We are 9 guys in our 20s, with the dream to travel all around the world, and had formed a traveling group named "Wings!". And after lots of planning and preparation, we managed to pull off a fascinating trip to the not-so-known
heaven of West Bengal, Sillery Gaon, also known as "The New Darjeeling".
Most of us had never seen mountains before, and I witnessed that beauty once way back in 2001, when I was 9, during a trip to Gangtok and remembered only traces of that journey.
So.. This tour was already pretty exciting for all of us because of the word "Mountains". We completed our Railways and Homestay reservation by November, and had a lot of time to plan what exactly we are
to do in those Three days. Internet
(especially
indiamike.com) really helped a lot to know about the place
,and we were all set with mountain-high hopes and excitement.
Day 1(17th January, 2014):
16th January, a full-moon night
(chosen intentionally for the moonlit mountains), we left Kolkata via Darjeeling Mail at 10.00 PM, and were supposed to reach NJP by 8.00 AM. But to our sheer disappointment, It was 5 and a half hours late and reached NJP only by 1.30 PM. We
felt down, as there were little chances to see Sillery in daylight, and our plans for the hike to Ramitey top had to be cancelled.
But, Shyam
ji, our driver
(of a Sumo Victa), told we will be amongst the mountains within an hour, and all our disappointment disappeared in a flash! Soon, there were jungles and decorated army-camps on both sides of the road, and I noticed a blueish something
on the sky across the woods. Soon, it turned green and everybody was so amazed by the first view of the mighty Himalayas, we started shouting in joy like anything.
The next 4 hours were a joyful ride through the steep climbs and hair-pin bends, always having the gorgeous
Teesta by our side. On the way, we were lucky to see a snake, which Shyam Ji said was a baby Python
(I wasn't sure if it really was that). Around 5.15, we reached
Algarah, from where our car left the main road and took a rocky path. Next 30 minutes were a roller-coaster ride mountains and dense forests, as we reached Sillery Gaon at 5.30, and it was all dark by then. Our first impression of the village was beautiful as it was silence all around, and we were the only humans out there
(Apart from the locals, of course).
After having a wonderful tea, and some chicken
pakoras, we dressed heavily and went out for a walk. Although electricity arrived here a few years ago, there were no street lights in the roads
(which isn't like what we mean by "roads"). We sat
on a field nearby, and luckily witnessed an amazing moon rise
(a full moon)
behind the eastern mountains. Everyone was so overwhelmed to be
at such a place,
inspite of the biting cold. We sat there and chatted till 9 PM. Then after dinner
(Roti and Chicken), everyone was
enough tired to have a great sleep. :)
Day 2(18th January, 2014):
"Mesmerizing" could hardly describe this day of my life. I was up at 5.10 AM, and ignoring the shivering cold, I went to the balcony to see the village in daylight. Outside, It wasn't that
dark but there was quite a bit of time till the sunrise. As I dressed up, called everybody
(most of them were already up and ready), the eastern sky turned a little orange, then dark orange and then almost red. And all of a sudden, a thick red line
appreared on the north western side, and well...
in complete disbelief and amazement we kept staring as it turned out to be the ever-gorgeous Kanchenjungha and its
neighbours. Those 15-20 minutes was too beautiful to be described in words
(All I can say is... Just travel these places, or else you will be missing something and will never know what you missed).
After a quick and tasty cup of tea, we started walking towards
Ramitey view point, with our guide, "Wingy"(A sweet local dog and the name
was given by us.).
It was a beautiful but uneventful trail through the forests which took around 25 minutes, and led us to a magical view of
kanchenjungha on the right-top corner and 14 meanders of
Teesta between the mountain ranges. The 270 degree bird-eye view of
Himalayas was so overwhelming, we sat there for more than 2 hours and enjoyed every moment. After taking a lot of photos, we came back around 9 AM, had our breakfast
(Luchi and Aloor dum) within 15 minutes and left for Damsang Fort at 9.30 AM. This time we had Aaron
bhaiya as our guide, and of course 'Wingy' as our partner.
Damsang Fort is a fort of some Bhutani King, who built it to fight against some people
(I forgot the exact history). The trail is a gentle climb through
narrow forest path and it took us around 1 and a half hours to reach there. The ruins of the fort
is nothing special, but the view from here is beautiful and worth the walk. But remember, The main attraction of Damsang fort it the path and not the destination itself. After a brief break at Damsang for about 30 minutes, Aaron took a shortcut through the jungle which were pretty
dense at times to reach the road, which we took while reaching Sillery from
Algarah. We then crossed the road and headed towards Tinchuley View point,
which according to Aaron
bhaiya was at the peak the mountain we were seeing in front. That made us take a deep breath as it was looking quite
steep but were determined to reach at the top. Interestingly, the path to Tinchuley is so beautiful that we never felt tired, and was completely mesmerized by the brown-green pine forests and green meadows on both
side of the ridge.
Its a 40 minute hike to top from the road,
incuding 1 resting session of 10 minutes. The
peak offered a spectacular 360 degree view, decorated
by snow-covered peaks of Kachenjungha, Singalila range, and Nathula Pass. We sat at that virtual heaven for an hour and watched the hide and seek of the peaks with the scattered clouds. I heard, some people
comes at Sillery and skips Tinchuley because of the tiring trail. Well, in my opinion, Tinchuley is a must-watch. Anyone shouldn't miss it in fear of the long hike
(I
gurantee you will never feel like
quiting while walking on the ridges). Actually, at Tinchuley we were feeling so good, that we
plaaned to stay an extra day at Sillery to enjoy it again. But when we came to our
homestay we cancelled it, we cancelled it. Coming back to our trip, It was 1 PM when we came down from Tinchuley and started
promtly towards Silence Valley since we were getting late for lunch. We reached ValleySilence at 1.30 PM at
rested on that peaceful valley for 30
mintes. Every moment
at that valley made us realize why
its called "Silence Valley".
Its so peaceful, that we felt like taking a nap there,
in the grass cover.
Wingy took a real sleep there and after realizing what we actually had done throughout the day, we were all going mad. I realized what "Happyness" is. This day, till date is the really the happiest day, I ever lived. :) So..
after the rest
at Silence Valley, we walked a long way back to the village which took more than an hour, and we reached home at 3.30 PM.
and everybody was feeling a bit sad because the trip was coming to an end. But, surprise was still there. :) Once
in the Internet I heard about a place called "Bhaley Dunga", and was told that the sunset from there is staggering. Four of us were still fresh enough to give it a go, and Aaron
bhaiya also agreed to take us there. He said if we start by 4 Pm, we can come back before dark. So we took a short and quick lunch and left for Bhaley Dunga at 4.10 PM.
And the surprise starts. :)
Very less tourists in Sillery
goes to this place, and since hardly travelled, there wasn't any fixed route. We first took the road towards Ramitey and took a left turn into the jungle after walking 5 minutes on the road. The jungle was pretty dense, and light was fading fast in the winter afternoon
. Aaron used some sticks to make
path removing the plants out of our way.
and after
10 minutes climb, the path became very steep. We all were feeling a bit uncomfortable because of the late
lunch but was actually having fun too. Aron told there is actually an easier
route but it would take much more time, and hence decided to take us through the jungle. 30 minutes of steep climb, in between sometimes we actually was crawling because of the slope, took us in front of a vertical rock and we
struggilngwas already to catch
ou breath. At that moment, my conversation with Aron was like this:
Me: "Aur
kitna Aaron Bhaiya?"(
howStill much Aaron Bhaiya?)
Aaron: "Baas,
aur 3
minute." (Only 3 minutes)
Me: "Wah! Kis taraf jaana hai ab?"("Wow.
in which direction now?")
Aaron: "Ispe Chadna
hai.."(
Poining towards the rock, "we have to climb this")
And I was totally like " You gotta be kidding me!!"(The rock from our side looked totally
verical)
Me: "Ispe
kaise chadenge?
Pagal hai kya?
Rope-
wope lage ga. Aur hum chad nahi payenge!"
Aaron: "Nahi, chadna matlab, upar jaana hai... paidel bhi jaa sakte hai."
And I was relieved
hearing that. We decided to get on it after resting 5 minutes. The light was almost gone by then, and after 15 more minutes of crawling and climbing we reached the top. The complete
gaon was visible from there, and the sunset would have looked beautiful. But unfortunately, the sky was full of clouds and the sun had set long back. We sat there till it was
complete dark as Aaron told us stories about that place. He told us that some locals come here at night on full-moon and play gambling and shoot
Jungli Hens
(Bawn-
murgi)
.After it was completely dark, we were
little bit frightened
on how to get back, but Aaron kept
telling not to panic. We
stared getting down and had no light source except the moon
(and which was not available due to the clouds). We all slipped several
includingtimes Aaron himself, and one of my
friend caught a tree full of thorns to get the hands blooding. But we
was still having a lot of fun! I hit my foot on
rocks twice and head on
branches of trees. Experiencing all
this adventures and thrilling moments, Aaron was really great to lead us to the right path, and losing the way once. We walked and crawled for an hour to reach our
homestay and the clock was ticking at 7.20. The day couldn't have ended better for us, and
rest of the evening we told the story to rest of our friends. At evening, Chicken Kabab and Born-fire was awaiting, and almost everybody got high on Alcohol to enjoy the success of our trip. The evening was also an eventful one, and as the sky cleared, the view of Sikkim at night took our breath away. Everybody was tired and thus had a sound sleep that day, only to get up the next morning to get the clearest possible sky. The Kanchanjungha was red and crystal clear, and I and Rajdeep
da decide to go to Ramitey again.
Day 3(19th January, 2014):
Ramitey was much more beautiful than the previous day and so I called my friends to get a view of it. We sat and enjoyed the view of Ramitey till 9 AM and returned through a different path which had gardens and vegetable farms on the slope. Everybody was very sad and we already started missing the mountains.
The rest of the trip was quite uneventful as we left Sillery at 2.00 PM, caught the Darjeeling Mail
(late by 2 hours yet again) and returned Kolkata
on the next morning.
