This is about the time I lost track of what day it is… I was just living in the moment. I had no agenda, no plan, just being me in the Himalayas, sucking in the pure mountain air, drinking the finest chai in all of India. Each day was its own magical place and time. There were no expectations, or if there were, they were few and far between. We had made a few guesses about the trip but those were soon forgotten.
So we rose round 8ish, after sleeping in the softest bed yet. The mattress was at least 2 inches thick which is over double what we are familiar with. We had our breakfast of toast and fried eggs. Had some chai, packed our bags and headed out for the trek, the whole reason we came to Kolkata. Btw we were no longer in Kolkata at this point, but rather West Bengal.
Last night it rained, rather poured. There was still moisture on many of the leaves and puddles filled the pot hole ridden roads. After a solid 30 minutes of driving up winding roads through tea gardens, we reached a small village of about 15 houses scattered across a few km. The jeep parked, we got out and headed down the path. It was a stone/concrete path, not dirt and rocky like we would have guessed. The scenery was stunning. Pictures will have to explain this better. The view was breath taking really. The clouds and mist were covering parts of the mountains nearby. You could make out the step farming techniques the indigenous people use to grow rice paddy.
I was learning how to take shots of the waterfalls, to make them look silky and the white foam lapped over the rocks, but the light was too great and it burned several of my shots. Further down the path there was a larger river so I hopped off the train and headed down by the rocks to get a better shot. I took several and Simek joined me. Then I felt the first pinch. Felt like I got stung or bitten. I scatched my hip and felt nothing. Then I felt something crawling on my ankle, but didn’t see anything. Another pinch at the hip. I lifted my shirt and saw a tiny mabe inch long leech. So I quickly ripped him off and flicked the little thing off my finger. The I examined my hip. Nothing but a small scratch. Good. The I checked my boot. I had to leeches, bigger in size stuck onot my sock. Only one got a chance to just barely nick my skin. Samik didn’t get so lucky. He had two fully sucking his blood. On on his sock, that he ripped off causing his spck to turn red, onlay a small spot about the size of a quarter, tho. There was one on his calf, holding on for dear life. The one thing you don’t want to do is just rip them off. They have an anti coagulating agent in their mucus they ue to draw the blood out of you. That’s why they are used in surgeries with blood clots (thanks mom). They naturally will fall off and will seal up the wound with a coagulant so you don’t keep bleeding. Well that is if u don’t rip them off first. So we walked about a quarter mile and see this little yoga/massage/private therapy resort thing and the guy at the gate said rip it of with the knife. So I unsheathed my knife and he did. Blood came. And kept dripping. Not even tissue paper would stop it. This continued for the next 6hrs! that’s a lot of blood loss from one leech!
So we trekked back and had a snack of momo’s these fried onion stuffed dumplings that are boiled and served with a spicy chili sauce. So good. We had chai too. Fresh tea from the tea gardens is the best. I need to buy this stuff. We learned there are 2 types of tea in India. The kind from Dooars and the kind from Darjeerling. The kind from Dooars, where we are is the very tasteful but less aromatic type. The other is very aromatic, but last tasteful. Blending them is frowned upon.
We drove for a while more then got out again and trekked down this stone laden path which functioned as a road as well. The scenery was again stunning of the mountains. We hiked for about an hour and made it to a location called rocky island. More waterfalls. coolest pictures. Then it started raining so we retreated inside and had chai. About 8 cups, it rained for the next hour or 2 I kept taking pictures, playing with the lighting.
Finally when the rain lightened up we put on our rain gear, first time using it. It worked well the road was now a stream. Soo glad I bought water proof shoes. Mary Ellens got soaked and took about 4 days to dry out. We all got pretty wet, b ut it was so worth it. I working on taking motion blur photos as we were driving. It looks like we’re in a warp tunnel! Trekking was an awesome adventure. It’s hard to write about it tho. It was simply awesome. I will be back. I want to get to Everest base camp. It only takes about a week or so.
We went back, dried off. Had dinner and talked more about movies and hiking. I swear this guy was a cool dude, but the conversations were very limited.
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