Trekking in Northern India

Today I have been struggling up and down the hills of Darjeeling. My very sore leg muscles make me look like a swerving drunk as I attempt to step gingerly between the crowds of shoppers and tourists in Chow Rastaa. I got back from Sikkim last night where I completed a six day trek that pushed my legs to their breaking point. I am taking today to recover.
We flew into Kolkata and spent only two days in the city before taking an overnight train out. The city is contains many picturesque buildings from when this was the capitol of the British Indian empire that are now rapidly detriorating. Sometimes the streets seem like they should be reconstructed scenes of a fourties movie excpet for the out of place people in saris, haphhazardly built chai stalls, and beggars lining the streets. Kolkata is a very large cosmopolitan city, with tons of things to do, but like all cities I have encountered in India it is congested and horribly polluted, so we did not feel the need to hang around very long before making our way to Darjeeling. In order to get there we took an overnight train to Siliguri and then boarded the toy train to Darjeeling. The toy train is left over from when Darjeeling was still a British hill station. It winds it's way up the hill at a snail's pace, and takes seven hours to reach the city. The train allows you to take in the landscape as you climb higher into the hills and it becomes increasingly cold. As we got towards the end teenagers in their school uniforms would run up and hop on the train as it crawled by to get a ride to the next town. We found out after the by jeep the ride takes two hours. We are getting back to Siliguri by jeep.
North of Siliguri until you reach the Sikkim border the population changes noticably. People here are mostly of Nepali descent and refer to themselves as Gurkas. Darjeeling and Siliguri recently experienced some intense protests because there is a large movement that supports the creation of a seperate state or Gorkhaland. This would allow them to seperate themselves from West Bengal and control decisions about education policy, tourism, and improve their ability to compete for jobs. As I was sitting at the computer today a large protest walked by outside of people chanting for the creation of Gorkhaland. This is taking place in the midst of a large assembly of school children celebrating Ghandi's birthday and the loud music and lights that have been put up around the city for Durga Puja. It makes Darjeeling feel rather busy, but even this is far more relaxing than the majority of places in India.
Since we are in Darjeeling we made sure to visit a tea estate and went to high tea at a hotel that is way out of our price range. I have drunk more cups of tea than I normally consume in a month. The tea bushes are planted into the sides of the steep hills and are spread out over a few acres making them a very distinct part of the Darjeeling landscape. I learned all about how they make the tea and was told about the differences in quality, but in all honesty I don't think I have improved my abilities to recognize the difference between the expensive tea and the cheaper chai I get most places. I would still rather have a good cup of coffee.
In Darjeeling we organized a trek for six days in Sikkim. The area of west Sikkim we went to required two permits and a guide to get to, plus none of us are experienced campers wo it seemed best to go with a group. The trek took us to Dzongri, West Sikkim which is 4,100 m up and consists of a few trekkers hut and some buildings used by Yak herders during the summer. Our group consisted of seven of us, a couple from France, a couple from Germany, Meredith, Kara, and I. The couple from Germany were the only ones with trekking experience and we had been told that we would not need extra trekking equipment. As a result when we set out from Yuksom the first day for our 16 km route, I was in my running shoes and jeans. After lunch it began to rain and our steep ascent for the last few hours quickly became quite miserable as we made our way to the first stop in Tshoka. My jeans were soaked and I did not have any other long pants to replace them. Our trekkers hut was in a village of seven people, yes seven. The building had a few rooms and most of the windows were missing window panes so it didn't provide much protection from the cold. The first stop was over 2,000 meters up so it got quite cold that night.
The next morning after breakfast we set out and it quickly started to rain again. The increased altitude made us significantly slower, we only had 8km to go the second day, but we moved really slowly so it took us a while. By the time we reached Dzongri it was two in the afternoon. The running pants I was wearing did not provide very much warmth so by the time we arrived I was having a bit of trouble moving my lips and fingers. We all immediately changed and crawled into our sleeping bags for warmth. For the next 16 hours we pretty much ate and lay in our sleeping bags while we waited for the weather to clear up. It rained all night and the next morning the rained turned to snow. We were in Dzongri for the first snow of the year. It only lasted a few hours and then turned to freezing rain. This left me wondering if I would ever be able to leave my sleeping bag and our tiny room for the rest of our trek. Finally in the beginning of the afternoon we looked outside to see it had cleared up. We all ran outside and started wandering around the hills surrounding our camp. The views of the mountains were incredible. We could see Darjeeling but it was the last hill visible behind many other large peaks. That night the sky was perfectly clear and we could see the Milky Way and every other star, I felt like I was at the planetarium. I have never seen the sky that clearly at night.
Early the next morning we hiked up to a tall peak at 4 am to see the sun rise and view Mt. Kachenjunga. Then we packed up after breakfast and headed back down the mountain. It took us two more days to get back to Yuksom. We got back mid day and hopped in a shared jeep back to Darjeeling. There were several places we wanted to go afterwards but Durga Puja has resulted in all the buses and trains being booked as people travel to see family for the holiday. We managed to find a bus back to Kolkata and are spending our last few days here before heading to Nepal.
Kolkata is where the largest celebration of Durga Puja is. Every neighborhood erects huge statues of the god and decorates this shrine in bombastic looking palaces made out of cloth, lights, and bamboo polls. Some have amusement park rides for children in them among other ridiculous attractions. The pandals, as their called are up for about a week before the images of Durga are carried to the river and submerged in water. Right now everyone is spending their days doing last minute Durga Puja shopping. There are huge sales advertised above every shop giving puja disounts. Traffic jams are everywher, consisting of bright yellow ambassador taxis, rickshaws crammed with people and shopping bags hanging out the side, men pulling carts of goods or well dressed Indians, motor bikes, and tons of people bustling around the city. There are even lines for the ATM's! Sadly we will have left for Nepal before the last day, but we are making sure to visit the pandals and enjoy the massive durga puja buffets and thali meals all the restaraunts offer.