Memories Forever

What else can be expected when 8 brave hearts meet?

We are the ones who not only make hard choices but also execute them. This time the choice was exploring the great Himalayas.
Our project model does not have fixed requirements or design reviews. So Nepal or Sikkim or anything else we didn’t care :).

Bangalore to NJP – First Mission:
The D-Day was 30^th October when we boarded the train to kolkata at 11:00PM. Travel was all fun with great company. We played cards and dumb charades through out the journey. Each one of us mastered the art of cheating in cards ;). Also, we did not disappoint any vendor selling eatables in the train. From bhel puri to samosas to guava, we ate everything. We missed Dev a lot every time :)
We reached Kolkata on 1^st November at around 2PM. Since we had to catch a train to NJP by 7:00PM, we decided not to venture out. We made a bold decision to get fresh at the railway station rest rooms. Surprisingly the rest rooms were clean and well maintained. After getting fresh, we spent time roaming around the station and playing cards. At 7PM we boarded the train to NJP. Travel was all the more fun from Kolkata. Antakshari by our boy’s gang was everlasting fun. We laughed our hearts out for the dava dava/ gangammaaaa/rukkamma tunes.
Next day early morning at 6:30 we had the first glimpse of the beautiful Kanchanjunga from NJP railway platform. All fatigue and tiredness because of a long travel vanished in a second. All took out their cameras to capture the great beauty.
After a hot coffee at the platform, our hunt to get toy train tickets started. Alas; we failed in the mission. But we were happy that we managed to get a fair deal (or so we think) in the package to Darjeeling and Sikkim.

Darjeeling – The Himalayan Heaven:
Our first journey from NJP was to Darjeeling- the queen of mountains. Though the state of roads was not very welcoming, we overlooked it enjoying the surrounding scenic beauty. We reached our hotel at around 4PM.
This city looked like a beautiful lady clad in green with the Himalayan ranges in the backdrop. Majority of populace here I believe are of ethnic Nepali or Tibetan background. This diversity added to the beauty of the city. At 4 in noon, it already started to look dark and temperature started to drop. We had to add two more sweaters on top of one/two we had already worn.
After late lunch, girls could not wait longer to hit the market. Shruthi and I got our gifts for the shampooing effort (at MM hills); beautiful caprice from Chinnu and nee.
After roaming around the city till 8PM, we had dinner at Nimto Restaurant in the city center. We had awesome tea, chats and Momos here.

Tiger Hills – Window of sunrise:
Next day (3^rd November) we had planned an early morning (4:30AM) expedition to Tiger hills to catch the sun rise. After experiencing teeth biting coldness in the night, we were really scared of this early morning adventure. We were equipped with all the thermal wears, sweaters, jackets, gloves, caps, and shoes to beat the cold.
From the top of tiger hills, we could see Kanchanjunga on our left. It stood out among other mountains because of its whiteness and gigantic size. Though it was surrounded by other ranges and black mountains, they were hardly seen in front of this giant.
We waited there for more than half an hour before we finally traced some light in the east (This was on our right). When sun started to rise, it was amazing to see the maiden rays kissing the Kanchanjunga. The tip of the mountain changed to golden yellow from white. As sun’s rays sharpened on our right, Kanchanjunga wore golden yellow look from its top in the left.
Once the complete sun rise happened, whole of the giant had a golden yellow tint. It was an enthralling experience to watch sun rays paint the snow mountain in beautiful shade of golden yellow and orange.
After sunrise, other small ranges surrounding Kanchanjunga were clearly seen. We traced Everest, Macalu, 3 sisters among others. Since they were far in distance compared to Kanchanjunga, they looked tiny. Believe it or not Everest is around 225Kms away from Tiger hills.
After all the photo sessions and hot tea, we left to explore other beauties of the town.
Batasia loop, Buddhist monastery, tensing Norgay’s house, zoo were few other places we saw here.

Gangtok – Fairyland of Sikkim:
This mystic beauty is around 120kms from Darjeeling which takes around 5 hours in a jeep to reach. The beauty about this travel is river Teesta runs along the side all the way from Darjeeling to Gangtok. As you reach Gangtok, the first thing you notice is the traffic discipline followed there and the system in place. The system there does not allow any tourist vehicles to enter the town. Tourist’s vehicles have to be parked in the parking place exclusively built for that purpose and you have to catch a local taxi to get in to the town at a fixed price.
We reached Gangtok at around 7 in the night. We had to start early next day to Lachen. According to our trip plan we had to leave to Lachen and cover Lachung, Gurudongmar and Yumthang in the next three days. Gangtok sight seeing would be after our return. So only, Sandy and Chinmay got a chance to see the city, since they went out to get some first aid from the market. They were all excited as they explained us how beautiful the MG Marg was and we were awaiting our chance to visit the place.

Lachen:
Lachen is a beautiful small hamlet in north Sikkim which is around 6-7 hours travel from Gangtok. We started from Gangtok at around 11AM after breakfast. Our driver for this adventurous trip was Mr.Pasang. To handle Pasang in itself was an adventure :). He was like Vikram in Aparichitudu; guy with dual personality :) He would not talk at all sometimes, and sometimes it would get hard to stop him talking/laughing. With Pasang as our charioteer we started our journey to Lachen. Strange but true, none of us got his name when he first told it. Some of us thought it was Lachung, and few others thought its Lachen :). We called him by those names till he finally shrieked his name to us followed by a huge grin :).
Way to Lachen passes through countless number of waterfalls, streams, scenic spots, mud slides and antic bridges. On the way the temperature dropped so low that not even at a single place could we dare to touch the water. We stopped near the seven sisters water falls for some snaps and hot Tea.
Our visit to Lachen is definitely a rare opportunity. We do not know when again destiny gives us an opportunity to spend a day in a small village which is adorned with the snow capped mountains and thick pines. The sound of streams running next to the cottage was the only sound heard in the night. We had simple rice and dal for dinner. Weather was very cold. We were given 2 blankets of the size of bed, which also were less. Chin and Sandy went to a near by shop to get some popcorns. Eating popcorn is believed to ease breathing at high altitudes. They had also enquired the shop keeper about Gurudongmar. The news they gave after coming back was horrifying. They told us Gurudongmar would be 5 times colder than Lachen. Gosh…Colder than this place…. We sighed…. :(
Only guy who was not bothered about any of this news was Nandy. That’s why we call him our Neta :). But here too, guys didn’t let out the secret. After all our efforts we still failed to decode “Nandu hamara neta hai… beep… beep” :(.

Gurudongmar Lake - Breath taking beauty:
Nature has many beautiful aspects to unfold and all comes to life at Gurudongmar. Any thing I explain will definitely be less about this virgin beauty. Gurudongmar Lake is at a staggering 17100 feet above the sea level and is one of the highest lakes. We started from Lachen at around 5AM. We had planned to leave by 4AM. So we were late by an hour. Thanks to Pasang’s awful noise chalo chalo chalo…. We could not help but get ready. Freezing November chills were difficult to bear. Half way through our journey, we had a break at a military post for some hot tea and maggi. We were unable to stand outside even for 2 minutes. There was fire in the kitchen of this hotel. We sat around the fire for more than half an hour and had tea and maggi before starting the journey again.
There was a family whom we met here, who had also come to visit Gurudongmar and Yumthang from Delhi. A girl in that group had someone in our gang as her subject of interest. The choice was obvious and rest of the blog explains who and how. :)
After driving for an hour the landscape completely changed. The green pine trees and colorful bushes gave way to barren lands, loads of rocks and snow peaks standing right in front of your eyes.
The majestic mountains looked so close that we actually felt we can run and touch them. But the temperature was sub zero. No one even dared to put a step outside the jeep. This was of-course a classic case of “so close yet so far” :).
Our next stop was at a military check post. Our jeep had a flat tire here. What a time to have a flat tire? Pasang left us at the post and drove ahead another 200-300mts. He asked us to walk till there :(.
Each step we took from there to our jeep was an experience I should admit. Ah… now we understand what cold means. Now we understand what breathlessness means. The spine-chilling peaks, calm waters of the streams, barren lands, military post; doesn’t it sound like some scenic beauty described in a fairy tale?
It definitely was a fairy tale and a dream land in true sense.
When we finally reached Gurudongmar lake, our first reaction was, WOW… There it is….
Ya, true, there it was a blue green lake, crystal clear, shimmering like an emerald, surrounded by giant mountains with just rocks with spray of snow all around.
I felt blessed, I felt humbled. Gosh! Such an untouched beauty! I felt closer to god.
The silence here was so overpowering that you can actually hear your heart beats if you sit here alone for two minutes.
Nothing can be more relaxing than some lone moments by the banks of this lake. I have not seen or may not see such clean and clear lake in life. The reflection of the Snow Mountains surrounding the lake was clearly seen in the lake.
Nothing can be like capturing the beauty in your eyes but we captured hundreds of snaps to treasure them for future. Each snap captured there can be used as a wall paper. Such was the beauty of the place.
When it was time to head back, I tried to run to the jeep. Phew… Running at 17100ft?? Impossible!! It was not only the freezing temperature that made it difficult but the level of oxygen too was drastically low.
All in all the overall experience was above our expectations. The beauty of this place can not be explained. It has to be experienced. The beauty was more than your eyes could take.
I feel I haven’t described the beauty enough after all this. :)
As we were engrossed in capturing the beauty of the lake, Shru and Neethi noticed Delhi girl continuously staring at Nee. It didn’t take long for the rest of the gang to witness this truth. We are still doubtful if she even saw the lake or was content staring at Nee :).

Lachung:
Lachung is a quaint village in north Sikkim. It serves as a base for travelers visiting Yumthang. It took around 4 hours for us to reach Lachung from Lachen. We were given a cottage here to stay. The facilities were minimal. But the experience was rich. We reached the place at around 4PM. It was dark already. Since all were tired after Gurudongmar experience, we directly fell on the beds and started to chat. Cottage guys served hot tea to the room. Nee and sandy recalled their college days as the cottage owners and gang started their musical night in the hall. They played guitar and strained their vocals for all possible Hindi hits. Chorus for few songs was pathetic though most of the songs were played well.
Sandy started with his favorite bed time stories again. He told all possible masaaledar ghosts stories to frighten us to death. This was spiced up by Chin and Nee.
We had simple rice and dal for dinner served by a deaf and dumb guy who works in the cottage. He was a very enthusiastic chap who looked in to all our needs during our stay there.
Next day we had an early morning expedition to Yumthang valley. We woke up to the Chalo Chalo chalo scream of Pasang.

Yumthang – Valley of Flowers:
Yumthang has Teesta running amidst rugged Himalayan Mountains. It offers eye catching vista of peaks which have patches of snow on one side and thick forest with pines on the other. River Teesta flows silently with the elegance of a new bride in the center. The snow white pebbles form the mattress across the river side.
Wow!!!! With wide eyes and big smile was the only expression on everyone’s face.
The cool water of the river is perfectly attuned with the scenic beauty surrounding the area. Ten steps in the water left chin and Neethi shivering for an hour.
Words fall short to explain the beauty of this place. The Mountains had heavy snow covering at the tips and patches of snow towards the bottom. Pines covered the whole area on the other side. It was so dense that one would loose way just 100mts in to the forest.
The beauty was so stunning that except taking snaps of the valley, guys didn’t do anything else. Nandish got very involved in the job and went missing. We had plans to lodge a complaint with army if he had not turned up in another ten minutes. Our group snaps minus nandish is the proof.
Our Neta (Nandy) was not only bowled by the Nature’s beauty at Yumthang, he was also clean bowled by beauty of Miss Katrina. He took portfolio of the girl, had coffee and breakfast at her stall. The girl too was very much in tune ;). The girl ran behind our jeep for around 100mts when we left Yumthang. We witnessed a scene from Bollyhood movie ;).
On the other side, Nee’s admirer followed him here too.
Finally we left Yumthang with a few broken hearts :).

Gangtok- Here we come:
Chin and Sandy’s explanation of the place had left us waiting to go. Upon that Chin, nee and sandy had plans to get body tattoo done here. Gals had shopping plans.
Next day we woke up late as it was a free day. We left hotel to hit MG Marg which was just 5 min walk. MG Marg is one place we liked the most in Gangtok. It is a completely vehicle free road. The street has beautiful Himalayan flowers and water fountains in the center which acts as divider. There are shops on either side of the road. The centre of the road also has wooden seats on both sides of the divider which makes the area all the more beautiful. Let you be warned. Don’t hold me responsible if you get bedazzled with the beautiful girls in this town. It will be a tough choice if you ask me which is more beautiful: the girls of the town or the town itself.
Near MG Marg is the super market and lal market which are also famous market places.
You can shop for sweaters, caps, jackets and shoes here. We found a shop in lal market where we shopped the max. We fondly called the shop guy Emran Hasmi as he resembled him in looks (no… not in any other skills… we are not sure of that part).
People in this place have very good taste. Be it dressing or music, they rock. We noticed that all cab drivers played very good music, and wore great jackets and shades. Though our boys failed to spot one good hunk for the gals in whole town, we are not complaining. We spotted ‘n’ numbers ourselves. ;)
Totally this city was great fun. We roamed around the MG Marg and lal market areas like crazy. We used to leave hotel in the morning and would reach back only in night.
We had found few good restaurants in the area. Food court was a permanent adda. Apart from that Agarwals and Marwari bhojanaya served good food. We played leg touch, hop and catch on the roads of MG Marg after 9PM. The street almost closes by 8PM and is relatively free by 9PM. Except few chai walas, ATMs and softy ice-cream stalls, everything else remains closed.
Softy ice-cream in those chilling cold nights was awesome.

Nathula Pass – Indo-China Border:
One of the extra-ordinary places we visited in this trip was Nathula. It was special in its own way. Nathula is one of the highest motorable roads at an altitude of 14200 feet above sea level. It has an indo-china border military post where Indian and Chinese army keeps vigil day and night. Huge bunkers, choppers, armed officers, bull-dozers, tents welcomed as we entered the militarized zone.
Indian in our blood woke up as soon as we reached the first military check post before reaching Nathula. On a huge Mountain, we saw “Mera Bharath Mahan, Hum hi Jeetenge” written in paint on grass. Any Indian will definitely salute the nation and patriotism will definitely spring up as one crosses this.
Though the temperature was not as cold as it was at Gurudongmar, chill wind swept the area continuously. Also because of the high altitude, breathing was difficult. We had to take 3-4 breaks to climb some 50 steps. Hats off to our soldiers who dare such tough weather conditions to protect the nation. They work in conditions where it is tough for us to take out hands from pockets to click a few snaps.
As we climbed up the steps to see the border, the scene was all the more fabulous. Chinese and Indian soldiers faced each other at a breathing distance. It was as if we were watching some patriotic movie. We met our friendly Indian soldiers and saw few stiff, forgotten-to-smile Chinese counter parts. The Chinese soldiers looked like 18-19 year old boys in mud colored uniform. One of our friendly military officers showed us the building which was once inaugurated by Jawarhar Lal Nehru. It is now on the Chinese side of the border. We understood that we lost it to our neighbors in India-china war of 1962. Chinese soldiers enjoyed the warmth inside the building where in our soldiers stood there daring the cold.
As we walked down to reach our jeep, mist covered the whole area. It became all the more cold. After 2000 feet downhill, there was a splendid blue water lake called Tsomgo Lake also known as Changu Lake. We had a yak safari here.
Our next visit was to baba Harbajan temple. It is a pilgrim destination dedicated to Baba Harbhajan Singh.
Though each one gave different narrations of the story behind the temple; one story I found in internet and the most convincing one is he was a soldier who fought and lost his life during the 1962 war. He is revered not only by Indian soldiers, but Chinese as well. They say during every flag meeting, Chinese keep a chair aside for him as they believe his spirit still patrols these valleys.
After this, we visited a local market which had around 20-30 small shops. We got great deals on jackets here. Almost all of us got adidas jackets from a shop here.
Guess what??? Nee’s shadow was right behind us full time. :)
We headed back to Gangtok at around 3 in the noon. The clouds started surrounding the area. It became completely dark and looked as if it was 6 in the night. Mist covered the roads and the roads became almost invisible.

Gangtok- 2^nd innings:
Gangtok is such a wonderful place that we were not satisfied with 2 days here. As planned we had to leave to Pelling after Nathula. But we were dazzled by the beauty of this place. We changed our plans and extended our stay at Gangtok.
In Gangtok, we visited few monasteries which were beautiful and well maintained. We also visited a flower garden which has a collection of rare Himalayan orchids. The best part of Gangtok city tour was the cable car. The rope way or cable car gives spectacular view of the city. Since, it was the first time any of us were going in a cable car, we enjoyed it.
After the city tour, we went to watch “Ajab prem ki gazab kahani” the next day. One thing we liked the most is; crowd here was wonderful. They thoroughly enjoyed the movie. They made huge noise, and laughed heartily through out the movie. We had a wonderful time. Evening as usual, we went to MG Marg and lal market. After all the roaming, shopping, bird watching (our guys specialized in this art after going to Gangtok), eating, we reached back to our hotel.
Next day again we were seen in MG Marg. This was a special day for Nandy. Destiny had arranged a special appointment with a special person for him that day. Who, what and how will be answered only by Nandy. It is highly confidential. After 2 wonderful days at Gangtok, it was time to leave. We had to leave to Kalimpong. Our luggage had doubled after all the shopping at Gangtok. Except tattoos we had done all that we had planned to do at Gangtok. It is a dream city. If destiny has it, we would like to come to this city again and again. We gathered a lot of memories which we treasure. Those memories which will be favorite past time when we grow old; Memories which linger in our minds through out our life.

Kalimpong – A haunting experience:
There is nothing much to talk about Kalimpong. Actually we feel after Gurudongmar and Yumthang, our benchmark of scenic beauty was set higher. So Kalimpong didn’t thrill us much.
We were put up at JP Lodge which was a very old building looked after by few senior citizens. Lodge building was a very old one and there was silence all around. It gave a very strange feeling. Sandy and Nee started off with their ghost stories all over again. Nee’s favorite dialogue for the day was “800 saal se ..…”. The senior citizens, kid in the house and even the stray dog; all according to him are there from 800 years. Best part was, he himself was so horrified with his stories that he refused to sleep at the end of bed and wanted place between 2 guys :).
We went in search of dinner at around 8PM. The city wore a deserted look. There were hardly any people on roads. After enquiring in vain at few hotels, we finally got a restaurant where we got some descent food.
That day night, guys had decided to jack Nandy. Chin and Nee threatened Nandy with their fore finger :). WWF with Nandy on one side and rest of the gang on other side was great fun.
Next day we visited a monastery and a cactus nursery. Cactus Nursery had an exotic collection of different varieties of cactus.
We also visited a hanuman temple on top of a hill and a Buddha temple. This Buddha temple had a cave inside. Nee and Chin tried their anchoring skills, with camera man Nandy. They tried shooting Man v/s wild in the cave. To their bad luck, Nandy’s camera rejected to capture them on repetitive attempts. Or was it Nandy’s trick?? ;)
After lunch, we started off to NJP.

NJP to kolkata – Kolkata to Bangalore:
We had train to kolkata from NJP at 7PM. We had dinner at one of the hotels near NJP railway station. Rest of the gang enjoyed the food. I too enjoyed it till I spotted some thing I won’t eat in my dish :(.
We boarded the train and reached kolkata at 7:30AM. Again, we decided to take rest at kolkata railway station. We got fresh at rest rooms in station. Till 8PM in night, we played cards and dumb charades.
This is where Chin and Nee thought of performing some magic tricks to entertain their audience. They showed us ‘n’ number of tricks with cards. Yes…we should agree. Our boys are no less than David Blaine in this :).
After having dinner and mouth watering Rasgullas, we left to Bangalore.
Shru and Nandy’s fight started as soon as we boarded the train and I guess they are still fighting :). The fight started for a book “Arabian nights”. Can somebody ask what Nandy did with the book finally ;)?
On popular demand, Chin and Nee demonstrated their magic tricks in the train again. This time, they also showed us how to crack them. Sups tried all possible ways to decode “9 cards” performed by Chin. But, there was no luck :(. Nee’s magic of showing the card of our choice on the train’s window was amazing. We can’t explain how much we were surprised and how much we tried to crack this.
We reached Bangalore on 14^th November at around 9AM.
Thus ended the best ever trip. 15 days flew off like a moment.
But we have gathered a lot of precious memories which are everlasting; Memories which last forever.

• Punch line “yeh mein mantha hun…” has become synonym to the trip.
• Guys lovingly dedicated the song “Anisutidhe yako indu…beep…beep” to Nandu.
• Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaww is now added to our dictionary. We have forgotten Wow. Thanks to Nee.
• Sups dialogue, “heLo sandy…” has become one of our favorites.
• We will laugh uncontrollably now when we hear Dava Dava/Rukkamma song anywhere.
• Softy Ice creams taste better now ;)
• “We give best options to our girls” added to the adored list of dialogues.
• Pasang is now added to the list of our heroes along with Eeranna and Mathew.

These memories are definitely an investment we have for our future.