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This is my yet another post on Sikkim. This one is about second day of trekking in Yuksom which is our fifth day in Sikkim.

As earlier told in my previous post there is only one thing to be done in Yuksom – Trekking. Between Yuksom and Dzongri, there is a well-beaten trek, which passes in the shadow of Kanchendjonga range through dense forest. Dzongri itself is a junction of several trails. Yuksom serves as a base for all these treks. Guides, porters, pack yaks, tents, sleeping bags and other trekking equipments are readily available. However, we saw a group of six boys trying hard to get all these on rent (They had no arrangements with hotels) from market, which on that day were all booked.

We decided to trek for the first half (or less) stretch of day one of Yuksom-Dzongri trail. Day one of this trail covers a climb of 16 Km from Yuksom (1780 Mts) to Tsokha (3480 Mts). One can also stay at Bakhim that is some 2 Kms before Tsokha, at a height of 2684 Mts. It takes four days to reach Dzongri from Yuksom.

We decided to climb upon this path up to 12:30 pm and then return as we had to reach Bliss resort in Biksthang (last destination of our itinerary) by that evening. We started early morning and just at a distance of 10 Minutes walk we saw how disastrous and horrible a landslide could be. In 2004 there was a huge landslide right there.

Very big rocks were lying everywhere blocking the route of a previously existing stream. Suman told us that on that day he was at hotel Tashigang and suddenly they heard loud sound of explosion. Initially they could not comprehend what was happening – A war with China or what. But in no time they realized what it was. They were all trembling with fear and could not dare to come out as rocks were flying towards the hotel. Luckily they were spared by less than ½ Km of distance between death and them. Not many people were there on that day and casualties were restricted to four persons - an angry face of otherwise loving and beautiful Mother Nature.

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It was fourth day of our W.Sikkim trip in May 2007. First three days were well spent at Pelling and around. We reached Yuksom by 3^rd day evening and visited coronation Stone there (about which I have written in my previous post). We awoke early morning and went out in balcony hoping to get a view of Mt Kabur; it was not visible due to clouds. There was a distinct voice of water gushing down. Faraway there was a big stream flowing down. It was looking very small from our balcony but was definitely a delight for ears. Weather was still cloudy and rainy. May be we would not be able to trek today. But it started to clear and we were out in the Hotel Tashigang’s garden for our breakfast – “Aloo kaa Parantha Sans Pyaaz” with juice. We did not order for milk as they had only powdered milk. It was the same at Pelling. Tourism has increased manifolds but people there simply grow only for their needs. Most of the houses had cows/goats, yet we could not get fresh milk either at Pelling or Yuksom. It is true for fruits too. Every house has a banana tree, but we couldn’t get a single fruit in market. It is something strange. Anyway we were not bothered as we were carrying enough supply of dry fruits and vitamin fortified food for Rachit.

As told earlier in my previous post, Yuksom is the place where three lamas met to enthrone first king of Sikkim. There are only three things to be done at Yuksom – Trekking, trekking and trekking. Aptly we did not find any Indian family visiting Yuksom. They were either bachelors or foreigners.

I would better call that day’s trek as “Dubdi Monastery trek”. Suman, our guide for the day, told us that first we would walk up to the Dubdi monastery which was a steep 2 Km uphill walk from hotel and then we would return by circuiting around two villages nestled amidst dense forest.

Initially we crossed a river, passed through some water driven prayer wheels and started to climb up. Suman was telling us about vegetation around us.

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Manish returned after finalizing plans for next day to reach Yuksom. We set alarm in the mobile for the early morning show of “sunrise on snow-clad mountains “, read a rare book on North-east India that was gifted to us by the owner of the hotel and went to bed around 8:30pm.

The show, as expected, was fabulous. Early morning we started for our Day Three in Sikkim. After crossing upper pelling, we crossed lower pelling, which is an ugly block of concrete buildings. We had to halt at Darap village, Rock garden, Khecheopalri Lake and Kanchendjonga falls. In fact, this is the itinerary of the morning half of the ‘ visit-less-run-more’ sightseeing tour.

Just after we crossed lower Pelling, a man asked us if we would not mind dropping her five yr. old daughter at her school in Darap Village. We happily welcomed his lovely daughter. Our driver smilingly asked little girl her name and some other kiddie’s things. It is a usual practice there to take lift in some vehicle going out on day tours to go to school at Darap that is 3 kms from Pelling. We dropped little girl at Darap. Darap is a small, beautiful hilly village.

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I had set alarm in mobile-4:30 am and went to sleep. I dreamed that we could not wake up on time and Kanchendjonga has disappeared forever. It woke me up at somewhere around 3 in night and after that I was not able to sleep at all but was not feeling tired. At four finally I waked up Manish. We both were sitting on bed looking outside, trying to figure out where IT could be. Soon it was twilight and we both were stunned. They were right in front of us; we did not need to move an inch from our bed to have a view of the mountains but for the whole expanse. We went out in balcony. First rays of sun turned it into pink and then orange-gold and all this happened in just 10 minutes. We were still spellbound by all this but suddenly we realized that soon the show will be over and Rachit( my 5 yr young son) has not seen. We waked up Rachit asking him to look outside the window. All of us were sitting on bed- speechless, looking at the mighty snow clad mountains; Rachit’s first ever. He rushed out in balcony, then to terrace and then wanted binocular to have a closer look. He was so excited, so happy and we both were happier than him to see him. It reminded me of Yesudas, singing

Aaj in nazaron ko tum dekho aur main tumhe dekhte huye dekhoon…main bus tumhe dekhte huye dekhoon

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