The End

It’s been more than a month (yea so I am a lazy Slouch) since I climbed on that Indigo flight from Kolkata with Vineet & Panda back to Hyderabad. Today I am back to my mundane activities of sitting on front of my comp at office, cursing all my higher authorities for whatever miserable things go by my way. But yet at times I tend to reflect at that one week of bliss which had in ways made me believe that the world still did have a saner side to it.

When I am not in my Socratian mood, I just tend to think of the serenity that had prevailed then. The sheer fact that we were immobile had been such an amazing feeling. No tie ups, nothing to look forward to except for the snow covered mountain peaks. It was like the perfect retreat for us from our hectic schedule & boy did it work out miracles.

We got to meet new folks & Romesh (he would have definitely wanted it to be written this way) had too been an amazing company. He had just begun as a chaperone but later had become one of the key sources of entertainment. And for that matter of fact even Baichung whom we had just met like a couple of times, had somehow figured in all our conversations with his chinky looks & free flowing hair too.

On a personal front, the three of us bonded pretty well & at the end we had come out as better friends than when we had initially caught hold of our Kolkata bound flight. Vineet was at his relaxed best & as the perfect foil to his usually silent self was the ever chirpy Panda. Had it not been for their antics & histrionics I definitely would have felt like in one of those award winning ART movies (damn I always did like some masala in my movies). Their combination definitely deserved plaudits for making this trip such a bloody memorable one.

And finally of course the cream of the crop should go to Sikkim. The place may have had steep slopes, treacherous roads & no roads at times, but at the end its beauty still leaves you breathless. Be it the magnificent view of Kanchendzonga, the frozen view of Tsomgo, the huge flags hoisted at almost all of Sikkim, the calmness in Yuksam, the many lakes & waterfalls or even the chill in Yumthang, if you are looking for that one shot at some scenic expedition, soul searching or whatever name you want to give it, pack your bags & head over to Sikkim.

As for my road tripping escapades, I still got my snorkel out & scuba diving off the coast of Andaman sure does sound exciting. Till then I got to kick some butt here & try refilling my piggy bank. So bon voyage to all those travelers out there!!!!!

12th April, 2008

On this final day of our whopper of a trip, I got up at 7 am with a subtle sense of gloom. We were quite relaxed today, since there was jus some local sightseeing in Mirik on our agenda & then the drive to New Jalpaigudi Station wherein our evening train was supposed to take us to Kolkata. So at 10.20 am we checked out from the Viraj, & headed straight to the nearby Sumendu Lake. There had been some Bhojpuri flick shooting which was going on at the lake & when Vineet & Panda walked on, some people came & asked them where they were shooting (some glamorous people I had for company).

The lake itself was a beautiful scene, but like most of the other locales in WB, this one was also kind of littered here & there (Sikkim sure did raise the standards for us). While Panda decided to show off some of her equestrian skills, I, Vineet & Ramesh were busy snapping away the lake. If that was not the case we were eyeing at the local belles (some ogling arses we sure turned out to be).

Our nest stop was at the Bokar Ngedhon Choekor Ling Monastery. While the ambience was quite similar to the previous monasteries we had been to, this place was bustling with monks of all ages. And it was am amazing scene to see all of them in their maroon robes against the maroon backdrop of the monastery.

At nearly 11.30 am we decided to get on the road to Siligudi (as we hadn’t collected our tickets too). After an hour of going through all those looping & curvy roads for the first time in a long while we were back on flat terrains. Well the earlier day’s sight of calls for a separate Gorkhaland was still visible in bits & pieces through the route. Our way back home took us through the Sukna Military station & as we crossed the outpost, we passed through the Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary. Well it was just a 10 minute drive through, but what the heck, I was happy to get one more place in my list.

As we entered the city limits of Siligudi, the calmness & friendliness which we had grown used to over the last week on the roads was replaced with the continuous honks of the horn & yells from the adjacent drivers. Hell yeah, we were so getting back with our regular lives. At around 1 pm we pulled into Sikkim National Transport Compound & had our last flavor of Sikkim for lunch. After lunch we started for NJP. At NJP, we came to know from Baichung that we would be receiving our tickets at around 4 pm.

Once we got our tickets, we then bid adieu to Ramesh. Over the last week he definitely had been one nice source of entertainment & the bloke sure had also gotten real attached with us over the time. We could see a glimmer of sadness in him, but I think that did pass off real quick when he saw a couple of hot babes on his way out. At around 10.30 pm (after an hour from our actual departure time), we boarded our Sealdah bound train (the transition period at NJP was pretty much cynical & passable). And as the night waded off, so did the curtains come down on this much touted trip that we had managed to cook up. All I could muster to think was – ONE BLOODY AMAZING RETREAT sure this was.