Thats How We Did It.........
Hmmm.. Lemme Recall..Outta the blue after 3 long sems.. the gangtok trip plan ping’s up .. Initially It was all haphazard of who is coming and who is not.. , except basu no one knew how the hell are we goin to reach thr.... We were all waiting for the tech fest to get over and then we scoot.. !
Introducing the 11 musketeers...
Shounak Basu (Basu), Aveek Mukherjee(Mukher), Deepu (Bad Ass Thambi),shomyadeep Rakhshit (Polu),Yogesh Dongre(Dong’s),Nishant,Avinash Papishetty(Paapi),Abijyan Sarkar (Chimpu),Pallav Dutta(Pallav ),Rahul Kumar (RK), Dheeraj Kumar(Gulty).
DAY-O
Classes over..luggages packed...and off we leave to the CC bus stand..For a Bus To siligiri...Damn Dgp to siligiri route sucks.. whole bus journey was dhadam!!! dhim..!!!jadahk..!!! 13 hours of back breaking journey and we reach to sirliguri.. i dunno y but during the whole journey we had really bad encounters with bathrooms..Starting from the “Prince Dhaba” to the siliguri Bus stand... We had guys form north prashanth,pathiri etc., who gave us continuous “Green” entertainment.. Booking a Sumo to Gangtok with Baghat Singh(Our Driver)..Gangtok, which is around 4 hours uphill... Uff. Route to gantok is absolutely brilliant.. From the Tiger Bridge to the teesta river which follow’s u all over the place.. was a sight not to be missed out we had papi pallav basu and RK havin Cam..Click ke uppar Click and Click uppar Click goin round and round on different mountains “ Duniya.. Duniya badi gol hai” song from Dev D was on everyone’s mouth....Kick Starting the whole trip was the White water Rafting.. well none of us had done this b4..After bargaining.. We got ourselves into those life jackets..! and getting our selves a hold on the paddles.. i love swimming.. and fresh teesta water blew my mind, so me and papi,paani ke andar kudne lage.. Shit..!! The water was at freezing temperatures.. damn... Facing the rapids was an experience of a life time.. struggling though the rapids and the moment when there is a rush of icy cold water hit’s on ur face..Aahhhh.. Awesome.. A life an life....! yeah and tht’s where polu lost my goggles.. hmm.. sad.. but.. the rafting experience overtook everything... 11 km’s of rafting ne hum logon ko cool kar diya tha... tired but ready for more..Get up n up we start feeling the chill...The Car Slows down... the next we saw getting down form the car was the Huge entrance saying” “WELCOME TO SIKKIM” fine.. gangtok was around 1 hr from thr... we reach gangtok.. Around 4:30... Thanks To BRO.(Border Roads Organization)..we were dead hungry... getting to the taxi stand.. thr was the lady selling momo’s 12pcs for 15 rs. ...Kahin bhi kha lenge..but what if she cheats us..? first i took the risk to get a plate.. the hot seatming momo’s entering the mouth with the hot chilly sauce.. Sturck a lightning in everyone of us.. tht was till date the best momo’s we have every tasted.. in fact we bought 3 more plates of those momo’s.. lady happy we very happy.. Getting a taxi to hotel Malancha.. We get our rooms 4:4:3 i.e. the no of ppl in one room.. papi, nishant and RK were in one room and later on we renamed their room to "the penthouse.."
Me,pallav, basu and chimpu in one and polu,raja,mukher and dong’s in another.. taking a quick bath and rush to MG road....The first impression for neone on MG road will be “ This is not India” Seriously.. clean and shiny roads.. chicks... not to mention... was amazing.. first dinner in gangtok was Tibetan ... nice food.. And in the mean time.. basu and chimpu left for the travels To enquire abt Nathu La and chanrges and other formalities.. we had to hurry.. for the photographs.. so we took turns for eating and getting the photos .. soon we a had couple of drinks.. and had to leave MG Road... gangtok is a standstill after 9 pm.. Every hour was a surprise and beautiful.. we dint leave anything on the first day.. we had photo shoots.. everywrh....RK took lotta pain withstanding s since we never got tired standing for poses guys like polu me pallav mukher and paapi Chimpu we always like " RK.. Photo.!!"
Rk ka reply" Haan Ruk aa rhan hoon.."
And we Were Hungry for more..!!
In the rooms everyone took pallav’s papi’s and nishant’s case.. well nishant was whole time busy with the phone callin up his chick .. and chimpu Started His trademark Stunt on me.. Basu laughin..RK Taking care of his camera...
Brrr.. Rajai De re.. Bumper Thand Ho rhi hai..F!!!
Day-1
We had to get early this morning... the tourism guy had already come and was waiting.. and we alsi souls... got up late.. mukher took bath everyday in that cold...(Surprising) taking an hour long to get ready... since we had no idea how cold it is goin to be in nathula we weren’t prepared for nething.. so limited clothing..leaving for nathula.. passing though the army camps and different mountains.. breaching the clouds... we were so bloody excited to get on to 14,200 feet and how would it be feeling... on the way we had a break for food .. Just then.. me and polu realised that we need goggles so started browsing the stalls there.. and we realised we would go for aviators and none can match a pair rayban aviators.. gr8.. the rest of the crowd was in hotel drooling over booze..and we planned get some for the journey also.. but due to lack of time we just hogged upon WAI WAI noodles and got back on track.... Further up, we got the first glimpse of ice clad mountains.. again.. click click click..! Basu polu RK and Gulty were in the other Sumo coming behind us.. even they were clickin so we missed ntn on the way which was worth clickin..on the way sonam our nathula driver showed us a view of the Kanchanchunga...amazing..! proceding further Carved on a mountain “MERA BHARAT MAHAN”... it was a sunny day but.. the cold wind in nathula got us almost Crack Jacked..! and yeah mukher started vomiting his wai wai we ate in the base.. walkin about a km to reach the Nathu La Pass.. army security was on a high alert.. standing on nathula pass wrh one step forward u are in china, i felt so INDIAN standing there.. Standing on the pass seeing Chinese Soilders standing guard on their posts... Moutains of Bhutan.. and Indian posts all over the place.. is worth a visit.. Pallav played his role here again.. pallav crossed the line to china.. for a photo click... the army men there ussko itna jhada.. ki pallav felt man one more step and im down with a bullet.. hehe.. Photo shoots here also.. army men get real pissed so we them also in the grp photos.. i mean common Bakar in the Indo-china Pass.. lolz.. had a coffee at 14000 feet.. Yeah Pallav was renamed here to Changu, And Variations like Changu in China etc,.. Nishant was bound to talk with us since thr was no signal at that altitude.. coming down from Nathu La we put an attendance at the baba mandir, Clicking, Clicking, Clicking, spendin around an hour thr.. heading back to the car papi nishant chimpu stray off to the nearby mountains.. The driver Shouts “ Mat Jaao.. Boom Boom..?? “ I was like “ Kya..?? boom Boom” thr was a board written “ Caution This Road is under Chinese Observation” .. the driver shouted udhar “Land Mines Hai”.. damn.. Polu and Basu Shoutin “ Chimpu Udhar Mat Jaa Cool Ho jayega ,Landmines” .. landmines from the ‘67 war still not removed.. Brilliant..! Heading to Tsomgo Lake 12400 ft Msl. Twas 3:30 in the afternoon and was bitter cold thr were Yak’s all around the place The Photo on the Yak costed 30 bucks So “MC”, had some rum to make ourselves comfortable.. rum was available like chocolates or any other grocery thr.. having booze there at those height’s is an experience.. had Wai Wai again.. mukher had momo only.. got ourselves pair of gloves and we head back.. The clouds Merging with the Mountains got the visibility of the road down to 2 to 3 meters.. damn and our driver was driving with fog light or rather driving with no lights.. chimpu and nishant sitting in the front had their balls packed and transferred .. Driver” No Tension.. kuch nhi hoga, u’ll reach alive..!!” Damn.. now why did he say that..
Reached the hotel safely and Crashed n our beds.. later in the evening me basu left for asking for the local gangtok tourism .. finishing off with that we got our I cards photocopied form an real bumper irritating guy and tackling him we forgot our ID cards in the shop itself ... Realising tht after coming to the room.. we freaked out..! hoping to get them back.. we had our dinner in the same place we stayed ... (Nishant Still Talking on phone..) . .
Later That nite..
Chimpu flashing stuff , Pallav Crying up to see the match.. RK and polu kicking pallav out... Mukher Rolled on the bed after a real heavy vomiting trip, Nishant on the phone, Papi Sleepin with us.. Me and Polu Discussing that the rayban we brought wasn’t a knock off but originals.. yippee.. Lost Goggles ka vasool ho gaya..
And a Good night Sleep..
DAY- 2
Pallav and Basu get up early n have their breakfast ..(HaramKhor’s).. Getting up for the bed tea.. in the cold is just too good..i rush get ready and leave with nishant to get mine and basu’s I Card.. And did some shopping in the morning.. nishant got his new pair of goggles.. we see the taxi waiting near the hotel.. this time we got a wagonR and Maruti van for the local gangtok trip.. the travels arranged for some real boring places in gangtok to visit but the driver were good enough to tell us that these place suck.. we will show u some awesome stuff.. well to day we had some fast roamin around gangtok.. so paid the driver extra.. and continued to different view points.. Among Which Tashi view was the best.. we got good food there, ate with chopstick n all ,got to see some real good punjabi’s.. in ganesh tok.. hehe.. clicking again..:P tashi is basically a Kanchancunga view point but tht day was pretty cloudy so dint make it...Ganesh tok had an amazing view of the whole Gangtok.. filled with these small cute kind.. houses.. all over the place.. from wrh we leave for a 200 year old monastery,Eychen monastery (Gompas).... i have seen those Cylindrical rotating things kept in front of the monastery in TV’s only.. but when we saw it.. like small kids we started playing with those.. entering the monastery they had their chanting goin on wat an ambience..Circling thourgh the monastery and taking photos, start back for the Rope Way.. Well RopeWay wasn’t that eventful but.. as yeah get high on the cable wires and great view of gangtok..Punjabis..? yeah they were there.. hmmm.. Continuing from thr we went to a place i forgot the name but thr was this huge white stupa.. and lot more of those rotating cylinders Reading “peace” on it in Tibetan ... ghumate ghumate haat ki vat lag gayi...visiting the stupa we found that the stupa was built to scare away the bad souls and spirits.. . I know its a gay thing to attend a flower show but since we had paid for this so went to the flower show and had as many photos as we can.. uff.. if we would have stayed thr for an hour more even the flower would have started to wear goggles.. (PJ i know), Papi and nishant took a lotta honeymoon Photos with the flowers (The matrimonial types) ..hilarious.! did lotta bird watching in the flower show.. then proceeded to Rumtek Monastery which was quiet far away abt an hour in the car.. Pallav started taking pics of people on the roads and school kids...saw lotta step cultivation on the way(Beautiful) ...the moment we came to Rumtek we found that the 1 hour journey wasn’t that bad.. This monastery was really huge... with high security due to some regular visit of a mahatma.. entering this monastery we all stood blank (hang!!).. chota monks roaming here n there really old monks walking doing their regular chants.. and small monks ratofying their chants... beautiful..!! inside the monastery their chants were so vibtant we could clearly feel our heart beating really fast.. old Buddhist books stacked on the shelves.. burbon,50-50,and other biscuits given as offerings, and we Whispering “Oye idhar mat jaa” “Abe mast hai” “ Uff.. Ultimate” n more... all these things were so new to us.. actually we had to climb around 1.2 kms to reach the monastery and we had very less time for the water park we had to visit... me and basu brought a souvenir saying” OM MA NI PADME HUN” in Tibetan.. carved on a yak bone.. Water park wasn’t tht fun because thr was very less water and it was getting dark.... but still clickin on numerous more pics.. we came back to the hotel rooms.. all these roaming up down and around gangtok made so tired.. Aahhhh...
Then There was a huge discussion abt..what to do tonite...? shouting this n that the room was filled with so many good chants that even if by mistake someone opened the door.. he will either commit a suicide or die on the spot... watching TV as well as chatting we plan to go out for dinner and do some little shopping.. well my shopping wasn’t little.. i heard regularly guys tellin “ Deepu ne tho pura Sikkim Kharid liya..” we had good shopping here n there... me pallav and chimpu got lost in between.. had a dinner in a restaurant couple of drinks again.. the time we had come outta the restaurant MG road was empty.. .. walked down the street, police patrolling, got a taxi luckily and went to the hotel and crashed on our beds... Next morning was goin to be a bigger day in the whole trip.. we kept alarms early and slept (As if we are goin wake up early ).. we had our plans to go to yungtam and Katok via lachung.. this was basically a 2 days 1 night trip to north Sikkim...Where we had to camp in lachung for the night.... Nishant still on phone, Pallav getting his butt kicked(again), mukher out..!, some problems regarding the funds were solved... Shopping discussion.. and an random excitement in everybody’s mind of how..??wrh..?? and what.. are we goin to see in lachung,katok and yungtam... do we face rains..? do we face landslides..? do we get to booze..? everything..? will there be snow..????
Getting a hold and mentally preparing for the next day’s long journey.. we sleep...
To be Contd....Keep Checking..
---Bad Ass Thambi.
Day -3:
Today the waking up early part wasn’t thr since we could leave late also since it wont make a difference.. as we camped in lachung.. getting the luggage and leave for the taxi stand.. Waited a while for the driver n started our trip to lachung... Suraj and Binoy wrh our drivers and sukhraj was the other taxi driver... me chimpu papi nishant and pallav in one and the other taxi had basu dong’s RK mukher and raja.. leaving for lachung.. the driver told me he has a friend who is an exact identical of me named kunal... on the way we had lotta chitter chatter with the suraj and binoy.. stopped for seven sister falls, amithab bachan falls.. and a place for food wrh we had best Chai till date.. “Wah kya baath ha” Basu utters..leaving from thr getting ourselves a crate and leaving for lachung, but then suddenly rain starts pouring down.. now rain’s at these places wont make u feel gr8 or happy. we felt “aaj tho Gaye saala” Travelling uphill and downhill seeing a whole forest getting burned down in forest fire.. the suddenly our taxi halts and we see a huge line of cars, trucks, army convoys lined up... some blockade on the road ,may be a huge rock or something.. it was heaily pouring.. and the road wasn’t a Tar road, a few more steps and we have nice fall into teesta.. army were thr to help everyone.. after an hour long wait we move on... reaching lachung,this place was around 13500 feet. Above msl..... we had a nice welcome, Got to know that we are goin to stay in a resort and rooms made of ntn but Wood ..suraj asked us to get ready and lets party... pehle hang ho gaye te “Party..?! eh..?” here....?! how..? he showed us a huge dining hall..and we showed him the crate.. by the time we reached Lachung suraj binoy and sukhraj became good friends with us.. suraj loved pulling pallav’s leg..lol... in the dining hall we had loud music.... the feeling of getting super high at that place is something no one can express.. if had been thr u will just know it.. suraj got us their local bamboo beer.. tasted so sweet.. chimpu was down already with 5 bottoms up.. Temp. was 0-1 degrees and papi was jumping around topless.. we even brought the cook’s from inside to dance wih us..roshan,nildeep, vipul... dancing for an more than 3 hrs.. food was so good that we were all taken aback.. at that high altitude wrh living is a difficult thing we got awesome food.. and being here in the college we get pathetic food in our mess...we just gave a thought for that..finishin that.. mukher and I, we gave our attendance in the loo... no one had a good sleep..
DAY- 4
Morning we had to get up early at 7:00am to leave for katok and yungtam all the 11 musketeers were down in slumber till 7:30am and chipmu bum hero bana last night and got himself screwed in the morning shivering.. and puking ..every one had to shit but no one was ready to keep our ass under the freezing water...nishant comes outta the bathroom saying” Abe kissine apna G freezer ke andar rakha hai kya..?” gettin ourselves a pair of snow boots and we start but we find our taxi broke down due to the cold.. so got delayed by an hour.. so in the mean time.. we all started taking Kiwick gun murugun Photos.. and after pushing the car up the hill and down the hill by the 11 brave musketeers we made the taxi Roar.. the whole route to katok was piled up with snow and ice..... roads were covered with snow.. Wild yaks grassing, Sun shining bright,.. ice melting down and flowing into the waterfall.. it took 2 hours to reach katok.. a place wrh one side of the peak is India and the other side was china... as far as ur eyes could reach thr was just ice and snow.. The white ice reflecting the sun’s light made the ice shine brilliantly.. Played in the ice for i dunno 3 hours or so.. made snow man, papi n nishant made an adult version of the snowman... Ice Counterstrike was amazing fun.. took hell lottava pictures.. this made our trip a dream come true.. landmark of katok trip was when chimpu was searching for the Loo.. He got all the way down the ice and asked the army guy “Sir, Idhar Bathroom Kidhar hai..?” Army man” Bathroom.. bada hai ki Chota..?” Chimpu “Bada.” Army “ Vapas Uppar Jao Army camp mein ek Bathroom hai” Hearing this chimpu decided not go at all..There was snow everywhere.. in our mouth,Shirts Jackets,Pant, Pockets.,Boots everywhere... took random beautiful photos... Basu’s Cam got hit by an stray ice ball.. suraj called us back so that we reach yungtam as early as possible.... no one was ready to leave this place.. but yungtham had hot springs.!! so with long faces we left katok.. had our lunch back in the resort and started for yungtham..speeding through the ice clad mountains we felt “aaj jannat dikh gaya”.. 10 kms from yungtam valley thr was a huge landslide covering atleast a km with ice.. so we had to stop and could not go up further... but no one felt bad for this, our mind was already saturated with beauty.. and excitement.. and we were very tired... so played there for a while.. papi and i tried climbing the portion of the landslide so that we can ski back down..cliking more we left yungtam.. for gantok.. now gangtok was very far from here.. we knew we are goin to have a tiresome journey... everyone slept towards gangtok.. no one was in a mood to take photos.. “Bas Room Tak ponchado” reached gangtok at 10pm... hugging out our suraj and binoy who made this trip possible.. got our rooms in malancha itself.. aunty gave us superb food that night.... on the beds we sat n talked abt the previous days experience.. and G marofiying ... happily sleeping.. thinking never in our life we could get an opportunity like this.. slept tired....
FINAL DAY:
Basu on the phone with a guy in siliguri.. Polu’s room was still sleeping.. nishant RK Papi.. already getting ready to leave... Taxi was booked.. then packed everything in a bizarre manner.. since we had a bus at 530pm leaving for Durgapur... packed.. saying adieu to aunty and others in the hotel....had wai wai for the last time and when the taxi started.. the twilight mood filled everyone’s eyes with leaving gangtok and goin to Durgapur...coming down seeing the huge gate saying “THANK YOU VISIT SIKKIM AGAIN.”..hmmmm... why not..!! .. entered west Bengal.. straight to the bus stand boarded the bus off to Durgapur.... reached dgp at 430 am.. walked down the CC streets and reached the pavilion... Reaching the College gate uff.. “ A home away from Home..”
It was never a part of our college life to go to gangtok.. but now this trip has become part of our life.. a part were our dreams came true..the trip of a lifetime,a trip with the 11 musketeers...
Unforgetful.Untamed.Ultimate.
Thankx to the people of Sikkim,
Aunty, Guys in Hotel Malancha,Norling Travels and different ATM’s Throughout Sikkim.
And Suraj, Binoy,Sukhraj,Sonam and Baghat Singh...
Small But Beautiful,Sikkim....
--Bad Ass Thambi.
Durgapur,WB
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