Sandapkhu Phalut- Chapter 1

A New Route, A New Perspective...

It was that time of the year again. The time when I yearn to leave the commotion of daily lifebehind, the clickity clack on my keyboard, the constant pinging on my phone. The white noise of recurring thoughts, some meaningful and some not; I was yearning to leave everything and go away to the only place where I find the utmost peace and most importantly, find the inner voice… The Himalayas.

Trekking has become a part of my life since 2019, and every year I make it a point to go on a high altitude adventure in the heart of the Himalayan mountain ranges. Whilst there are a lot of options for trekking in the Himalayas, during winter the options are pretty limited. Moreover, you are more dependent on the benevolence of the mountain gods to allow you to traverse their dwellings during winter and bestow good weather on your journey.

L-R Sandakphu, Gidara Bugyal, Sandakphu, Kolahoi Glacier

After a quick discussion with my nephew, we decided to go for the Sandakphu Phalut trek in January with Indiahikes .This was not an unknown trek for me; in fact this was my first Himalayan trek and I made some really fond memories from that trek back in 2019. The very thought of going back to those beautiful forests, walking on the ridges and beholding the mighty Mt. Kanchenjunga in the Sleeping Buddha form, flanked at a distance by the Mt. Everest range with Mt. Makalu standing tall made my heart soar. We quickly booked the dates and decided to go for the batch that starts on the 1st of January 2023. The very thought that we will be on a trek on the first day of the year, was giving us a different high this time.

In all honesty, I was a bit skeptical about the new route which Indiahikes had now for this trek. I was reading up the details of the route and whilst it sounded quite interesting; flashes of the route we took from Jowbhari to Tumling, the beautiful monastery at Meghma, the first

Meghma, Enroute to Tumling

sighting of the sleeping buddha at 4 am bathed in moonlight; the route through Singalila national park which took us to Kalapokhri and the summit climb to Sandakphu was still fresh on my mind even after all these years. So my intrigue towards the new route was right up there and I was keenly looking forward to the adventure.

The day soon came and we started on the 31st of December 2022. After an interesting incidence at the airport where my drone became an issue as I didn’t keep it in the check in luggage, we were finally off towards Bagdogra. A little over half a way into the journey, I woke my nephew up to show the mountain ranges clearly visible above the clouds. Although I wasn’t able to identify most of the peaks and there was no announcements from the pilot as well, I was able to identify Mt. Kanchenjunga quite easily.

Unfortunately, we were not able to take any photographs, good enough to post here. Our adventure started as soon as we left Bagdogra to search for our hotel for the night. We were informed once we reached that since we booked through booking.com and hadn’t paid any advance, the hotel is sold out and they couldn’t accommodate us. We left that place with nowhere to go for the night and I almost pictured us sleeping on the platform at New Jalpaiguri Station. Fortunately we were able to connect with someone at Tirupati lodge and they confirmed that they have a room available for the night. Once we reached the hotel we realised that this was far better than staying at the previously booked hotel, as NJP Station was hardly a 5 minutes walk from Tirupati Lodge. It was only a matter of one night and that place had enough restaurants and eateries to choose from. After a simple meal at a funky eatery called Rail Coach Restaurant, which is right adjacent to the railway station, we turned in for the night.

Day 1: NJP to Sepi

Next morning we received the contact details of our drivers (Dawa and Churamani) who would take us to Sepi, our first base camp. Both names were familiar to me, especially Dawa because he was our driver the last time as well. I still remembered that we had stopped at a nice place for tea, called Simana and I recorded a video of him telling us about the area and about our trek. We reached the station well in advance and waited for the rest of the team travelling with us to reach the spot. I had called Dawa by then and was eagerly waiting for him, especially to see his reaction as we were meeting after so many years. Soon Dawa and Churamani reached and it was a sweet reunion with both of them. We loaded up quickly and started off from NJP towards Mirik. Other than a slight delay due to traffic near Mirik where the route diverts towards the famous Mirik lake, the journey was pretty easy. We were getting to know each other whilst Dawa played some nice English songs, ranging from The Beatles to The Pink Floyd.

Reunion with Churamani & Dawa

We stopped for some much needed tea and snacks on the way and talked about some fond memories from the 2019 trek. We made video calls to our then trek leader, and some other team members and it was quite heartwarming.

Onwards from Mirik, we travelled through meandering roads, just like in any other hill station and reached Sukhiapokhri, where we stopped for some lunch. It was the first day of the year and most places were closed; we found a small and uninspiring eatery run by an old couple. Hot thukpa, chicken noodles and steamed momos were all they had, and that’s all we needed. After stuffing ourselves with quite a few plates of the delicious pockets of steamed meat and hot flavoursome thukpa, we thanked the couple generously and started our journey towards Dhotrey.

On the way, sometime before Simana we stopped for another round of tea where the team travelling from Bagdogra caught up with us. The temperature suddenly started falling and a chilling breeze caught us by surprise. As if the clouds were cascading down towards the earth, a thick fog started to form. We left from there and went to a point where we had to change into another vehicle. The journey onwards from there was not for the faint of heart, and sitting shotgun with the driver, I felt it thoroughly. There was an almost complete white out on the route ahead and the fog lights were not helping. How he was able to see the road and was negotiating the turns, beats me. After an hour long drive in those treacherous conditions, we finally reached Sepi. I could see the homestay from a distance and instantly recognised the series of homes and shops on that little stretch leading towards Srikhola bridge. This is exactly where we had ended our journey back in 2019. A surge of memories from that day engulfed me for a few moments and I knew right then that I would be experiencing these happy moments throughout the journey.

We were greeted by our trek leader Teena and she took us to our dwellings for the night with our backpacks. The Sepi base of Indiahikes is nothing like what I have seen before. It was simple, humble and yet swanky for a base camp. With proper tiled bathrooms, and well appointed dining hall and properly stacked store, the base camp also had a wonderful view of the open valley behind it. Although I missed the porch that Jowbhari camp had, this was equally beautiful. After our customary round of introductory session and briefing about the entire trek, we were introduced to our guides for the trek. Our lead guide was Lakpa Ji and assisting him was Tikaram and Chhetan Ji. Lakpa Ji was a legend on this trek and he is known for carry his Ukulele and he was a good singer as well, so I felt lucky to have him lead the trek. We had a pretty long day and so it was time to turn in for a well deserved sleep as the real adventure was all set to begin tomorrow.

Day 2: Sepi to Samanden

Needless to mention that everyone was pretty excited to start in the morning. Led by our personal guard dog Jackie, a pure bred German Shepherd, along with witty jokes by Lakpa

Daju, our journey started towards Srikhola. We walked on motorable road for about 2 kms, ultimately reaching the Srikhola suspension bridge, inlaid with fluttering, colourful prayer flags. Our lead guide Lakpa Daju, told us the story of the river cutting through the valley below us as we were crossing the swaying bridge. Legend has it that Goddess Parvati, also known as Sri, performed penance in these mountains and Khola means river in local tongue; thats where the river gets its name.

We took the road leading towards the right and it was mostly an uphill road which took us through small dwellings and shops run by the locals. It’s always nice to interact with them and absorb the simplicity of their lives, while their smiles just warms your heart. The road eventually gave way to steeper trails and we were maintaining a steady pace to get used to

Local Kids

the terrain. It took us about 3 hours to reach a clearing from where you could see a couple of wooden tea houses with huge prayer flags fluttering in the wind. All we could hear was our footsteps and occasional conversations on the trail. To our right was an open valley and the trail was golden brown in colour, marking the typical traits of winter season. Nestled just below the trail, in one of the step cut terrace fields, lay our lunch spot at Phakring Home Stay.

One look at the tea house brought back an old memory from 2019. This was the place where we had stopped for some tea, on the way down to Sepi, about to complete our trek. I had a long chat with the owner and showed a photograph of a small boy who used to live there. The child now lives in some other place where he goes to school. Time has moved on, and so have people dwelling there, even though the mountains have remained almost unchanged in our eyes. We took a long break at this homestay and had some really delicious and simple hot lunch, filled our water bottles with sweet and cold water for the next leg of the journey.

Rammam Lunch Point

We left the village and the homestay behind us and came across a small clearing, I remembered that this was a small football ground for kids, adjacent to a local school. As we crossed through the clearing, we entered a verdant forest section. Tall Pine tress interspersed with Rhododendron trees surrounded us through the trail as we walked on our own through the amazing wilderness. For the next 5-6 kms, the trail took us through this emerald green forest and eventually we could hear the murmuring of a babbling brook close by. There was a bridge across the brook, under the huge canopy of the forest. Our TL asked us to take a break and sit nearby to absorb the beautiful surroundings, moss covered rocks in varied shades of green so soothing to the eyes. The babbling brook flowing through the weathered rocks, sounded almost musical. One could almost go into a peaceful trance sitting by the flowing water.

We were told that our base camp Samanden was not very far from there. The initial trail from the stream was quite steep for some time, eventually taking us through a trail where we saw benches placed for passer-by to rest if they were tired. Looking closely at these benches one could see the names of people who had passed away, etched on the benches. These benches are kept by the locals living close by in memory of their loved ones. We kept climbing through the trail for another half an hour or so, when I came across a trail which was eerily familiar. Thin bamboo plants stood there like a wall on one side of the trail while the pine forest was to my left. Needles of pine almost carpeted the trail with pine cones strewn here and there. It was bringing back my memories of Gorkhey village where we stayed the last time and just as I was pondering about the trail, it almost became an easy gradual climb and through the clearing, I could see the beautiful village of Samanden. Wooden houses and huts, mostly painted blue was dotted across the terraced fields ahead of us. It reminded me of the time, we had climbed down from Sabargram through a dense forest and had lunch in this village before going off to Gorkhey which is one kilometre North of Samanden.

Indiahikes Base Camp Samanden

I tried hard to look for that particular shop but couldn’t see it. Eventually our campsite, which was a quaint homestay could be seen from afar in a clearing. As we entered through the front porch, I could finally see the shop, right behind the homestay and a surge of happiness filled me up. I kept my backpack and went looking for familiar faces and couldn’t recognise anyone initially. Eventually I met Rupesh who although I didn’t remember, told me that this was the place where we had come down for our meals. He took me inside the shop and introduced me to his family, as if I was a long lost friend and once again, I found the reason why I love to trek. I went back to my first day on this trek back in 2019. The route took us from Jowbhari on a really steep ascent through thick jungle to an ancient place called Chitrey, from there our route took us through trails and sometimes on motorable roads until we reached Meghma. Flanked by a beautiful monastery on the left and by an SSB camp to our right. Clouds almost engulfed us as we walked through them to reach Tumling. Both the routes had stark differences, but both were fulfilling for the first day. Indiahikes base camp in Samanden was really well placed in this beautiful village and after a round of games and other fun activities, we settled down for a nice and hot dinner and turned in for the night for a much needed rest.

Tomorrow was going to be quite tough on us…

Dining Hall Samanden

The Story Teller

Abhisek (@alpine_shek)

#sandakphu #trekking #highaltitudemadness #indiahikes

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