjyang guard post we were after. We could also hear dog barks from below. This sound from our destination within our reach added some momentary fuel to our stamina. At about 3 PM, we finally reached the Sikkim police/guard establishment premises. We put down our luggage, and rested on a bench at first, and then inside a room with fire (where four other guard personnel were playing cards). When we had first sat down on the outside bench, we got a feel of the chilling cold as the warmth of our body resultant from the effort of the day's trek, subsided. Then when we entered the room with the fireplace, it felt heavenly as we sat encircling the fire. While we were resting, our porters were talking with the guards there to arrange everything. Everything went as planned, and we were given a room in an empty wooden building. We used its toilets and kitchen. In the kitchen, the porters had lit a fire using logs of woods and had started warming up water.

My shoes were still wet, and I put them up to dry close to the fire in the kitchen, and switched to using the pair of 'ketoes' brought by Saikat (of course, along with two or three pairs of socks). We handed over the bottle of Rum we had bought as the 'gift' for the guards up there - it was handed over to them by one of our porters. After properly settling in the room and unloading our luggage, we realised that we were all very hungry, and needed something to eat. No food would be available from the guards up there. The porters asked what to do about food, and we decided to cook up the four packets of Maggi noodles we had brought from Uttarey. The porters took it, and we asked to serve it to four of us, and also to keep some of it for the two of them. While we waited and massaged our sore muscles in the room, we were informed that the meal is ready.

We went up to the kitchen and sat around the kitchen fire. Never in my life had such a simple soup-noodle tasted so heavenly. The hot steaming bowl was like manna, and while eating, I had not even looked sideways. With full attention and satisfaction, I gobbled up every bit of it. I remember Noirita saying something like how choosy and unyielding she used to be at home when her mom cooked up nice dishes of noodles or Maggi for her, and in what contrast she was relishing the utterly plain preparation here!!

 

After the meal, we went back to our room and started arranging our baggage. Today, the sleeping bags we had brought along would be required, and we started spreading up the four mats. We engaged in our own chores, and each of us spent quiet some time beside the kitchen fire. There, one of the porters informed us that two kilogram of some kind of meat was on offer from one of the guards - at the price of Rs 150 per kg. I was absolutely overjoyed at the prospect of having meat preparation in this environment, and after a quick discussion with the other three, readily agreed to buy the two kilos. We decided to cook up 1 kg that night, and keep the rest for the night at Kalijhar. The officer (to be clear, this is not "officer" in official Government employment terms, just a words our porters had used and so we also caught it) came, and going up with him to receive the meat, I was shown a room with several meat strips, and told that it was taken from an animal which was probably killed by the officer (I did not clearly understand the words he was speaking). He had dried up the meats and kept them to take home. From his total store, which I saw hanging from 'rods' from the ceiling in a room, he was offering us 2 kilos. Anyways, whatever be the source and story, I was quiet happy at obtaining it. Dinner was served at about seven. Our porters were the cook. They had prepared the meat and rice. Just these two items. It would have been great, but unfortunately, the meat preparation was not at all what we had hoped for. It was, in fact, not anything like I had even tasted before. It was like plain boiled meat. The meat pieces were too small (cubes of 1cm) and the meat itself was hard like rubber. Probably an effect from being dried up for a long time. Given all that, we ate whatever we could. I ate much more of it than the others. I guess, the food had appeared more unwelcome for others than to me. After this meal, we started arranging our sleeping bags in preparation to sleep. We obtained water for our hot-water bags from the porters. I did not feel that I would need it, and so didn’t take one for me. As it happened, the sleeping bag I had hired from Himalayan Association appeared to be the most efficient. It had the least weight, and was the warmest. We had started our sleeping venture by getting into our own respective sleeping bags, but after the passage of some time, I realised that everyone was quiet uncomfortable. Noirita appeared to be really cold - and so I switched my sleeping bag with hers. (In fact, after getting into my bag with quiet a lot of warm clothes still on, I had been feeling kind of hot!) So, I gladly made the exchange, and Noirita thereafter was a bit more comfortable. Somewhere in the middle, I had dozed off to sleep. The next morning, I realised that I was in fact the one to have slept the most and soundly. Saikat and Nandini had not slept at all, while Noirita had slept only a little bit. 

 

Day 5 (31st December): We started the day on a very lazy note. All of us were awake (or some have been awake all through the night, to be more accurate) well before sunrise. And of course, we had plans to see the sunrise. So, after every few seconds, I kept asking "won’t we go out to view the sunrise" and to this, Noirita kept replying "of course - we surely should get up and see". But no one was actually getting up. Suddenly, Saikat (who had been a real sulky mood all of last night, having not been able to sleep at all, and having problems with his sleeping bag) got straight up and went out without a word. It appeared he still was not in the best of his temper. Seeing this - or probably getting inspiration from this - Noirita went up and out after a few minutes. Of course, there was no way I could still lie down (see - I was also designated as the nominal 'leader' of the troop - so how can I possibly laze away while others become active) and hence got up and went out. Nandini appeared the most reluctant, and only when no one was lying down, she got up. I was just lucky enough to catch the sun rising. When I had finally gone out with my camera, the sun was a little more than halfway up (half-circle). Saikat had got the first shots; I barely managed one shot of the rising sun. Thank god, I was just in time to get that view, since as fate had it planned, that was to be the only sunrise we would be watching on our entire trek. Soon after sunrise and taking a few snaps (yesterday it was dark and foggy when we had reached - so we got no good snaps then), we started getting ready for the trek ahead. We used tissue papers for the first time today to wipe us clean. (Uttarey had the geyser with warm water.) We ate a sparse breakfast with whatever provisions we were carrying, and started out. We had brought along with us 12 pieces of boiled eggs, and today we ate one from it (I forgot exactly how many of us ate an egg that morning - but I did). We finally started our trek around 8:30 AM. The trail today was much easier at start, and much more beautiful. We got good views. This far, we had not yet come across any ice or snow - so we were highly excited when we came across the first patch of snow. We took snaps - and our faces in the snap will testify that we were genuinely really glad and happy with that first spectacle of snow in our path. As we went on, the snow in our path increased. Gradually, at some places it became a bit dangerous with the paths fully covered with snow, going along the hill slopes in a thin trail for foothold, and with open hill-slope running down at one side. One of the porters was going at front, showing us the trail, and another was catching up along the rear. We went very carefully. The porters also helped the girls in treading the steps here.

 

Today's distance was much shorter and less tiring than that of the previous day's. At around 12:30 PM, we reached Kalijhar - the spot where we were to halt for the night. The place where we halted had snows scattered along it. On a clearing surrounded by slightly higher lands on all sides, we pitched our tents. The spot was such chosen with higher lands on all sides so that the gush of flowing winds at night is lessened. Ours was a beautiful tent with blue and red colours. It looked beautiful and bright in the clearing. The tent of the porters was dull green in colour in comparison.

 

 

 

After pitching the two tents, the porters lit up a fire in a nearly place about 20 paces away. We all surrounded that fire and sat by  it for some time. Again being quiet hungry, we ate some biscuits. We took a few snaps. Soon, after we left the fire (as it grew dim), we realised how cold it was. For some time, each of us loitered on our own, relishing the landscape in our own ways. Then Saikat and Nandini went inside the tent. Noirita was sitting alone on a rock, looking out into the vast landscape ahead. I went and loitered around. I hoped for good snaps, but found none because of the fogs and clouds which were getting thicker. I climbed up a nearby tiny hill and looked over. It was beautiful - till whatever was visible. It felt great. From where I was standing, our tents looked appeared like small colourful objects amidst the snow and clouds. Coming a bit towards our tents, I found that Noirita was still out on her own and had gone up a few paces and was standing quiet still, looking up ahead. She was completely engrossed in herself. The way she stood motionless, still and alone, her entire poise, provided a remarkable spectacle - and would also have been a good photograph at some other brighter times. But it was already getting dark and foggier. I walked up and decided to explore a bit further in another direction - the one she was facing. As I went ahead and climbed up, the visibility was getting lesser and lesser. Very soon, I could no longer see the tents. The dark and still figure of Noirita was then all that was visible, like a beacon. As I went a bit further over, she also got out of my field of sight. Now, all I could see was barren mountains with patches of snow and small dried up shrubs with ice coatings on their branches and leaves. I stood there for some time, afraid to venture any further up ahead, in fear of loosing direction. I wondered, how I would be if I really got lost in this setting. There was no human habitation at least within 3 km radius. And as far as I was concerned, there was no sign of any other form of life either, except the shrubs. It was a chilling thought - and I experienced a kind of romantic fear - standing there all alone in that place, with no friendly form of spectacle in sight. 

 

After a few minutes, I decided that it was enough and that I should return now. But as I started on my way back, I got another little shock. The visibility had worsened, and after the few paces I had expected to regain the sight of Noirita standing, I could see nothing. At this point, I was not even sure whether she had moved away, or whether the visibility had just decreased or whether I was already in some wrong direction. Going by my best directional judgments, I kept moving forward. There was nothing else to do. I was a bit nervous at that time, and fear had started gnawing up. Anyways, after some more paces, the figure of Noirita came up in view again. I felt relief. Thankfully, she was wearing dark blue jacket and trousers and this dark stature was more prominently visible. As I walked to where she was standing, the tents also came into eyesight. As I passed her, she asked how far did I go - at which I replied that I went just a bit - till the point where I lost visibility and decided to turn back. 

 

After some more minutes, we all were inside the tent. It was 31st December. Saikat had brought along a cassette player with a speaker, and four cassettes of Bengali 'pop's (Anjan Dutta, Nachiketa, etc). So we started 'celebrating' the New Year Eve with the music. We talked and jested a bit. But the effect of cold and exhaustion was also showing on all of us. As it grew darker, we started planning for our sleeping arrangements. We decided to tuck in our shoes inside the tent for the night - otherwise they will be stiff cold and wet in the following morning. Since the sides of the tent would be colder, we two boys offered to take up these two, but Noirita wanted to take up one side. Finally though, when we had slept later, we had actually fallen asleep in the positions we were talking and resting in the tents - Nandini and me at the two sides, Noirita beside me and then Saikat. For dinner, we had decided to avoid the meat tonight - and we had instructed the porters to cook dal, rice and some sabji. They had gone off to Chewabhanjyang to cook it there and bring it back. At about 5:20 PM, they came up to the tent and informed that dinner way ready. They were expecting us to go up beside a fire lit up at the place where we had been initially resting in the afternoon, but we were extremely reluctant to leave the comfort of our tent and venture out in the dark cold. So, we arranged to have the dinner inside the tent itself. As it happened, the entire food was cooked without salt - since salt supply had been exhausted and was not available any more, and everyone except me ate too little of the food. I also ate lesser than normal, but that was more due to the environment (desire to finish up the dinner as early as possible?) than due to salt - it had tasted tasty enough for me! Just a few minutes after dinner we all were smugly inside our sleeping bags. We talked a bit, Saikat played his cassette player for some time. Then we tried to fall asleep. Before falling asleep, I was joking about thunderstorms and all, about our tent being blown away by a storm. But it seemed as if everyone was not really appreciating my sense of humour in the way it was supposed to be. Soon, I guess we all fell asleep, or half asleep, as the case may be.

 

I slept for quiet a while before suddenly waking up sometime in the middle of the night. On waking up, I felt that really strong winds were blowing outside. It was dark. And I was also extremely surprised at another thing - I found specks of ice falling on us from our tent roof. Investigating, I found that these ices were coming from the condensed water layer which had formed on the inner side of our tent. This condensation was probably from the moisture of our breathing. This condensed layer of water on the inner sides of the tent had turned to ice, and with the gusts of wind shaking the tent roof, these were falling on us!! I also noticed another thing with alarm - that a corner of the outer upper layer of our tent had come off. Our tent had two layers - the outer layer was a separate one hoisted above the inner tent roof. I found that the corner of the outer tent above my head had come off and was blowing in the wind. It was clearly showing due to the moonlight making its shadow on our tent roof. The strong wind had blown it off! The shadow was very prominent, and the moonlight outside seemed very bright. Way beyond what I would expect it to be in cities. I wondered how it would be outside. Thinking of the moonlight outside, I finally could not resist venturing a look through the small zippered window our tent had, So I sat up, unzipped the tent window, and peeped outside, liftin up a small corner of the window. As I peeped outside, a chilling gust of cold wind rushed in even through that very small opening. But the glimpse of the outside I saw then is something I would never forget. It was something I had never seen before - not even in my previous trek. It was something I had never even imagined possible, even while reading various novels and descriptions of moonlight. I had never seen so clear a landscape, in so bright, yet so soothing a light. It was like a special kind of floodlight, very soothing yet powerful, that had light up the entire landscape evenly. I cannot really describe what I saw there in words here. It would never be anything even near it. But there it was. Like a discovery - of something I did not know existed. The cold winds rushing in, and the thought that I'm making others uncomfortable by this venture of mine, made me quickly draw inside. But that flash of spectacle stuck to my eyes. 

 

Day 6 (1st January): After that moonlight experience, I had fallen asleep after lying awake for a while. I think I slept for about another two hours. While I was awake, none of the others except Saikat had made any sounds to signify that they were awake, but I suspect they were not asleep fully. At best, they might have been in that half-sleeping daze. I again woke up sometime after 4:30. And from then, I did not really fall asleep again - I went off to light dozes for a few times, I suppose. As it grew near 5:30, I noticed Saikat moving, and started asking about venturing outside for sunrise. But I guess I was not that enthusiastic about this venture myself, and neither did I get any enthusiastic response from any of the others. So though we talked about whether to go out for sunrise after a few moments, none was actually getting up. Finally at about 6 AM, when it was quite bright outside and we knew that it must be quite some time past sunrise, we heard one our our porters calling out for us. I pushed out my head looking in the direction of the porters' tent. As I looked at them, they pointed out in the direction straight ahead - and turning, I saw am amazing spectacle. 

 

In that direction, quite literally looming "just over the horizon", where there were only thick clouds yesterday, stood the majestic Kanchenjungha - clear and bright in the sunlight. I had never seen any snow covered mountain peak so very near us. (It was far nearer that we see in Darjeeling and Gangtok.) It was there, along with a series of other snow covered peaks on both its sides. The spectacle was superlative. I gave a hushed exclamation, saying to the others that the peaks are visible majestically. And the reaction I got was overwhelming, I think triggered more due to the way my exclamation had come out, rather than the words itself.. The bodies, which so far looked so lazy and extremely reluctant of getting out, sprang up in an admirable sprite, and literally pushed me over in attempt to stick their heads out to get the view. (I was the one at the tent's entrance side.) Saikat was the first one to get out, and Noirita and Nandini, not yet quiet dressed up to get out completely, were literally pushing over my half sitting posture in attempt to have a look at the amazing spectacle outside. With all the haste, soon enough, we had put on whatever clothing we found and thought enough to fight the cold, and were out taking pictures. I went up over the surrounding hill tops and got excellent views of the different sides. On one side, there were the peaks, and on another, there was the sun, just risen (we were about 20 minutes late, I guessed) over a sea of lush dense clouds. The clouds almost looked like standing waves in a turbulent sea. We were above the cloud layer. All around it was absolutely clear. The porters yesterday had expressed that we might not get any good views if such clouds as has been there yesterday, prevailed. Today, they called out and said that we two boys and two girls have proved out to be extremely lucky.

After taking a quiet a few snaps, we started preparing for the next day's trek ahead. The sparse food we had taken yesterday had resulted in doing away of the need for the 'long toilets' (a term I learnt and am borrowing from a writing I saw in a public toilet at Jorethang!). For breakfast, we ate from our provisions which we had brought along. I was the only one eating a boiled egg. As I came to know later, Noirita had actually eaten very little then, which had resulted in more tiredness and exhaustion for her later that day on the trek. Nevertheless, all of us actually ate lesser than we otherwise would have. After some time, the porters came and folded up our tents. Our bags were placed in the sun - since the night had deposited a layer of thin snow on them. At about 8:30, we were all packed up and ready for the day's trek ahead. We started off with a relatively easy trail. The sky was fully clear, and the views all around were majestic. We were going up - today we shall go to Phalut, through Singalila Pass. We would cross the highest point of our trek today, more than 3600 meters above sea level. As we went up, the trail was becoming slightly steeper and covered with more ice. There was no vegetation at this altitude. But the scenery was a grand spectacle - with bright snow covered undulating hill top lands on our sides, the shining snow covered mountain peaks looming on the horizon, and the pleasant winter sun in the clear bright sky.  

 

Soon, the ice deposits increased and we had to be more and more careful in our steppings. Saikat was wearing proper trekking shoes, and Nandini hunter shoes, but me and Noirita were wearing plainer sneakers - with the only specialty being that these had an inner sole of canvas and an outermost sole of rubber - a design more suited for climbing purposes than ordinary shoes. We all started feeling quiet exhausted as we treaded the pass. The path grew more risky. And it was also more steep at points. We almost always had a downward sloping hillside at least on one side of our trail. A slight miss-stepping could make us slip and loose balance, and a fall at such places would mean definitely no return. Additionally, as we reached the tops of hills, the wind got really strong since there were no obstacles all around for the wind (the places being higher than surrounding peaks), and we (at least me) quiet had to fight to keep my balance at places. It was such that I thought at one point, that had I known it to be of such nature, I definitely would not have chosen this track - especially, as a first-timer for Nandini and Noirita. Or even if no one were a first-timer. The two porters helped us a lot. They moved up and down, showing and making for us proper trails. They were bringing us up sometimes by lending support with their hands. So we kept moving slowly. The place was great for pictures, but we could only afford a few - being too engrossed in our own safety and careful stepping. We joked among ourselves that we ought to be given mountaineering certificates at having scaled such paths.

 

After quite some time through such paths, we finally reached the topmost part. Just a few paces beyond it, there was a place suitable for resting. From this point onwards, there was no ice, or much less ice. We sat and rested at this place. Everyone took a sip of glucose. Even I took a draught of glucose this time - I was really feeling quiet exhausted. This was the first time I took glucose on my trek - and probably the last time too. We also ate some food (biscuits). I realised that the lack of proper food in the previous 24 hours was having its toll on me. I also saw that this was the very case for Noirita too - but more intense, since she had eaten a really meagre amount of food in the last 24 hours. But of course, we had to move on. So, after about 15 minutes of resting, we again started. This time, the trail was easier, and was descending. Yet, I realised, I was feeling more exhausted that I had ever felt anytime before on this trek - and I realised this is why one must always eat his full during treks. We had crossed our topmost point before 12. As we descended, the sky started getting full with clouds and fogs. The sun was visible no more and it became colder. At the ending part of our path, we again encountered ice covered trail where again we had to tread very carefully. 

 

Finally, we reached Phalut at around 3 PM (I suppose). At Phalut, we saw that there was only one Trekker's Hut which provided accommodation to trekkers. The rates were Rs 100 for dormitory beds, and Rs 600 for a room with four beds. There were other persons in the dormitory, and we had opted to take up a room. Let me specify here, that prior to Phalut, we had not met any other trek team, or to be more precise, any other human being after Chewabhanjyang. We tried to bargain with the cost of the room, but since this was the only hut, the lodge-owner or caretaker - or whatever he was, knew we had no other choice and didn’t reduce a paisa of the cost. When we said that we had stayed at Rs 40 per head at Sandakphu, he openly said that there was competition at Sandakphu, and here there was none. So, we had to settle for the price he had quoted. It was plain monopoly. After taking possession of the room, we started with our usual chores - a large part of which included massaging our sore muscles and applying balms. Dinner was to be at around 7, and I was very happy at the prospect of getting to eat a full hot hearty meal after so many days (it seemed really like 'so many days'). It was 'meal system' and so I could eat as much as I wished. Chappati was not available, but for once, I did not mind at all. At around seven we were told that the meal was ready. We went up into the table set up in the middle of the dormitory. I was literally all smiles at the prospect of relishing a full hot dinner. And I didn’t (I'd rather say "couldn't") even wait for the others to start - as soon as I was given a plate and an item, I started gobbling it up. I alone consumed around one and 3/4 plate of rice - more than double of what I normally take for lunch at home. With the rice we had dal and a curry and ‘papad’. After the dinner, I was like 'fully satisfied'. The others too were really happy at having this proper dinner after two days. And I was also happy at having gotten a proper single bed with double quilts. As usual, we were in our beds by 8:30 PM maximum, and I was quiet comfortable. I slept more soundly that night than the previous two nights in sleeping bags. Others did too - in fact, for them the previous two nights in sleeping bags have been much worse than me. So I guess this night at Phalut was really welcome for everyone.  

 

Day 7 (2nd January): Again we missed the sunrise today. We had forgotten to set our alarm. We were using Noirita's mobile for alarm - and the last night Saikat had once mentioned about setting the alarm. But we had forgotten about it thereafter. We woke up at about 6:30 AM - way beyond the sunrise time. We had ordered tea. We found that we would have to pay for the food of our porters today - they came to us asked about breakfast. We decided to give them a share from our own reserve - since we ourselves were not taking food to save up money - one bowl of porridge here would have costed Rs 30. With the tea, we had our breakfast with the biscuits, nuts and 'chhatoo'. However, I didn’t eat the ‘chhatoo’, instead - I ate one boiled egg from our reserve, and everyone else was shunning the boiled egg. We were finally fully ready after 8 AM. We paid the bill of our lodging and fooding at Phalut hut - which amounted to a mammoth Rs 1010, and started off for our next day's trek.  

 

The trek started with a wide trail amongst trees and high shrubs, with a mild downward slope. At the start, there was occasional ice layering on the sides of the trail. It was a graceful easy descend to start with. But then as we started taking short-cuts, the descent became a little steeper and with larger dirt-filled steps. It was easy to slip amongst these steep sudden falls due to the loose dirt present. Careful stepping was required. Noirita and Nandini, in spite of naturally feeling more exhaustion compared to us guys, were doing admirably well through sheer tenacity. Our two porters again helped a lot by providing supports and leads in these descents. I once lost control on one of these loose dirt slopes, and fell. But here any kind of fall was not at all dangerous since both sides had dense vegetation and there was no steep falling side. 

 

Our day's final destination was Rammam. At about 12, we reached the village of Gorkey, where we halted and ate some food. We took six bowls of soup noodles - including two for the porters. A girl of about 16-17 years of age was attending and serving to us. As I went in for the orders and enquiries about food preparation progress, she made some attempts to start up a conversation with me. Of course, I provide for no easy or fluent conversational mate to new persons, but still she was successful in starting on a slow chat with me. I learnt that she reads in an English-medium school at Rammam, and that she commutes from Rammam by foot (of course - no other mode except horses were available) everyday, and that she takes about one hour to cover the distance (which was kind of half day trek for us!). And she knows English more than Hindi. She was using English phrases more than Hindi while talking with me. I was trying to use English too, but Hindi was escaping more naturally, since my system had become adjusted to speak in Hindi in similar touring environments. A bit later, all of us were sitting in her large kitchen and eating the noodles. Now we also learnt that she has an elder sister, who now resides in Germany. At my query of what this sister is doing there, she shied away a little while replying that her sister is now married in Germany, to foreigners who had met her when they had down to trek here. (And later, for even days after the trek, my team mates kept pulling my leg mentioning that she so much wanted to go off with me, like her sister had done.) 

 

Anyways, after our long halt at Gorkey, where we gave away more than an hour, we again started off for Rammam at about 1 PM. On the way, we passed through the beautiful agricultural village of Samadin. This village had a lot of agricultural fields and the entire get-up was looking beautiful from distance. But we could take no good snaps, since it had already become quiet cloudy and foggy well before 12.

Continuing from Samadin through same kind of short-cuts as we had treaded on our way to Gorkey, we finally reached Rammam at about 4 PM. At Rammam, we saw the school the girl at Gorkey was talking about. Our porters took us up to a lodge there. In the lodge, we first asked for two double bedded rooms, but then after seeing the beds, we opted to take just one. But again after some time, we shifted to a room with three beds, arranged side-by-side. We got these for Rs 100 each. Somehow, by this time, Saikat had started feeling quiet unwell. He took medicines, and rested. Here, I was feeling quiet hungry and ate up all the rest three boiled eggs left from our reserve from Uttarey. Also, for dinner here, we could have rice or chappati - whatever we wished. Noirita opted for rice meal, and the rest of us for chappati. We had dal and a little amount of potato curry for dishes. I ate up a hefty 12 pieces of chappaties that day. And I slept quiet peacefully that night. It actually felt comfortable for all of us, coming down from colder atmosphere from above. The porters had told us that we could get buses from Rimbik at around 12 on the following day, and to catch those, we must start by7 AM in the morning. So we went to sleep, targeting 7 AM as the trek starting time for the next day, and setting our alarms accordingly.

 

Day 8 (3rd January): The sleep was good, at least for me. We woke up in about 10 minutes after the alarm went off. For breakfast, bread was not available here, and last night, we had planned on having chappati and sabji for breakfast today. But in the morning, all of the rest of us except me chose to discard chappaties. They ate from our stored rations. Though we had woken up soon after our alarm had gone off, we could finally start on our trek only at 8 AM instead of the 7 AM as we had planned on the previous day. The trek started with an initial small distance resembling the paths we had treaded yesterday, but then it became a plain flat and easy road. It was, in fact, the very same motorable road we had treaded on our last year's trek from Sirikhola to Rimbik. It was an easy journey (and kind of boring for me). The path was such that after the first 10-15 minutes it could no longer be called trekking by any stretch of imagination. Trodding on along this path, we met quiet a few vehicles passing us, coming from both directions. We finally reached Rimbik at 12:30 PM. And how stupid did we feel when we learnt that we had just missed all the share vehicles which leaves by 12:15!! We had no way to go to Darjeeling (or Siliguri) on that day any more, except by reserving some vehicle, but that too only if we could find any vehicle willing to do that. After a bit of scouting and asking around, we landed on a vehicle for Darjeeling (there was no commute for Siliguri from here, as we learnt) for which we had to dish our Rs 1500 as the reservation charges. No amount of bargaining by us would reduce the cost any further. Had the limitation of returning to Kolkata by 5th not been there, I would have considered the option of staying overnight at Rimbik on that day. But to adhere to that return date, we could not afford to stay overnight at Rimbik (which would mean three continuous road journey tomorrow - and that would become extremely uncomfortable).

So after exchanging cordial goodbyes with our porters, we started off for Darjeeling on the Omni we reserved. I sat in the front, a little uncomfortable, since I had to shared the front with another local person the driver was taking along. The driver had said that since the return journey would be at night through jungles, another person would have to be taken for security, to accompany him on the return journey. The road we followed went through jungles and was quiet comfortable. We had started off at around 2 PM, and we reached Darjeeling sometime between 5 and 6, I suppose. (I forgot the exact time.) At Darjeeling, we chose to board at a hotel (Hotel Manokamona) where Saikat had boarded a few months back while he had visited this place along with his family. Instead of scouting for hotels in the evening, we opted to take up the guaranteed one, where the fares were also nothing exorbitant - two double bedded rooms at Rs 650 total - one of them having a geyser.

 

The car could not go up all the way to the hotel entrance. Cars were not allowed all the way up. We had to walk quiet a short distance with our entire luggage before finally reaching the hotel. It was run by a Bengali Aunti - who had a son studying at Presidency College in Kolkata. After boarding and putting down our luggage, we decided to go out to have a stroll. Also, the others were interested in shopping around. Our trek trip would leave us Rs 1000 to spare from our initial budget of Rs 5000 per head - all expenses till Kolkata would be covered within Rs 4000 per head. And even this figure was expensive, since all our road travels had happened through reserved cars. So finally, in the evening we dressed up in outfits cleaner than our trekking ones, and started out. We had some snacks (momo and egg-rolls) after going up a few paces. I remember, the sky was clear that night and the full round moon was shining brilliantly. In the darker lanes without light, I kept looking up into the sky in admiration of the beauty of the full moon. By the time we were in the market area, the roadside stalls were shutting down. It was past 7:30 PM. Only the larger shops were still open, but they too were on the verge of shutting down. Some of us bought a few items. We then went in to the 'Frank Ross Cafe' - a cafe we had visited last year after our Sandakphu trek, and ordered a serving of hot-chocolate for each of us. After a bit of waiting at a table, what we finally got looked and tasted exactly like the chocolate Complan mom used to serve me in glasses during school days. The taste, flavour, colour and even the glass in which we were served were exactly the same. So for Rs 25 each, we had what I am sure is a glass of hot complan that evening. After our glass of complan, we returned to the hotel. Today, we had opted for chicken meal. I had opted for chappaties, while everyone else had gone for rice. The chicken was hot with chili and we - at least me - did not relish it as much as I had hoped for. Saikat even didn't eat his full share of the meat pieces. But I ate a full meal nevertheless with ten chappaties. And I slept very well that night in the comfortable wide soft bed.  

 

Day 9-10 (4th - 5th January): The following day, we woke up, I guess, at about seven. I was looking to being lethargic this day, and I had planned to sleep till late, while the others go out on shopping. I had planned to get up later, take a full bath using the geyser available in the girls' room, and then go out and meet up with the others. However, I woke up very soon after the others were awake, and was not comfortable tying to keep lying. So, I too got up, and started preparing lazily. But as it happened, before the time the others were ready enough to get out, I was quiet ready, except for taking my bath. So I decided to go out together and after an initial stroll, to get back earlier than the others while they would continue with their shopping chores. I had planned to buy only one small article - a small wooden chessboard of a particular make which I had come across yesterday evening. So, we all went out. Just a few steps up from our hotel, there was a sweet shop - and seeing this, we (at least me) felt a heart-warming desire to give it a try. And it did prove to be a grand thing. We were getting hot freshly cooked 'jilipis' at Re 1 each. We consumed a lot of these, and also some other sweets. It was turning out such, that we then decided to curtail our lunch - and to that end, I also hurried back to the hotel to convey this decision there. After this sweet episode, we headed further up towards the Darjeeling Mall. It was between 8 and 9 in the morning, and the market was still not fully into business by then. In the cool pleasant sunny weather, we started walking, going up from one side of the mall, visiting Loreto College, and returning to the mall through another road, making a half circle in our course. It was a very pleasant outing and we took quiet a few snaps. 

 

After we returned back to the mall, we all bought ourselves a 'ball' made of a bunch of rubber-bands held together - it was a toy we had found widely being used in the streets by children and boys and girls of all ages. They play a kind of 'passing' game with this, in which they manage this thing entirely by their feet and legs (just as in football), and pass it onto each other by kicks - without allowing it to drop to the ground!! Anyways, after buying this, we staged quiet a show in the middle of the road by trying this out ourselves. Nandini was the one who lead this venture - she was the one who first started the playing in the middle of the road. The others took a few seconds to shake off whatever hesitation they had in this carefree indulgence, and soon we all had joined in. The locals watched us with gleeful amusement. 

 

After a few minutes in our newfound sport, and after we had taken some satisfactorily snaps of all of us in the action of it, we decided to continue with the shopping. The market was ready by now. But as I looked into the watch, I realised that I did not have much time in hand, since I had three activities I had planned to complete - buying the chess board, shaving in a saloon, taking a full bath. So, I decided to part with the others now to pursue my own plan. I bought the chess board from the shop where I had seen it the previous night and shaved myself for Rs 10 in a saloon. Then I met up with the others - they were shopping nearby, took the hotel keys, and went back to the hotel. In the hotel, I arranged my bathing items and finally put the geyser on, then checked that hot water was actually flowing, and went in to have the shower. But just after I had washed my head and was starting to wet my body, I suddenly realised that the water was cold. I could not get hot water anyhow. So, after a bit of research with the geyser, I decided that it must be off - since I was also not being sure whether the right indicator was glowing which is supposed to indicate that the water is being warmed. I cursed the entire hotel heartily, and had to dry myself up in order to get out and seek service. I called in the room service guys and they said that everything was allright - the geyser just was taking time to warm up! Quiet sulkily, I sat and waited. And then before again venturing under the shower, I set aside carefully a full bucket of hot water as backup. The raw cold water would surely have made me ill - it was surely between 0-2 degree in temperature. This time, saving as much hot water as possible, I could finish up my bath. Since my bath had taken up a lot of time, Saikat and others did not wait for me - they themselves completed the arranging of the car to Siliguri. We had opted for a Maruti Omni - and we had got it at Rs 700. So, after they returned, we all took up our luggage - which we had again re-arranged last night - and which were now quiet increased in volume and count owing to the shoppings and souvenirs of trek. So we stepped out like beasts of burden, and walked up all the distance to Loreto College where our car was supposed to be waiting. But on reaching there, we found a Toyota car was waiting for us instead of the Omni. Whatever, we packed our luggage on the roof of the car (there was no space inside), and started off. I sat in the front again. It was sometime after 1 PM when we had started off. The journey was nothing remarkable, except that we felt quiet hungry and slightly regretted our decision of skipping the lunch. I, however, had taken quiet a lot of sweets in the morning, and was not feeling that badly starved. On the way, we made a stop to have some momos and noodles. 

 

We reached Siliguri around 4:30 PM or maybe later, as far as I can remember. We were approached by agents for bus tickets, and I went with one of them to have a look at their bus and know their rates. It looked satisfactory to me, and after letting the others know, we decided to reserve our seats on this bus. The costs were Rs 325 per seat. The free time in the middle before the bus departs, we spent waiting at the waiting room in the proper bus stand - that cost us Rs 10 per head. Our bus started at around 7:25 PM, I suppose. I won’t go into the details of the journey - but it was similar to the previous one. Only a bit more comfortable, at least for me, since we didn’t have to keep any luggage with us (all were stowed away). We reached Krishnanagar early in the following morning, and there I bought one full round piece of Swarbhaja for home. We reached Kolkata at about 12 PM the following day. Noirita and Saikat got down at Ultadanga, while I went up to Esplaneade with Nandini. There Nandini's father had come to receive her, and after seeing them off in a taxi, I took another one to home. From this trek, I had brought along with me a wooden walking stick (which I/we actually used during the trek), again, as a souvenir, as I did from my Sandakphu trek. However, I myself had used this one only very sparsely - Noirita had used it most of the time. I had only carried it just for the sake of carrying it, on the last parts of our trail. But I'll be keeping it.

 

That is the end of my trekking log. Once again, the 'Day 1' was 27th December 2006, Wednesday, and the final day (Day 10) after a night in the bus was 5th January 2007, Friday, on which I returned back home. The trek was superb - in all aspects - especially the route from Chewabhanjyang to Phalut - and in totality, it was a grand experience. The memories, the images and the feelings will remain with me always - for ever, till the very end.