BPD: Day One Doldrums

(BackPack Diary: Day One Doldrums, 18 Apr '15)

The onward flight to Bagdogra from Hyderabad had time flying past real quick, inspite of the 2 hour stop-over at Kolkata. I was catching up with some much needed sleep at every possible opportunity, to make up for the complete night-out over the previous day. On Friday night, by the time I had cleared the work backlog (just about to make way for the 2-week trip), and did the packing (I've not yet outgrown the thrill of last minute packing), it was morning and already time to leave for the airport.

Once I landed at the Bagdogra airport and collected the luggage, there was a mini-anxiety attack - there I was all alone, with no plan of where to go next, or what to do. As the small-town airport became empty with the last bunch of travellers departing, even the touts grew less interested, looking at my blank face. I finally gathered myself and walked some distance outside the airport, to board an auto that was going to Siliguri, the nearest town. Giving me company was a family of 6 along with their dog, who were on their way to a weekend vacation at Gangtok, from Bagdogra.

Over a plate of traditional Sikkimese thali lunch at a small family run hotel, I decided to travel next to Darjeeling. I had wanted to visit the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI) and moreover, Darjeeling was a popular spot amongst backpackers, giving opportunity to get a list of other offbeat locales to visit.

Hike up to Youth Hostel, Darjeeling

The 2-hour ride to Darjeeling was engaging, on what to expect and what to do in the city, with a cheerful & chatty taxi driver from Sikkim, a set of students from Kolkata traveling for the weekend and an aged lady returning from her daughter's home. Upon reaching Darjeeling, I hiked up the hill, in search of the Tenzing Norgay Youth hostel, something that I had heard about earlier. The 3 km hike proved futile, for the place was dilapidated, needed some government clearance to stay and further didn't have any travelers. Instead I booked a room in a nearby youth hostel, which seemed to have a flurry of activity with travelers moving around.

Before calling it a day, I planned to take a brisk walk in Chowrasta, the famed hangout spot in Darjeeling. While walking past hordes of tourists bargaining in the shops and other travelers chatting up in the streets, I had a second attack of anxiety within the day, as if questioning what in the world was I doing there all alone and seemingly lost!

I had heard about most solo backpackers taking a while, and at times a full week to come to terms with the situation, and consoled myself to be alright sooner. With a quick dinner of Nepali soup, rice and dum aloo at a couple-run restaurant, I went to bed, with no alarm for the next day, no local sightseeing ideas and only a plan to 'sleep-as-much-and-as-longer-as-you-can' night! After all, its a vacation and this was just the first day of it.

BPD: Some Backpacking ground Rules

(BackPack Diary: Some Backpacking ground Rules)

As I set on this journey, I had set myself certain basic, ground rules to follow:

1. Stay: at youth hostels, home-stays or guest houses, in that order of priority.
2. Travel: by shared modes like buses, taxis and auto.
3. Eat: the local cuisine, and preferably at home-stays or home-cum-restaurant kind of setups.
4. Interact: as much as feasible with other people.
5. Observe: the local culture & customs and avoid the tourist circuit as much as possible. Its okay not to visit any 'recommended' spot.
6. Don't Buy: any memorabilia, curio or trinkets to avoid adding further weight to the 15kg backpack that I had set out with.

All the above create opportunities to interact with other travellers or locals, ensure acclimatization, apart from going easy on the pocket. Many of these also needed some tuning-out of the typical city-mode of persona, which was also a desirable thing to do, even beyond the trip.

BPD: Why Backpack solo?

(BackPack Diary: Why Backpack solo?)

Ever since I 'planned' this trip, the 2 questions I've had to answer almost everyone were 'Why backpack?' and 'Why a trip alone?' Let me try and answer this here, for posterity and for quick redirection of future questions to this blog.

I had always wanted to backpack, after all the years of hiking, trekking and visiting places on other modes of travel. While traveling and on other 'touristy' trips with friends or family there was always an intent to get to understand the place and the people better, rather than criss-cross 6 or 9 defined points to tick-off the must-see spots within a day. Backpacking provides just this platform to let one explore places without the compunction of having to 'cover' many, or even any tourist spot. When all you have to move around with is a backpack, you can move with ease, stay anywhere and pause enough to, as they say, 'smell the roses'!

Going solo was a tough, but an interesting decision. One of the inspirations was my friend Prakash Jha, who shared wonderful experiences from his solo trip over a much longer duration. Another friend, Jai Govind who had also trekked solo for months before founding his adventure travel company, helped finalize the decision. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed convincing - a Freedom to explore at one's own pace, Experiment a completely non-planned trip that wouldn't be possible in a group and finally do some Introspection, which has become such a tough thing to do in our fast-paced daily lives. 

For those still not very convinced, the documentary, 'A map for Saturday' is a good starting point. For this trip, all the planning that I had done was just to choose the region to backpack and decide the drop-off/return destination. Based on weather considerations at this time of the year, Sikkim-Bhutan seemed to be a good option with a beautiful landscape that was pristine & relatively less 'touristy'. So, the drop off point was decided as Bagdogra, bordering Sikkim, in West Bengal. To keep options open I planned the return leg of my journey from Kolkata. With nothing planned in between I had all of 2 weeks to explore, and decide moves by the hour.

PS: Trip experiences follow in the upcoming posts. Here are some Himalayan trek operators to check out: RenokAdventures, TrekTheHimalayas, Moxtain.

Backpack Diary - A Journey begins

In the wee hours of 18th April, I was navigating the check-in counters at the Hyderabad airport. It was a nice feeling to be taking an early morning flight sans formals, laptop and business luggage, something that had become too routine of late. I could see some curiosity in the half asleep eyes of my fellow passengers, at 5am. I was feeling lighter and relaxed in my casuals and floaters, inspite of a heavy backpack around my shoulders and a previous night spent without any sleep.

I was finally on, with my solo backpacking trip ! I was excited and really looking forward to my journey across the mountains and valleys of the Eastern Himalayan region. I had a fortnight to explore the places, interact with the locals, chat up with other backpackers and spend some quality time with myself, without the hustle and bustle of city life, rut of  daily routine or neck-deep work commitments.

I will keep posting experiences, pictures and learning from my maiden solo trip here, whenever I traverse the connectivity of civilisation!

Edit: The complete journey's picture-blog has been compiled here, as an index:

• 1: Why Backpack solo?
• 2: Some Backpacking ground Rules
• 3: Day One Doldrums
• 4: The Darjeeling Diary
• 5: Tribal Home stay in West Sikkim
• 6: Hiking a leech-infested mountain!
• 7: Pelling's wish-fulfilling lake!
• 8: Alone, atop a mountain!
• 9: Zuluk, a magical village in East Sikkim
• 10: Re-tracing the anicent Silk Route
• 11: Bhutan beckons!
• 12: On a very Scenic National Highway
• 13: Life in Bhutan: An executive summary
• 14: Thimphu, the Capital city
• 15: A day in the Monk's hut!
• 16: Paro, a Paradise on Earth
• 17: Scaling the Tiger's Nest
• 18: Back on the Indian border
• 19: Culmination at Kolkata

• ..and, the full route map of my trip