(Written on May 9)
Araya’s most excellent adventure in Asia is now drawing to a close. I’m sitting in my comfortable room in the fine old Hotel Tashi Gang in the tiny town of Yuksom high in the Himalayas, contemplating this Journey of Discovery over the last 8 months. A light rain has just started to fall giving nourishment to this lusciously green semi-tropical landscape. Here in Sikkim, along with other “hill stations” at this altitude, we find bananas, bamboo, figs and philodendron growing along side pines and cedars. Giant rhododendrons and magnolias grow shorter as the air thins in the higher elevations eventually giving way to tiny bushes and then tundra. I love this place! Sikkim is a former autonomous Himalayan kingdom and now a proud state in northern India bordered on the west by Nepal, on the north by Tibet and on the east by Bhutan.
It is one of the few places in India where you can stroll down the middle of the road unconcerned about traffic, noise, crime, pollution or anything else for that matter. This is a village small enough that you can sit in a café in the center of town watching the traffic wiz by at the rate of about one vehicle every 15 or 20 minutes, and that’s at rush hour!The light rain has turned into a raging windstorm blowing leaves, dust and anything else that’s not nailed down on a horizontal trajectory. The power has gone out and lightening and thunder abound. I’m glad I’m safe and dry in my sturdy hotel. I pity the many trekkers up in the mountains who are finding themselves without shelter from this storm.
Speaking of trekking, I spent an amazing 8 days climbing high into the Himalayas to almost spitting distance of Khangchendzonga, the highest mountain in India, and the third highest peak in the world! The whole experience was quite thrilling and totally exhilarating.
In order to trek in Sikkim, you have to go in a group with a guide, so I first went to Darjeeling in West Bengal to make arrangements. I inquired at several trekking agencies, and none had one going in the near future that I could join. So I left them my phone number in case someone else in my position came along. I must be doing something right in this world, because the very next day Luis, a 35-year-old environmental lawyer from Madrid was looking for exactly the trek I wanted leaving the very next day. The agent put all the pieces together, and off we went to Sikkim. It began with a day’s journey down the (once again) steep windy pitted road leading from Darjeeling at 2134 meters/ 7000 feet down to 1300 meters/4265 ft to the town of Jorethang, just into the state of Sikkim. We stopped there for lunch and to pick up provisions for the trek. Like an idiot, I had thought I could do this trek in my Keen hiking sandals that I have worn every day for the past 8+ months. In Jorethang, I came to my senses and did what every hiker knows is the stupidest thing ever – I bought the very first pair of hiking shoes I saw the day before an 8 day trek into rugged terrain! But once again, luck was on my side. The shoes were great, no problems for the whole trek! I never even took my Keens out of my pack. Another great purchase Luis and I both made the day before the trek started was a set of hiking poles for each of us. It took about 10 steps to get used to using them, and I don’t see how I could have made it without them.
So much for the preliminaries. After spending the night in Yuksom at 1780 meters/5840 ft, we started out on Day 1 with our entourage – one guide, Puspa, one cook, Shor, one “kitchen boy,” Prem, one yakman, Mama, and two djoos (a cross between a cow and a yak that can handle low to high elevations) to carry all our stuff. After 16 kilometers, about 10 miles and 1270 meters/ 4167 ft net elevation gain, we landed at Tsokha, a tiny Tibetan hamlet perched on a knoll overlooking the many valleys stretched out below. Lunch, dinner and all the meals we ravenously devoured on all the days of the trek consisted of 4 – 6 courses of delicious freshly cooked food. I requested plenty of fruits and veggies, and they complied.
Now our crew is used to scampering up and down these mountains every day. Luis had been training for this trek for the past 2 – 3 months. I, on the other hand, have been a relative couch potato doing no more than some occasional yoga and assorted walks around towns. Quite surprisingly to me, I made it through every day of this rigorous trek, albeit at a snail’s pace, finishing very tired but otherwise in excellent condition.
Day 2 we climbed another 975 meters/ 3200 ft in dense fog to Dzongri consisting of a few trekkers’ huts, an outhouse, and some flat tent sites. Day 3, we took an “acclimatization” day. Dzongri, at 4025 meters/13205 ft, was totally socked in with marauding clouds and fog, so we did a little yoga in the hut and huddled in our tents trying to stay warm.
Day 4, Puspa woke us early, pre-dawn, so we could climb to a nearby lookout point for a sunrise view of the Khangchendzonga range! Thank God for these early morning sightings of these magnificent peaks because it was that image that drew me, like a very powerful magnet, higher and higher, ever nearer to them. After breakfast, we continued onward and upward “Arriba! Arriba!” to Thangsing, at a slightly lower elevation. On day 5, I was totally beat from a night with out sleep. We learned that the cooking hut at our next expected destination campsite had blown over in the last storm, and we would not be able to stay there. That would mean adding another 10 – 12 km to the hardest day of the trek. Luis wasn’t willing to accept this add-on to an already killer day, so after breakfast, he, Puspa and Prem headed to Lamanie to access the damage and see if they could repair the hut enough for one night’s stay. They could and they did! Even though it was by far our easiest trekking day of only 7 km/ 4 miles, and 200 meters/650 ft, it was the hardest day for me due to my lack of sleep – not to mention the rain that accompanied us along the way. We got into our tents, soaking wet. Mercifully, I slept for a bit until Puspa urged us out of our warm cocoons about a half hour before sunset. The rain had stopped, the clouds lifted, and we found ourselves amidst a most magnificent sight, huge mountains all around us, close enough to touch, causing our spirits to soar! Even though we were freezing, we danced around, took photos and, as the sun was setting, retired into my tent where we were served dinner in the dark.
Day 6, the culmination of our journey, the final trek up to Goecha La, at 4500 meters/ 14764 ft, a ridge just in front of the Khangchendzonga Range, touching the glaciers emerging from its caress. Luis and Puspa went ahead and I continued alone at my own slow but steady pace. I found myself being drawn up and up by the magnetism of Khangchendzonga and by the spirit of my intrepid trekking sister Margo urging me upward from her place in heaven. I found myself talking out loud to Margo, to the birds, to God. It was totally exhilarating. After spending a couple of hours at the first viewpoint, waiting for Luis and Puspa who had continued on to the ultimate viewpoint at 4940 meters/ 16207 ft, we all headed back down, in the rain, to Lamanie where lunch awaited us. After lunch, we continued down past Thangsing to a farther trekking hut by the gorgeous river in whose valley we had now followed directly out of the glacier from which it was born. We were cold, soaked, exhausted and very happy!
Day 7 Reluctantly leaving the high mountains and high elevations behind, we re-entered the forests growing larger with each descending meter. Back to the rhodies which had grown shorter and shorter and finally disappeared at the higher elevations, back to the magnolias. And then it started to rain again. My tired pace picked up along the narrow steep trail. It was slippery, muddy and even treacherous as we crossed over landslides, one of which had obviously just recently happened. By the time we got to Tsokha, the sun had come out and the towns of Darjeeling and Yuksom whence we came were in view across the valleys in the distance. Day 8, we retraced our steps of the first day, ever lower and across 3 suspension bridges and finally to our hotel in Yuksom and a very welcome HOT SHOWER! How strange in only 48 hours to come from tundra at 4500 meters to bananas and bamboo and lush semi-tropical vegetation at 1850 meters. A truly amazing experience of a lifetime. Of course one of the most amazing parts for me was that I made it! As difficult as this trek was, I would have to say it was not nearly as hard for me as sitting for 10 days in the Vipassana Retreat!
Thanks to my terrific trekking partner, Luis, thanks to our guide Puspa and the rest of the crew, thanks to my parents for giving me good genes and to me for staying healthy and fit, and thanks to God for creating this astoundingly beautiful world. I’m also eternally grateful to have had the great good fortune to be matched up with Luis. We were extremely compatible, sharing our sensibilities, our enthusiasm, our love of being just where we were. Luis’ English is perfecto, but I did take the opportunity to communicate with him in Spanish for extended periods of time, which I was able to do, again, much to my surprise! Over the ten days we were together, we became very close, sharing this grand adventure, a friendship that will last for decades to come and an experience never to be forgotten.
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