Well, I have always loved traveling. And mountains, even more so. I find peace among the mountains. I like mountains because they make me feel small and makes me humble. They help me sort out what's important in life. I also wanted to travel solo. So on 20th december, when i really got fedup of my student life, i decided to just travel solo and go somewhere among the mountains. Sandakphu being one of my bucket list destinations, i didn't have to think twice before deciding to travel to sandakphu.To reach Sandakphu, One can either take a train to New Jalpaiguri and then take a shared jeep/sumo who charge 250-300INR per person and reach Darjeeling. Or one can also take a flight to Bagdogra airport and then take a shared jeep/sumo to darjeeling . same fare. Since, i went on this trek with YHAI, my base camp was at darjeeling. so i reported there and everything else was taken care of.
Three things that will impact you from this trek:1. When you are standing above the clouds at 12,000 feet, you realize how crazy and beautiful is the world and how many more such places there are to be travelled to. You also find humility among the mountains.2. Star gazing at night: When you gaze at 10,000 bright shining stars at night, you do get star-struck for real. if it's your 1st time, then trust me you'll be in awe of what you see . It's absolutely stunning and mind boggling.3. Staying away from all your social networks like fb, whatsapp, et all for almost a week makes you realize what all these so called social networks snatch away from us. One realizes the importance of living life for real.
Well, this the place where the 56 kms trek of sandakphu began. Dhotrey is a small village at a distance of 4 hours by jeep from darjeeling.
Well, this is the place where you realize what the trek is going to be like. The trek from dhotrey to tonglu is kind of difficult because the slope is high and you literally go through dense forest . You have to climb all the way up and cross 2 mountains before you reach tonglu. The view is breathtaking.
This is where we stayed and rested for the night. The night temperature was around -2. Still , do sneak out and just stare at the sky. See the nature and its brilliance.
This is on the border of India and Nepal. Almost midway between Tumbling and Kalapokhri. We took a break and had our lunch here before continuing our trek.
This is one hell of a place. Kalapokhri comes from the word "kala" which means "dark" and "pokhra" which means "lake". There is a small lake here and the place is so named because of it. This place offers amazing and breathtaking sunset view. The nights are really cold. temperature is around -5. windy too.
We started at 8am from kalapokhri and reached sandakphu at 11:30am taking frequent breaths in between. There's steep climbing during the 7 km trek. but in the end it's all worth it. This is the highest place in west bengal at 3636meters i.e 11,949 feet. The place offers amazing views of Mt.Kanchenjunga(India's tallest peak), the sleeping buddha. Mt.Everest, Lhotse can also be seen at a distance. Night temperature drops to -10 and can even go to as low as -15 due to winds from the kanchenjunga mountains. Nonetheless, do get out and look at the sky. This place reminds me of the song YELLOW from COLDLY: "Look at the stars, Look how they shine for you....."One can literally count as many as 10,000 stars on their fingertips, given they can withstand that low temperature for that long :P
This place was at a distance of 14kms from sandakphu. pretty much of descend from sandakphu's height. nice views all along the trek. again, do star gaze at night.
This is a very good place to take your break and have your lunch. This place is midway between gurdum and rimbick. This place offers you a mini waterfall which does look really good. If you have balls, try taking a shower here, as you might be stinking real bad as of now :P.
After 5kms trek from srikhola, you reach rimbick. It is a very small town . when you get here you realize the difference between the population you came across from dhotrey all the while till srikhola and rimbick .My Trek ended here.
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