A day in Yoksum

Prayer Flags in Yoksum

Our training in Higher Himalayas came to an end. Our chief instructor - Lakpa Sir told us that they would be sending some people to Yuksom as advance party.

The people who usually walk slow were determined to be part of this party thus I was dead sure that they would nominate me to be part of this group. Therefore, on 5th November 2014, at early morning 19 students from BMC 304 & 50 - odd students from AMC - 172 left the base camp and marched towards Dzongri.

Me & Piyali

The first day's trek was the toughest task as it involved couple of steep climbs and the distance to be covered was 26 kms. Route was chalked as Base Camp at Chowri khang - Bikbari - Dzongri La - Dzongri - Devrali - Phedtang - Tshokha - Bakkhim. All we knew was Base Camp to Dzongri is 13 kms and Dzongri to Bakkhim is 13 kms. With a quick lunch & tea break at Dzongri, we proceeded to Bakkhim. When I and Piyali reached Bakkhim, it was already dark.

Rest House at Bakkhim

Next day, we had a target to reach Yuksom at the earliest so that we could visit this old capital of Sikkim more peacefully. Thus we started off at 6:15 and had to cover last 13 kms in lower Himalayas mostly through Kanchenjunga National Park.

We had been out of network grid for long enough and all of us were eager to share photos & other details with our near & dear ones. But apart from this, Room No. 8 members - Ela, Neha and I were more interested in visiting the Monasteries in Yuksom.

Lakpa sir had mentioned the folklore that 3 monks had flown in from Tibet and met at Yuksom and had suggested to the King that Yuksom should be his capital.

At a suspension bridge 

Somewhere in KNP

So, it was clear that Yuksom was also of historic importance. We hiked through Kanchenjunga National Park and crossed 4 suspension bridges and reached Bakkim by 11:30. Everyone was darn hungry by now and quartermaster sir informed us that we will have to arrange for our lunch as the kitchen staff hadn’t arrived by then.

Tent Pitching by Moromee and Debajit

There was a small homely restaurant behind our camp. All of us haunted the cute ladies for authentic MoMos and some Maggie. Also after a real long time, few of us quenched their thirst for coffee. We pitched tents, did basic cleaning of ourselves and rushed off in the town. Some of us wanted to rush to old monastery thus they took a shared taxi ride.

On our way, we saw few chortens but hunger led us to Gupta Restaurant. Five of us, Nisarg, Ela, Neha Moromee and I, literally drove the lady mad! We ordered almost everything on the menu and ate like buffalos. The lady & the waiters served us with smile...

Nisarg midst of prayer wheels

Later, we strolled through the town which is more or less of a village. First, we visited the monastery of 12 monks. There are 12 prayer wheels in this monastery and they represent each incarnation of Buddha. We circled the prayer wheels and took photos and moved ahead.

Neha, Nisarg, Ela,Me and Moromee at Karthok Monastery

Now, we made our way to a monastery within the town. This monastery was closed, but we peeped through windows. This was first monastery Nisarg had seen so he was excited. We left from here and started to walk back to camp. On our way we also saw the lake Karthok. We all wanted to sit by the lake but had to reach
the camp before fall in time of 5PM. Also it had already started getting dark by 4:30 PM. So it would have been right choice to head back to the camp.

However, we were only few to return on time and others came like couple of hours later. We chatted with quartermaster sir, who told us about local beer – HIT and the famous person from Yuksom – Danny Denzongpa, a bollywood actor. (He also showed the helipad and the actor's bungalow next morning.)

Meantime, the dinner was ready. We ate & were asleep by 8:30 PM as next day we were to head back to the Institute at Darjeeling.

Karthok Monastery

Picture Credits: Ashish Chanda, Moromee Das & few of my clicks.