Our journey in India began with an 7-day trek through the
Himalayas.
Day 1
On the first day, we flew from Bangkok to Kolkata, which is
where we went through immigration in India. It was a surprisingly easy process
and only took about 10 minutes! We then grabbed our bags and walked from the
international airport to the domestic one, which only allowed you to enter if
you had a copy of your ticket. Thankfully, I have everything printed out, so it
wasn’t a problem. This was a strange concept though because, I’ve never seen an
airport that won’t let you enter the building if you don’t have a ticket.
Now that we are finally in the domestic airport, we had to
sit and wait, until we could check in for our flight to Bagdogra. Hours later,
we were finally checked in and headed to go through security. Here we found
that everyone puts their belongings through the scanner and then instead of
walking through the metal detector, men go in one line and get wanded and women
go in a private curtain area where they are wanded as well. I’m not exactly
sure why I had to be in a private curtain, but I went with it, and finally we
were getting on our plane.
When the plane landed
in Bagdogra, we collected our bags and then went with the man who was standing
there with our names on a sign. It’s hard to do this trek through the Himalayas
on your own because it goes from India into Nepal and back, and you have to
show your passport and sign in and out of the countries. The trails also aren’t
marked that well, so we went through a company to organize our transport to and
from the airport and the guide to walk with us.
The man drove us up the windy mountain roads into the
Himalayas, and after four hours, we finally arrived at our destination. On the
drive up, we stopped and had dinner, which was pork dumplings (called moo-moo)
then for dessert they gave us this bowl of what looked like potpourri. I asked
how to eat it, and they said you just spoon it in to your mouth. Now I feel like
this must have been a joke because it tasted like a mixture of soap and black
licorice. It was disgusting, so after one spoonful we kindly excused ourselves
from dinner.
When we arrived in Maneybhanjan, we stopped and spent the
night in a homestay (someone’s house, who just lets us stay in an extra room).
We stayed in places like this every night during our trek, and it was such an
amazing experience. All of the families were so nice and welcoming, and also
made us the best food!
Anyways, I really didn’t think I would like Indian food, but up here
in the mountains it’s a little different than all of the curries they eat in
the cities of India. Up here, they eat a lot of potatoes, chow-mien style
noodles, and rice with a lentil sauce. It was all very good, and Brad and I ate
every bite, which was a struggle at times, because they gave us enough food to
feed a family of five. At first we didn’t think all of the food was for us, but
when we found out it was just for us, we didn’t want to offend them, so we ate
way more than we needed. Seriously, I thought I would lose weight with all of
the walking, but I’m pretty sure I gained weight from all of the food we ate!
After dinner we headed to bed, so we could rest up for the
start of the trek the next morning.
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Day 2
We woke up and had breakfast, and then walked to the edge of
the little mountain town, where we got on the trail in to the Singalila
National Park. We gave them our passports, signed in by 8 am, and then
started off on our 11-kilometer walk for the day. The beginning was very steep,
and I honestly started questioning if I had overestimated how in shape I am. Between
the weight of my backpack and the altitude, I felt like I should turn around
right then, but I pushed through and it got easier!
I’m pretty sure the first part of the trek is just to scare
you because everything after the first 6 kilometers wasn’t nearly as bad.
Although maybe I just got used to the altitude, and being able to breathe a
little better, made it easier. Either way, I’m glad I pushed through, and after
all of the straight up, we stopped and had a tea break.
Different regions of the Himalayas are famous for their tea,
so everywhere we stopped we were offered some. I never really had drank tea
before, but each time it was offered Brad would have a cup of black tea and I
would have a cup of milk tea with sugar. Then after our tea break, we started
walking again.
It started to rain, and luckily we ended up coming across a
little shack on the side of the path. Here we stopped and waited for the rain
to let up a little. Now, the rain here can range anywhere from a light sprinkle
to a torrential downpour and throughout our trek we experienced both. While we
were hiding out in the shack it was a torrential downpour of rain going on
around us, but after about a half an hour, it had settled down to a sprinkle. We
then continued on until we got to the place that we would stop for lunch.
At lunch, we had a vegetable chow-mien dish. It was so good,
and it was my favorite lunch we had throughout the whole trek. We were also
offered tea, and it was so nice to have something to help warm us up.
Here's the place we had lunch. Everywhere we stopped for lunch and tea looked similar to this.
We finished lunch and then walked the remainder of the
distance for that day. We then arrived in Tumling, where we stayed at another
homestay. Here they had quite a few rooms for people to stay in, and we found
out that they were filled with Indian high school students on a school trip. This
kind of disturbed the peace and quiet of the mountains, but we were so tired
from the travel and trek, that it didn’t affect our sleep at all.
Day 3
The next day, we got up early and walked 16-kilometers from
Tumling to Kalipokhri. It typically rains in the afternoon, so we pushed
through the walk and got to the next homestay by lunchtime. We settled in to
our room, which had a huge poster of Avril Lavigne on the wall. Even though,
the wall decorations were subpar, it was probably the nicest place we stayed.
We were lucky enough to have a real toilet and not a squatty potty here, and
also toilet paper. We also were given a bowl of hot water to wash ourselves
with.
It’s crazy that toilet paper is a luxury, and it definitely
makes you appreciate the little things back in America.
Once we were settled, we had lunch and then walked around
taking pictures during the afternoon. I know we had walked all morning, but
there’s not a ton to do in these mountain towns, so walking around more and
exploring was a typical afternoon activity.
We then took in the sunset and went back to the
room to play cribbage by the light from my headlamp. See they would only turn
on the electricity from 6:30 – 9:30 at night, and it got dark around 5. So for
that in between time, we would have to use flashlights and candles.
We went over for dinner around 7:30 each night, and every
night we ate the same food: white rice with a yellow lentil sauce. There would
also be vegetables of some sort (typically potatoes), soup (either tomato or a
chicken broth), and burned tortillas (those weren’t so good).
The people who cooked the food and served us were always so
polite and it really made the experience amazing. Just being able to interact
with locals and get to know their culture, is what I love to do while
traveling!
Day 4
The next day was the shortest walk, only 8-kilometers. But
those 8-kilometers from Kalipokhri to Sandakphu were rather challenging. We
started by walking down a steep, rocky path and then once we reached the
bottom, the path went straight back up. Thankfully though, we’ve adjusted to
the altitude, and this steep ascend wasn’t as challenging as the one the first
day.
We got in by
lunchtime and enjoyed some fried rice. Unfortunately, everything is vegetarian,
so no pork in our fried rice, like we were used to in Thailand. We then
explored like usual, and waited around for the clouds to part. From up here, we
were supposed to finally be able to see the snow covered mountain peaks,
Everest being one of those peaks, but unfortunately there was too much fog, and
we didn’t see them that afternoon.
That evening we gathered in the kitchen and enjoyed our
dinner with the locals. We had a great conversation about the differences in
our cultures, and we learned from our guide about their marriage ceremonies.
Now there are many arranged marriages in India, but up in the Himalayas, it is
not as common.
For our guide, he saw his wife in one of the towns we walk
through on our trek, and then after walking through many times (he’s done the
trek over 100 times) he finally asked her to go on a date. They would go on
dates each time he would walk through the town and then after a year, he asked
her to be his wife. She agreed, and instead of being engaged, like we do in
America, they get married in secret right away. Right after he asked her and
she agreed, they ran off and got married, and moved all of her stuff out of her
parents house and in to his parents house. Then after three days they called
her parents and told her that they had gotten married.
Now that seems pretty crazy to me, and I feel like my
parents would notice I was missing if I lived with them and then was gone for
three days without telling them, but that’s how they do it over there. Then
once they have told her parents, they have a big celebration with all of their
friends and family.
Day 5
Brad woke up early in the morning, and saw that the sun was
just coming up. He woke me up and we grabbed my camera to capture some pictures
of the sunrise.
The clouds started parting, and through them we were able to
see the snow covered mountains. The view was incredible, and we spent some time
just taking it in.
We had to get walking, so we had a breakfast of porridge,
and then walked along the ridge from Sandakphu to Phalut. This was our longest
day of walking (21-kilometers), but being able to see the mountains for a lot
of it made it worth it. Then, just about the time that the clouds were covering
the mountains again, we turned and started walking through grassy pastures. Our
views changing from snow covered peaks to cows and cow pies.
We took a break to have some tea and then continued walking.
About an hour later, we stopped and had tea again with our lunch. In this past
week, I went from never having tea in my life, to drinking it about 5 or 6
times a day. I definitely don’t need the amount of sugar I put in each cup, but
it tastes so good and it always warms me up, so it’s hard to turn down a fresh
cup.
We finally arrived in Phalut late in the afternoon and got
situated in our room. This might have been the worst place we stayed, and after
staying here, I’m confident that I can stay anywhere. The bathroom was a
squatty potty with the bucket of water sitting next to it to use for flushing.
This wasn’t anything new, but usually there is a sink to wash your hands after
using the disgusting bathroom, but unfortunately here there was no sink. Thanks
to my mom we have plenty of hand sanitizer, but that didn’t help with the sink
situation when it came to brushing our teeth. We used a bottle of water and
spit in the squatty potty. Needless to say, my teeth and myself did not feel
very clean after this stay.
Here's what a squatty potty looks like for all of the people reading this who don't know. (Now doesn't looking at this picture make you thankful for everything you have!)
Day 6
This day started out great, with my favorite breakfast. It
was a spicy potato dish that you put inside of something similar to pita bread.
Seriously, it was so good that we kept raving about it, and they made it for us
again the next day.
But then, the day quickly turned into the worst day. It had
rained all night, and we were starting to make our descent back down the
mountain. There was mud and water everywhere.
Now I’m not scared of a little mud, but there was so much
and it was so slippery that I slipped and fell twice. My backpack got covered
in mud, and the second time, I ended up cutting up my hand. I was so annoyed
because I knew there wasn’t even going to be anywhere for me to clean up my
hand or even my muddy body until the end of the trek. It’s now been 6 days
since we have had a shower, and I’m not exactly loving how I smell.
Finally, after descending 3000 feet in 15-kilometers, we
made it to Rammam (our destination for the day). Although I had been in a bad
mood during the hike, once I saw this cute mountain town, my mood turned around
(also Brad gave me a foot massage, so that made me super happy!)
The town of Rammam is in a valley with a river running right
through it. The mountains that surround it are covered in a mix of corn fields
at the lower elevations and pine trees at higher elevations. It is a very
beautiful place. Check out the picture below.
Day 7
On our last day of trekking, we walked 15-kilometers from
Rammam to Sri Khola. We took off early, so we would have time to stop for tea,
and still be in Sri Khola by lunch. Below are some last day of walking pictures.
In Sri Khola, we ate a strange pasta with a
red/purple sauce and beets in it. After doing a juice cleanse with Brad last
spring, we both now hate beets, so this wasn’t exactly our favorite meal.
Then we got picked up in a jeep and rode for four hours
through the mountains until we reached Lepchajagat. This was a halfway point
from where our trek ended and the airport, so we stayed here for the night.
This homestay was filled with the nicest family. When we
were sitting in eating dinner, we saw that there were all these posters of
Bible verses hanging around. It turns out that they are one of the only
Christian families living in their Buddhist town, and it was interesting
talking to them about this. Then after dinner we headed to bed, so we could get
up early the next day to drive the rest of the way to the airport.
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