Nestled in the hills, which are the lonely vistas of the Indian
Himalayan range, are the villages of Tumling, Sandakphu and Phalut and I had
the occasion to trek upto these places in the month of November.
I decided on a sudden unplanned trip to Darjeeling, so I can
feel better, and ended up doing the Phalut trek being up close and
personal with the Kanchenjunga. What’s more, I heard that the Everest Range is
also visible from Sandakphu and Phalut and being a nature lover, what more
reason would I really need to take it head on?
So, I spoke with a few guides here about the trek and got
the best offer and told him that I will meet him on the next day at 8.00 AM in
the morning.
The earlier night, I also chanced upon a few guys from
Slovenia and a couple of girls from England and a guy from Germany. These guys
had a trek in mind and asked me if they could accompany me till the first day
atleast... and I said yes, please.
So, off I went to Manebhanjang with the rest of the folks
and my guide – a nice guy by the name of Siddharth Tamang [ Siddharth being the original name
of Buddha]. [Note: Distance between Manebhanjang and Darjeeling is about 26 kms
and it takes about 2 hours to reach there. Its also mandatory to take a guide
if one plans to walk through the Singalila natural reserve.]. The other guys spent a few minutes showing
their passports to the border outpost [ the trek passes through Nepal in
several regions and hence the presence of outposts from the Indian Army in
almost all locations] and spent a few more minutes getting a guide from them
and we were good for starting on our journey.
We had a steep but interesting walk upto Chitre on trekking trails,
steps and a jeep track. We stopped for tea there and had a bit of the
magnificent Rhododendron wine. [The local wine is not so strong and tastes a
little bit like Roxy – the rice wine. Try it if you get a chance]. The views
started getting positively better and the air crispier and cooler. We moved
through more of the jeep track and trails to reach a place called Lama Dura.
More of trail walking along the gentle ridges of the Himalayas took us to Megma
– the place where we lunched. Most who walked with me [except the German guy] had
to say goodbye as they wanted to be back at Darjeeling by night fall. Saying
our goodbyes [last goodbye’s?], the remaining moved forward to Tumling – the place
for our night halt. We passed through a bifurcation in the road and took the
left to Tumling and reached Tumling after a good trek of 11 kms from
Maneybhanjang.
Tumling situated at an altitude of 2970 meters is a small
village in West Bengal that has a few people and boasts of reasonably good
views of the Kanchenjunga range. It has a few good lodges where people can stay
and the people are nice to tourists at large. The place sleeps by 7.30 PM in
the night and temperatures can really go down in the evenings [ it gets dark by
4.30 in the winter. I hear that in the peak of winter, it can get REALLY cold].
We met a nice Finnish couple over at the lodge where we stayed and had a really
nice time talking and exchanging information.
We viewed the early morning sunrise at Tumling and had a
first hand experience of life at the Himalayas when its almost freezing –the
grass and the trees are covered with ice from the nights cold and one’s hands and
feet get really cold.
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| Tumling Lodge |
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| Lonely flag |
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| Kanchenjunga view |
We started early morning [8.00 AM] from Tumling after a good oats porridge and roti and made our way to Jaubari. We had tea at Jaubhari and met
another American couple, another German man and a Chilean guy who also started
walking along with us. One starts on the Singalila Natural reserve forest walk
from here. We bought our tickets and started with our Singalila trek - the trek
is good and really steep at places. We saw a lammergeyer in full flight, and mesmerized with its wing span stopped almost dead on our tracks.
Off we went to Gauribans where we camped for lunch and made
our way to Sandakphu through Kalipokhri, Bikhey and Bhanjang. The trek is a
total of 19 kms and the last 6 kms [from Bhanjang to Sandakphu] is really steep
and one would do good to have energy bars handy so they don’t struggle through
the last stretch. After an exhausting last stretch, we all were pleased to see
Sandakphu finally in sight and we were welcomed with hot tea. More talk with
the Finnish couple, the American couple, the Chilean and the German guys in the
evenings. Fun filled and interesting.
Sandakphu is located at an altitude of 3636 meters and
boasts of the best view in India of the Mt Everest and good views of the
Kanchenjuga. We weren’t disappointed even one bit with either the stellar views of
the stars we got the earlier night or the spectacular views of the mountain
ranges [ both Everest and Kanchenjunga ranges] from the place. It was initially
cloudy at the beginning during sun rise but the views became positively better by the time it was 8.00 AM - the sun drives the clouds away.
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| Just before the sunrise - Sandakphu |
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| View of Kanchenjunga from Sandakphu |
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| Kanchenjunga range on right. 3 sisters in middle. Everest in the far left |
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| Lhotse, Nuptse, Everest and Makalu - in sight. |
More time for goodbyes – the Finnish couple and the German
guys started on their way back to Darjeeling. Off we started at 8.00 AM from
Sandakphu to another village [Phalut] which is even closer to Kanchenjunga and
is reputed to be the best view point from West Bengal [the other is in
North Sikkim]. We started on our long journey of 21 kms towards Phalut. The first
resting point is Sabarkhum, about 14 kms away, and there are no villages where
tea / water can be had [Note to the reader : ensure that there is enough
liquid and energy bar too, if required, on hand]. Almost the entire stretch has
views of the magnificent Kanchenjunga and Everest and if the weather is clear,
its a divine trek all through [one moves closer to the mountain with the view
in front of us]. We lunched at Sabarkhum [saw Yaks, eagles, mules and ponies on
the way]and started again on our journey to Phalut – about 7 kms away and ended
up in Phalut in the evening. More talk in the evening with the Chilean who is
on a 8-9 month travel tour [ I wish I can do that too!]. It was an engrossing talk
with him and was predominantly educative.
Phalut is a small village at 3600 meters and has some of the
best views of Kanchenjunga from W.Bengal. My guide invited me to the hosts kitchen
and we [me and the Chilean guy] went and had a very good time with the host and
we were seated in her fireplace [her cooking stove, actually. So we sat close to it. Not ON it] and were party to
an actual Tibetan style dinner and the going ons of a normal Nepali house.
After a hot and sumptuous dinner, we said our goodbyes as I planned to leave
early in the morning so I can descend to Rimbhik in a single day [quite a crazy
plan since its 35 kms away!]
We [me and my guide] started at 5.50 AM from Phalut without
having tea and descended very quickly [crazily quick as my guide puts] to
Gorkhey at 7.45 AM. We had fantastic views of the mountain range in the morning
while we descended and we descended through a trail through thick forests. We
camped in Gorkhey for tea and breakfast and got a very sumptuous breakfast at
Gorkhey and left at 8.45 AM. There was a very nice river passing through
Gorkhey and we passed through a small bridge at Gorkhey to cross the river. Off
we sped to Rammam via Samadhan and we didn’t plan to stop there. We passed
through the Rammam school and sped on our way to Sirikhola. We passed through
really thick forests and a lot of vegetation and pine and bamboo trees. We crossed
the river at several locations while going from Rammam to Sirikhola. Stopped
for tea at Sirikhola after reaching the place at 10.55 AM. Sirikhola is named
after the Sri Khola [I know that it doesn’t explain a lot. Khola in Nepali
means a river. Its the Sri river]. We had a cup of really good tea at
Sirikhola overlooking the lovely Siri river and attending to our ankles and
knees [they take a good beating. The road from Rammam to Sirikhola is very
steep in many places]. We started at roughly about 11.25-11.30 AM to make our
way back to Rimbhik through a flat and gentle jeep road for about 7 kms. We
made it to Rimbhik at 12.35PM. 35 kms in 5 and a half hours. The guide was
quite upset and very tired and said never again does he plan to do this. Well,
so do the veterans of the circuit. I say, I would do it all again if it has to
be done.
All in all, a fantastic trek. Immaculate views? Check. Nice
company? Check. Good trekking trails? Check. Good time and rooms? Check. Good
food? Check. One for the memories...
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