After our time in Gangtok, we prepared to go on our long awaited (or dreaded) trek in Western Sikkim. This area is dominated by high mountains covered in dense forests. While the beginning of our trek was only a few dozen kilometers away in Yuksom, it still took hours to reach our hotel having to navigate the winding dirt roads of Sikkim. Arriving at Ejam Residency, we found ourselves in a larger and nicer then expected hotel that was staffed by an extremely interesting and hospitable family that took care of our every need. After spending a night sleeping on the most comfortable beds in India and having one of the best breakfasts of the trip, we began the trek. We departed directly from the hotel with just our day bags, having the majority of our gear being carried by zoes (a hybrid of yaks and oxs), ponies, and porters.
The trek was to be a five day excursion, with the first three days spent climbing through the mountains to our final destination of Dzongri, and two days spent returning. Our days of climbing the mountains started with a breakfast around 7 or 8 and hiking till lunch. While the number of kilometers was nothing to be too be scared of, the elevation gain each day was a challenge for all. After we stumbled into camp having our lunch already being prepped by our wonderful crew of guides, cooks, and porters, we took time to work on getting to better know everyone in the group. Starting the first night of the trek we began a daily exercise of having everyone in the group spend 20 minutes to tell their life story. Before the trek, the group talked about feeling that we haven’t really gotten a chance to know each other on a deeper level. Our group leaders shared the idea of doing a life story exercise and the group agreed. At first some were uncomfortable with such a formal and forced way to get to know each other, but after the first few talks everyone had gotten excited about them. These talks have proved to be some of the most interesting, funny, and sad stories I have heard. We all began to eagerly await these talks every night.
When we were not listening and asking questions about each others lives at these talks, we were napping, joking, reading poetry out loud by candlelight, drinking gallons of chai, or taking much needed naps. Finally on the morning of our fourth day of our trek, we awoke at 4:00 to make it to the top of Dzongri for a sunrise view of the Himalayas. It is important to get to this spot early in the morning, not only so we could begin our hike back down the mountain that day, but to also get a chance to see the mountains free of cloud cover.
When we finally reached the top of Dzongri we were greeted by complete cloud cover from every side. After patiently waiting for the sun to finally break over the mountains, the clouds were quickly evaporated away and we were shown the most spectacular view of mountains I have ever seen.
The group spend hours gazing at this beautiful site, quietly looking into these peaks, posing for photos in yoga poses with trekkers from Hong Kong, or furiously snapping photos of the emerging mountains. After awhile, we finally decided that breakfast was much needed and it was time to begin our long hike back to the hotel.
While some people were not as excited about the trek as other members of the group.
in the end, everyone took something positive away from the trek. Either having a chance to reconnect with nature after a long period of city jumping, building stronger relationship as a group, or being done with trekking for the rest of our time in India. In the end, I don’t think any of us have laughed as much or had so many great conversations while here in India. While physically tiring, we all left the trek with a new energy of feeling closer to each other and excited to get to spend what time we have left in India with these wonderful people we have been thrown together with.
Mason
P.S
we also saw the Dalai Lama bless a new giant Buddha statue in Sikkim on the way to the trek. It was kinda cool I guess.
