Back from Orissa and SandhakPhu trip
Posted by Prashant - 08/01/10 at 12:01:58 pmAs the train, Prashanthi Express, to Bhubaneshwar, Orissa, chugged out of Bangalooru’s central railway station on 19th December 2009, I was still not very sure as to what beckoned me to this great land of Kalinga. Was it the unique history/culture, splendid architecture, bountiful beaches, the amazing Chilka lake or was it just that it was “on the way” to Kolkatta? I was not sure.
But the journey had begun and as I traveled through Bhubaneshwar, Puri, Konark, Chilka, Nalaband and Balgaon, it was aroma of a different world, flavor of a different cuisine, savoriness of a splendid heritage and a tang of rich natural beauty all rolled in to one. I savored, relished and smacked all of it and thoroughly enjoyed what it had to offer.
After ambling through part of Orissa, I moved to Kolkatta. It was a different place altogether when compared to Orissa. Fact that the whole of the trek group(almost) was with me added to the fun. I wonder why none of the travel guides make the following the must do activities for all tourists at Kolkata;
- Munching yummy rolls after rolls
- Gulping down golgappa after golgappa
- Hogging packet after packet of Jalmurdi
oh take our word for it, fun in travel multiplies several fold when you get into an infinite loop with above there tasks 
.
When we were not busy with above three activities we found enough time to travel on machines that fall on two completely opposite sides of the speed spectrum, Metro rail and Kolkata trams. We also were able to, not in any order, visit the Birla temple, Victoria memorial, shop for our trek gear near S-Planet, add lot more calories at one of the yummiest sweet shop K.C. Das, enjoyed the ferry service at Howra.
After a wonderful day in Kolkata, it was time to move on to NJP. We undertook an overnight train journey to NJP. Then a sumo and an indica transported us from NJP to Manebanjan which was the start point of our trek.
Fighting the freezing cold which we were not used to at Manebanjan, we started the most exciting journey of year 2009, trek to Sandakphu-phalut. Generally people either trek or most of the times take land rovers from Manebanjan to Sandakphu and then climb down from Sandakphu in to West Bengal.But we had planned a different route.
Day 1:
We would start at Manebanjan and trekking through Chitrey, Lamaydhura, Megma, Tumbling where we halt for night.
Day 2:
The next morning from Tumbling throught the Singalila forest reach Garibus and then passing through Kaiyakatta reach Kalipokri which would be the stopover place for the night.
Day3:
Trek from Kalipokri through Bhikey Banjan to reach Sandakphu.
Day 4:
Trek 21 km from Sandakphu to reach Phalut. This is a slight deviation from the usual trekking route. Most of them come to Sandhakphu and then take the Gurdum, Srikola Rimbik route to complete the trek.
Day 5,6 and 7:
These three day idea was to trek to Uttarey in Sikkim by passing through Sabnam valley, Shinglila Pass,Achelley Dara, Phoktey Dara with night halts (in tents) at Achelle Dara and Kalizar
Uttarey would be the end of the trek from where group would disperse off to their respective destinations.
The plan looked impressive. The view of Himalayas you get to see from Sandhakphu and Phalut are unparalleled. But hey we all know the universal law “If there is a possibility of several things going wrong the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong” and our trip had to abide by it. Things went on as per the plan until we reached Sandakphu. The night we halted at Sandakphu was greeted by sever cold and blizzards. By the time we woke up and opened the door of our loghut, the entire landscape had magically transformed. It was completely covered with snow almost half a feet in thickness. Though we thoroughly enjoyed, it also ment that we were struck in this place until the snow recedes by melting. Day one went waiting for the skies to clear and so did the day two. With the cold taking heavy toll on all of us and with the loss of precious time we had our back against the wall. We all knew there was no way we could go ahead with our plans in these circumstances. Plan “B” was imminent. Considering the time we had on our hand, we decided to chuck the plan of going to Phalut, instead we decided to take the regular trek route and climb down from Sandakphu through Gurdum, Srikola and then to Rimbik. We also arranged for vehicals to pick us up at Rimbik from where we dispersed. One group went to Siliguri, a big town around 6KM from NJP and rest went back to Manebanjan.
As I had to take a train from NJP to Howra, I decided to go to Siliguri. The day we landed in Siliguri, on one had it was the nostalgic feeling that marked the end of a superb trek, but dusk of that day also marked a brand new year for a fellow trekker who became a year wiser. Celebrations started early and went on late into the night. We all had a wonderful time. The next day three from the group in Siliguri started off on yet another awesome adventure to Butan. Rest of the group spent time surfing the hongkong market in Siliguri. After shopping we headed towards the NJP station to catchup with the penultimate leg of our journey. We took the train from NJP to Kolkata and the the next day flight back from Kolkata to Bangalore, thus ending a trip that had lots and lots of “WOW” and “Ah ha” moments.
Though I would rate Leh trip higher than this one, this trip has given me more moments than the Leh trek that I would cherish and remember my entire life. The first glimpse of the majestic Kanchenjunga, exhilarating view of the Himalaya range from Sandhaphu, First glimpse of the mount Everest, View of Sikkim dotted in electric lights and basking in the full moon light, first sight of the amazing snow filled landscape that hit my eyes when I stepped out the log hut in the morning at Sandakphu and many many more…
This was just the bird’s eye view of the amazing trip I had. A much longer post with lots of pictures depicting more incidents, pranks, “What the forest!!” moments, moments of exhaustion, relief, triumph, exhilaration, pain and fun is on the way.
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