Day 1
Date: Sunday 30 April, 2017
Actually our trek starts from tomorrow from Yuksom. However as per itinerary of TTH, day 1 is travel from NJP/Siliguri to Yuksom.
TTH arranged cars for us from NJP station at 9 am. As we all were together, we decided to start early i.e. 8 am and hence I called the cars to the stadium. Everybody got up early and freshened up. Few enthusiasts (like me) also took the shower!! Getting morning breakfast at 6:30-7 am was bit difficult. We had to walk close to 1 km to get the tea. One thing is clear.... Siliguri is not like Pune !!
Amit and others also tasted some digestive local drink as well.
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| Preparation of the digestive drink |
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| The drink... |
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| Cheers ! |
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| And finally we got tea as well :) |
Everyone was ready with their bags and once the cars arrived, we quickly loaded our bags and started from the hostel.
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| Kanchenjunga Stadium |
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| Bags are ready, waiting for cars..... |
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| Youth Hostel dorm room ... too good !! |
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| Get, set and Go !!! |
Right now, we had only 2 cars and 3rd car was supposed to meet us on the way. At the outskirts of Siliguri, area called as Laddu Gopal, we took a hault for breakfast. Hotel Santa Banta was very neat, clean and quickly served the breakfast. I liked the tagline of it the most which says, ' If you are awake, we are open'! In the meantime, our 3rd car came and the bags were adjusted accordingly.
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| Table #1 @ Santa Banta |
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| Table #2 |
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| table #3 |
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| गरमागरम आलू पराठा |
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| His Masters' Voice |
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| सौफ देने का अनोखा तरीका |
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| Our own ..... :) :) |
Once we crossed Sevoke, the road till Yuksom was very scenic and awesome. It goes up and down on the hills with green forest on one side and you always have a valley on the other side. First we crossed the Coronation bridge on Tista river, which travellers use to travel to Bhutan. Then we crossed the Melli checkpost, entered in Sikkim and took the road to Jorerthang/Yuksom. Just before entering Jorethang, we took again a break for lunch at 16th Mile restaurant.
Apart from our group of 15, there were 2 additional participants, Bharti and Shital. I got a call from Shital that they have left Darjeeling and soon would be reaching Jorethang. She told me to expect a call once they reach. After finishing our lunch, we quickly started for Yuksom. I called Shital once, however not able to connect. We were 20-25 minutes (closely 20 kms) from Jorethang when I got a call from Shital saying there are no vehicles available for Yuksom and can we come back to pick them!! Situation was very much interesting.. our car was last one (with full capacity of 6), I tried dialling people from other cars but not succeeded. I even suggested our driver that Viraj and I will get down and he can go back for pick up. However our driver was not ready and convinced for that. Shital called me and said they got one car towards Yuksom side (but not to Yuksom) and asked me to stop on the way. I stopped one car with 4 members just before Legship. Remaining 2 cars went ahead and then stopped at one small hotel (Dashrath's hotel) for tea.
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| @ Dashrath's hotel |
After some time, we saw the third car coming but no sign of Bharti and Shital. We almost waited for more than 30 minutes here and finally decided that 2 cars will go ahead and 1 will wait (since their pool car was available till Tashiding only). This is the very place where Vinit spotted his gorgeous friend first (and then kept spotting her over and over till the end of the trek)!!
After reaching Kanchenjunga hostel at Yuksom, we relaxed a bit then freshened up and went down for introduction, breefing followed by soup and dinner. Here we got introduced to Prateek, our trek leader from TTH. After the breefing, everyone looked little tensed with the fear of AMS!! One part of the brain was saying 'अब क्या होगा?' while the other part was saying 'All is Well'!!
We filled a short form for forest permit and submitted our documents too. Post a heavy (again!!) dinner, we went early to bed for an early start next day for the trek!!
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| Our room at the Kanchenjunga Hostel, Yuksom |
Enjoy these 2 small videos which are part of this journey :)
1. Siliguri to Yuksom (courtsey Google photos !!)
2. Beautiful way
Fees paid:
INR 350 per bag per day for mule
INR 300 as camera charges for National Park
#मम
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