I got a golden opportunity to trek to Darjeeling and nearby places from my previous school in Kolkata. About 40 students were going for the trip. We started our journey on 28th Dec 07.Our school authorities managed to hire a bus to Siliguri. We reached Siliguri on 29th at 11.45 am. After lunch we boarded another bus to Sukhiapokhri, which was our base camp. The route was tortuous. The mountains were covered with fir and pine trees and monkeys were sitting on rocks near waterfalls.

We reached Shukhiapokhri at 5.30 pm. Our trek started the next day(30th). The route till Maneybhanjan was nice. We saw pine, fir, maple and rhododendron trees. After lunch we went to the monastery near Chitray. It is believed that there are 108 monks in meditation in the monastery for the last three years without having any food.

On 31st we had to trek to Tonglu. The route went steeply through bamboo forest. We took a short near Hasal Det Shelling monastery, which was established in 1653 in Megma. The scenery of Tonglu helped us in recovering our freshness.

The next day we had the easiest trek. The route passed through Singalila National Park where we saw magpies, ring spotted doves and long-tail birds. There was a small stream near our camp in Garibass, which added to its beauty.

On 2nd Jan 08 we had to trek to Kalapokhri ion Nepal. We were very excited as we had crossed Indo-Nepal border and set our feet in a different country. The place in named after a pond, which is black in color. The pond in considered to be holy and also bears the name Kalapokhri. The next dau we started our trek to Sandakphu at 4 am. We saw trees oak silverfir, cotonstar, econut ferox and juna puras. There were yakson roads along with wild dogs and goats. Sandakphu is famous for a temple where Lord Shiva is believed to have taken the shape of a stone. We took the same path to return to Sukhiapokhri from Jan 4th. On 7th we were taken to Darjeeling for sightseeing. First we went to Batasia Loop from where we got the entire view of Darjeeling. We were lucky enough to get a glimpse of Kanchenjunga. Then we went to Botanical garden where we saw different species of rhododendron trees like Falconeri, Lepidotum, Aconium and Acindia. In the zoological garden, we saw red pandas, snow leopard, tahrs, woles, pheasants etc.

Then there was Himalayan Mountaineering Institute Museum where we saw the things used by Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary to conquer Mount Everest. We started our journey back to Kolkata on 8th and reached there on 9th. I shall cherish the memory of this enchanting trip forever.

BY … Raina Ashish, XII 'A