~~Trip to Mystique Land-Day 5 (part-2)~~

After taking pics with the Yak we stopped for lunch at Changu, there were lots of shops around and we went to a shop which was less crowded so that we can finish off the lunch quickly.We ordered two plates of Maggie noodles.While waiting for the food to arrive we were looking outside,there were minute particles of dust like thing falling on the ground. The girl in the shop told something like"ye mousam ke paheli barff".Since my hindi vocabulary is limited to around 100 words,I didn't get last word. Seeing me giving a blank ,so what look, she got disappointed. After few minutes when street was fully covered with white dust I got excited and asked her "is this snow".She gave me a "that's what I said look " and nodded her head. Once we got boiling hot noodles we tried to finish it as soon as possible so that we could enjoy sometime in snow.

We opened our cameras and were clicking non stop,wherever we turn around there was something beautiful to click in that white back drop. There was excitement all around.Even yaks and dogs seemed to enjoy the snow.Since our driver had literally threatened us to have lunch and return back as soon as possible we went to jeep half hearted. There we had the first conversation with the family who came from Bengal.

lady : We had come here around 10 times and this is the first time we are seeing snow"

Me(proudly): This is our first visit

lady: You are really lucky ,even people living in nearby areas who often visit these places wouldn't have experienced snow.

There I thought of this quote which I later commented in one of my pics "Good people bring rain but great people bring snow".

Once the driver came,we started our journey back to Gangtok , snow by the time had painted the entire stretch in pure white.What started with gentle snow flakes started pouring now,the whole road was covered with snow.We saw few kids playing in the snow one was taking a small kid in a sledge another one made a snow ball and threw it at jeep's window.The more we saw those people the more we wanted to be in snow and play.We pleaded with the driver to stop the vehicle for two minutes just to get down and take pictures but he was adamant saying that we need to reach before it gets dark and never know how heavy the snow will become. You can see a boy ready to throw snow at our jeep on the right side.

There are somethings which happens when you want to, even though the driver didn't want to stop the vehicle he had to do so at a place because of traffic getting blocked up in a place. I commented that "If driver can't nature can".The guy in the back commented that "We just asked for 2 minutes but given the situation I suppose we would be struck for two days".

But who cares what we wanted was to enjoy and play in the snow, without caring about anything we used that opportunity well. We got down grabbed snow flakes in the hand made balls and all sorts of non sense we could throw at each other.We took a lot of pictures relishing every moment of it.Still there was no movement in traffic. Its been more than a hour or so and it was getting dark.

Driver who went ahead and assessed the situation said that there is a steep upward slope for around 25 meters and whatever vehicles which goes up gets skidded back due to snow. The way is too narrow at a given time only one vehicle can go up with one side you have rocky mountains and other side its frightening bottomless valley.We asked what we are going to do he confidently replied saying that his vehicle is a wonderful Mahindra Maxx which wouldn't let us down. But at that moment nothing was moving forward as no vehicle had the guts to climb up in that narrow stretch.

Then came our saviours two people from the army. They didn't have any modern equipment which would help in clearing the snow. All they carried with them was a stick with a red flag tied at one end.One by one the vehicles started moving via the slope ,since it got dark we couldn't see how the vehicles were moving up.There were few vehicles like Qualis and Scorpio which couldn't make up that 25 meter slope and got struck there.Given this scenario our ultimate moment came,our turn,the road was open for our vehicle to move up, the army personal gave his thumbs up. Everybody in our vehicles kept our fingers crossed. Our poor driver after a small prayer started the ignition,put on the 1st gear and pressed the acceleration on full throttle mode.

We were on the way gliding up on the slope ,so far so good , 5 m.... 10m......15m........ When we were all thinking we are about to make it ,our vehicle stopped then skidded and tumbled backwards,my heart stopped for a second. No more acceleration proved useful and the only way the vehicle was moving was in the reverse direction,with one side having a dark valley.The driver shouted at us to stop the vehicle(!),all the people except for the two kids got out the vehicle and stopped it from moving further down.We were like Hercules holding the jeep (ok group of Hercules).All this in the heavy snow. The other army personal came to our rescue he took a piece of rock nearby and placed at the back tyre which stopped it from moving further down. Then along with him we pushed our vehicle up. For every few meters the vehicle moved up the army personal placed the rock behind the tyres. Slowly we pushed forward. What a 2523CC Mahindra Maxx engine cant do we the people did, pushed the vehicle over the 10 meter stretch ably guided by the army personal . Team work really pays! Below pic you can how deep the valley is on other side.

That reminded me of a master card moment , travelling to Sikkim costs 6500 rs ,travelling in the jeep to Natu La costs 650 rs but the adventure we had -getting struck in the snow and got rescued by the army people...its PRICELESS. When we thanked the army person he asked where we are from we said Chennai he replied back "Naan koda Vellore than". He wasn't proud as if he had done a great job but for us he was like an angel from the skies helping us.The respect I had in army personal grew 10 folds.They are the real heroes who apart from guarding the nation, building roads and infrastructure at those difficult terrains, help people without any expectations. Only when we see them at work we come to know of the sacrifices they make to make our life easy.Once we crossed that barrier it was slow journey back to Gangtok,no one spoke in the jeep all of them praying that we should reach safely.

We reached Gangtok after a 2 hour ride.Once we got down we ordered two tomato soups to refresh ourselves.There was India Srilanka match played at Eden Gardens, India was chasing a huge total with Sachin and Sehwag gone early we never had hopes and switched it off . We went out for a walk,explored places like lal bazaar but we didnt shop anything as we had a whole day left. For dinner we stopped at Parivar a vegetarian restaurant in MG Mart.The food was really great there. Once we were back the match was headed to a exciting finish,the room boy joined us,he was a funny fellow who got excited at each ball delivered and giving his suggestions on how we should wrap up the match.When he asked how was the trip I forgot what to say for snow in hindi I said buff blush and finally he got it and asked is it Barf.

After India won the match I crashed on the bed ,never knowing I m going to see and pet a new animal the next day.

Click here to read KG's Version

click here to read Day-6

(to be cont)