Introduction
Back in October last year, during the Durga Puja holidays in Kolkata, we went to Sandakphu. The trip then was short and we did not spend a night at Sandakphu. We did not even get to see the Sleeping Buddha due to the cloud cover, in short it was a trip to gauge my driving skills and test my parent's patience as they accompanied us.
After that trip, we did the old silk route and south Sikkim in June, 2017. Three months later, in September, we went to Darjeeling (
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...-our-thar.html). On these occasions too we were unlucky to sight the peaks due to the cloud cover.
This time however, we were lucky:
The members, the steed and the plan
Like the previous two trips, I was accompanied by my wife, Bhavneet and our Thar, the Red Rhino.
The planning for the trip started with a passing thought.... Don't we have a better chance to spot Kanchenjunga during winter? We thought it should be. I asked Sumitro (Blackpearl) if going to Sandakphu in winters was a good idea. He gave a positive response on the condition that it does not snow. We thus thought that we would do the trip during the Christmas holiday.
A week before the trip was to begin, both Bhavneet and I fell sick, there was fever, cough and cold. Also, as Bhavneet's work schedule was not certain there was a possibility that the trip had to be scrapped. Like our previous trips, we had thought of leaving on the evening of the last working day, which should have been 22nd, Friday, so that we could drive through the night and reach Manebhanjan by noon. However, our plan was not revived until the afternoon of 22nd. We had not packed the day before as we had called off the trip. So we improvised, we planned to go home and pack to leave at 3 AM on 23rd. We reached home, packed our bags and necessary car stuff, kept it ready to load it next morning, had dinner and slept.
Day 1 - 23th December - Kolkata to Mirik
We were woken up by a call from my dad at 3:15 AM who wanted to know our status, as they would bid us good bye. I thanked him to wake us up. We got ready quickly and were loading the luggage into the Thar at 4:00 AM. The process to finally leave home took another 20 - 25 minutes as I kept recollecting things to be carried, last minute preparations. My parents decided to see us off from Azad Hind Dhaba (AHD) on NH2.
We reached AHD at 6 AM, breakfast halt for an hour, saw the sunrise and finally departed.
The drive was smooth via Burdhaman, until we reached Kuli Chowrasta, much before Khargram. The roads from the Chowrasta were in a bad shape. While going along the road, we almost reached Sherpur where we saw a fellow R.O.A.D member (Abhijit Sinharoy) coming from the other side in his Innova Cryta. He informed us about standstill traffic ahead due to broken down trucks and suggested we take a detour. He was on his way to Meghalaya with family. The detour set us back by 1.5 to 2 hours due to the longer route and traffic. This route should have taken not more that 40 minutes through the usual route via Moregram as the road from Panchgram was good.
After our usual night travel during the last few trips we were disappointed by the time it was taking us to drive during the day. We got a lot of traffic at Malda, Farakka and Islampur. A mix of soft roading and wrong way driving helped us through the mess. We were targeting to reach Mirik by 9-10 PM and called Hotel Jagjeet to ask for availability. They confirmed that they had rooms so we thought we would reach there and book.
We reached Hotel Jagjeet at 9:30 PM and saw the restaurant shutters down and lights at the Hotel lobby off. Due to goods getting offloaded and transferred into the Hotel Kitchen/Bar the staff was working and I asked them for accommodation and food. They refused for a room at first but later asked me to come to the reception again when I went out to inform my wife regarding our bad luck. She simultaneously called the number she tried earlier for the booking and requested for a room. The gentleman on the other side asked her to hand over the phone to the receptionist. I did the needful and was happy to know that they would give us a room. They then informed us that the kitchen was closed and they could not serve food. On pleading and requesting they could only offer us rice and chicken curry. Which was exactly what we wanted. We were extremely happy to hear this and went to our room to freshen up and wait for our meal to arrive. After having a very light lunch and snacks during the trip, dinner was amazing. We saw some TV and finally slept.
Halt at a fuel station on the way Manager's Bunglow at Gayabari, once home to Dad Food at Jagjeet Hotel Clean and cozy rooms at Jagjeet Hotel
Hotel Jagjeet - 5/5
Amount spent - Rs. 3100 (including dinner and breakfast)
Day 2 - 24th December - Mirik to Sandakphu
We got up, got ready and went to the restaurant for breakfast at around 8:30 AM. We had got our luggage ready and loaded the same in the Thar to leave as soon as we could. We finally pushed off at 9:15 AM. We reached Manebhanjan via Simana and made our first short halt at the Chitrey Monastery. The drive was pretty easy this time till Garibas as the road till there have been made (cemented). They were now working on the side rails and drains. The road on the Indian side is being worked on and we therefore missed the shortcut to Tumling through the Nepal side. We stopped at Tumling as we saw the Mountain range clearly and took pictures, we also had Wai Wai and coffee at the lodge in Tumling before we moved further. From Kalipokri we again continued with the Indian route which was worse this time. The last 3 kms from Bikeybhanjan were in a bad state with a couple of switch backs having too many loose boulders lying around. 4L during this time and you unleash the other world. Slow and steady we reached Sherpa Chalet.
We had not made a prior booking but had discussed availability over call. Took a risk but lucky enough to get a room for three (which was available 2 days back as well). We had egg fried rice first as we were hungry and then asked for tea which we sipped while sitting in the Thar staring at the mountains in front. It was petty cold with temperature ranging between 6-8 degree C. We went to our room which was on the second floor, and sat on the bed which was close to the side facing Kanchenjunga. As the sunset, we clicked pictures. Slowly the breeze started increasing. We tried sleeping for an hour or two before dinner time. The rooms were clean with basic facility, two blankets per bed, a warm water flask which we got after dinner, no wash basins in the bathroom, only a WC and two buckets of water. The rooms were not well insulated probably due to ventilation requirements and the cold breeze easily gets to you while you are trying to warm yourself inside. Lights in the room are switched on from 6-9 PM. Dinner time is between 6:30 - 7:30 PM. We went to dine at 7 ish. Had some rice, dal and mixed veg as we were still full from the late lunch. After dinner we chatted with Pemadhendu, the owner of Sherpa Chalet. He owns a Land Rover and due to common Kolkata Offroader friends, we had a nice discussion of the trips and trails they made recently.
The sky was clear and one could see the sky full of stars. I was exhausted and did not have the enthu to shoot the sky. For the next eight hours we tried our best to sleep but were not very successful. I was able to sleep only from 2-5 AM peacefully. We could hear other tourists as well, through the night as it was difficult to sleep in the weather. Night time temperature was -1 - 0 Degrees.
Mirik Lake as we left Hotel Jagjeet The first milestone to our destination at Simana, this was after taking the U-turn Chitrey Monastery A check post enroute with another Monastery The stop on the way at Tumling As we cross the forest gate A random stop for a few pictures Lake at Kalpokri Milestone for Red Rhino on the way Destination - Sherpa Chalet, now visible Over the top view Egg fried rice at Sherpa Chalet Tea in the car, facing the Mountain peaks Kanchenjunga during sunset When your eyes fall towards the left of the above peaks Explained
Sherpa Chalet - 4/5
Amount spent - Rs. 3000 on the room and Rs. 1000 on food/tea etc