Sittong & Rishop Trip

by Eshan Kandar

22nd March, 2022

It was around 8 PM when we went for Sealdah station.. we reached there at 8:45 pm.. so, then I took my luggage, and my mom and dad took rest of the luggage then we walk towards the train but I noticed that the station is fully renovated then we walked back to our lobby S5. When I entered the train it was dark because the fuse was down.. Then at that moment Baban, Chandana aunty, Bappa kakai and Prasenjit kakai came. We got dissatisfied by seeing the dark compartment, at last the light came, we ate Misty-Sukh, Jolbhora misty and cakes. At 11 PM we fell asleep, the night was awesome. The breeze, the shaking train, my dream was awesome..

23rd March

5:45 AM, I woke up and looked outside but there was nothing to see as it was foggy outside, at last everyone woke up. I went for the brush and came back. Mom gave me two biscuits and I had them. Me and Baban went up and started writing our diaries. Then the coffee uncle came and gave us hot coffee. It was so hot that I couldn't hold it so I took my bandana off my neck and held it with bandana and had it. Now I am sitting and Baban is reading “Tinku's Summer Adventure” book.. That's all for now...

8:38 am

Now we are in Rangapani Station, a few minutes ago me and Baban were playing business. Now the train is on its way to NJP, we are going to reach our location in 15 minutes. The scenery was fantastic. There are many tea leaf crops.. There are few houses in between the big empty grounds...Now we are entering NJP. 

2:30 pm

JOURNEY TOWARDS SHITONG

Our train reached NJP at 9 AM. We took our luggage outside, then we started walking toward our car and then what, we found our car, put the luggage at the top of the car, our car started going towards the mountain road but the road was jammed so driver uncle took another road which took a long time, finally we saw the peak of a mountain and after few minutes we stopped in a restaurant named Chassum. Baban ate chicken momos and the rest of us ate Aloo Paratha. Then we reached our resort at 12:30 noon, the climbing road was like a snake but the driver-uncle was expert in driving so we reached safely. We took two rooms, one for our moms and us and one for dad's.. Now it is raining heavily, the weather is a little cold. The wind is cold, the rain is cold, the weather is also cold 🥶...

WEATHER OF SHITONG IS RAINY

 My mom is lying on the bed with a blanket cover and Chandana aunty is watching the outside scenery.. Our dads are in another room singing and playing guitar.. Now me and Baban are going to play Business because our moms fell asleep...

THE PHENOMENON OF SHITONG

After playing Business, Baban and I got bored and suddenly Chandana aunty called us to show us a beautiful phenomenon. It was wonderful the sun rays were falling on the valley..

Then we went down to take fern plants...baban picked some and then a doggy came.. 

THE MOUNTAIN DOG NAME GOLDY 

Me and Baban started playing with it, after playing we came back to our room, fell on the bed and started thinking about its name...Baban suggested the name Goldy which was very cute. We decided to call the dog Goldy....

 TREKKING IN MUDDY ROAD 

8:10 AM

It was around 4 PM when we went for a walk. On our way, me and Baban found an abandoned house, seeing that Baban got scared and pushed me in front of him, at last we went to the main road and Goldy also followed us. There was another doggy which was also cute and I named it Fluppy. We were standing in front of a tea shop, and my daddy asked an aunt , ``Is there any viewing spot for seeing the sunset with Kangchenjunga''. She told us about Ahaldara, then for our two dogs Goldy and Fluppy I bought a 10 Rs biscuit, and I and Baban gave the biscuits to them. Our parents took their tea and we started walking to another side. In the meantime our fathers took some pictures, our dogs were still following us. When we were coming home Baban fell down. When we reached our hotel, midway he again fell down.. then we went up and came to our room and got freshed, me and Baban played snake and ladder, ludo etc.. in the next room one uncle came and gave us Pakora and Tea..

PLAYING ANTAKSHARI

 We started playing Antakshari. Baban was in another room. While he was coming he got hurt by the bed. We will eat chicken kosha and roti.. We enjoyed ourselves a lot today.... 

24th March 

Today we woke up at 7 in the morning, I asked my mamma, ''Mamma, did you all see the sunrise?'' she said it was foggy from early morning.. Then me and Prasenjit kakai decided to go for a walk, so me and Baban got ready and went out for a walk...

GRAVEYARD VIEW IN MIDWAY

While we were walking, in our way I saw a graveyard there was two cemetery...so we again started walking at that moment a call came from Bappa kakai and he told “we will go after having breakfast ”..🤣🤣 We came to hotel and baban went to do potty....

12:28 noon

At 9 AM we went down to have our breakfast, the breakfast was Aloor Dum and Puri.. we ate it. They also served us sweets. It was fantastic.. Now a funniest thing happened 😝 I had got potty... I ate my breakfast as fast as I could, haa, finally I went to the potty..

WALKING TOWARDS THE VILLAGE

At 10 AM we started for a village. We planned to go yesterday only, but it was already 6PM so we couldn't go.. We walked for 20 minutes..

THE GENIUS MAN IN MOUNTAIN

 

While we were walking we found a big house, the house belongs to a genius man named Mr. Budhiman Roy.. We laughed a lot by seeing that name, we again started walking, we walked for 30 more minutes then we reached an open space. It was so beautiful there were many Giant rocks.

PHOTOSHOOT ON ROCKS

 Our dad started taking photos by sleeping on rocks.. Me and Baban got frustrated as they were not listening to us, only busy in photo shoots. So we started walking toward our hotel. It was too hot there..

TAKING REST ON ROCKS 

Me and Baban got tired after walking for 1 hour.. We went too far from them. We took rest in this hot sky the elders have no mercy for the kids except Prasenjit kakai.. finally after 2 hours 😠they came to us and we again started walking.. Finally we came back to our resort, me and Baban sat on a swing.. we waited for the elder frogs 🐸....at last after 45 minutes they came.. we went up and got fresh... Now the frogs are playing music and singing songs in another room.... The name frogs is given by Baban and me.. 

6:28 PM

It was around 4 PM when we started for Ahaldara. The road was like, the wave of the sea 🌊 Sometimes it was going up and sometimes down....after 20 minutes we reached in front of the gate.. there was a map..

MAP IN FRONT OF THE ENTRANCE

Bappa kakai went to buy tickets. After buying tickets we went inside and there was a big Cinchona farm…

THE LARGE CINCHONA FARM

I told, let's go inside it so that mosquitoes can't bite us.. they laughed at me and I also laughed 😆.. we started walking towards the top of the peak, there was a peak looked like Rabindranath Tagore..

RABINDRANATH TAGORE PEAK 

We found a hill which looked like Rabindranath Tagore’s face. It was amazing, we had some tea and watched the hill.. there was a dog whose tail was similar to Fluppy’s but it was not Fluppy.. We met an anonymous uncle, we had a conversation with him there. Today we walked 13 Km.. we came back to the hotel and now we are eating maggi and our dads are talking with the hotel manager.. We enjoyed a lot in Shitong, the service of the hotel was very nice, the hotel manager Mahesh uncle is very good and friendly...tomorrow we will leave Shitong and start our journey towards Rishop.. 

25 March 

8:20 am

 Today me and Baban woke up at 7:30 AM and Prasenjit kakai came and told us somewhere outside a Nepali song is going on and we have to find it just like Sherlock Holmes.. So we wore full sleeve dresses and went down, took our trekking sticks, went in search of the source of the song, we reached in front of a house, an uncle came out and asked us where we were going. Prasenjit kakai told him that we were searching for the song which was playing a few minutes ago. He told, it was a song from the Cobweb band. We came back to our room and I was the first to tell the name of the band Cobweb to everyone.

PICS IN SHITONG

3:25 PM

We left Shitong around 10 AM and midway we stopped and did a photoshoot. Actually, I was vomiting, that's why they stopped, then we again started our journey towards Rishop..

THE SNAKE ROAD

Our way was through a snake road, we traveled for 1 hour on that road, which ended at Barik..

DADS ORDERING CHICKEN CHOW MEIN

 After 2 hours we reached a place and ate chicken chow mein there also I vomited.. Hee hee...after eating we went out and drank cold drinks.. Baban said that he is also feeling like vomiting.. After a long journey we reached our homestay in Rishop.. me and Baban went up and thought the rooms in the top are ours. At that moment an uncle came and told us our room is downstairs. As usual me and Baban got frustrated and we went down. But we were wrong, the rooms are nice...

HEAVENLY FLOWERS IN RISHOP 

Today evening while we were going for a walk we saw a nursery of flowers. There were many unknown and awesome flowers but we can't take them because we have to give 500.Rs fine if we do so! We started walking in search of the main town but God didn't want us to go so small rain drops started dropping, our luck was so good that the rain stopped and my luck changed after a few minutes my leg got bent and I got hurt. Before that I got hurt in our room as well.. We came back, in the evening we went to the canteen and ate Chicken Pakora, Veg Pakora and Onion Pakora...we came back in our room, me and Baban played Ludo, Snake and Ladder and Trade. While we were playing, Chandana aunty rushed by screaming in the room...we asked what happened, she said a caterpillar is chasing her! Then Baban went out and smashed the creature like a hero..at 8 PM we went for dinner. An uncle served our dinner around 8:30 PM. It was Chapati and Chicken Kosha. We came home and now baban was reading his diary.. now he was going to do toilet and screamed like a tiger because there was a huge and fast spider 🕷 .. now we are going to sleep...

26th March

 Today we woke up at 7 AM.. we were feeling like not brushing as it was cold water.. Before going for breakfast I went to the potty, I came outside, we went for breakfast, and we got egg Maggie. After our breakfast baban went to potty, he came out and finally after a century and we started walking towards Lava (this is to inform that, Lava is not that hot lava, it’s a place) we walked for 1 hour and the most interesting thing there was a doggy, he followed us to Lava.. the road which I and Baban like is the road in between the pine trees 🌳 Finally we reached in the main road. While walking down my leg slipped and I was just going to fall but I balanced with my hand so I didn't fall.. After reaching Lava we found a restaurant. We were very hungry, so we went inside and ate rice with dal and a veg recipe… After eating we went to a temple in front of the restaurant, after visiting the temple we went to the market. most of the shops were closed as it was noon time.. I bought two figures of buddha. Chandana aunty gifted me a beautiful cup..

27th March 

Yesterday night me and Baban slept with Prasenjit kakai..Today we woke up at 7 AM. The water was very very cold, we went to do breakfast, after breakfast we took our luggages outside and checked out.. we sat inside the car. Our car started going towards NJP. We travelled for 1 or 2 hours and we stopped in front of a big tea garden..

IN TEA GARDEN

We stopped in front of a tea garden. Baban vomited there, and we entered the tea garden. It was very big as it covered a whole mountain.. me, Baban and Prasenjit Kakai went to a plain ground where we did a photoshoot, while I was coming, a spider climbed on my hand. When I saw it I threw it very far.. we again started our journey towards NJP..

Our car reached in front of a big restaurant, we went inside and there were many people eating.. we got a big table as we were 7 members.. We ate panir, fish curry and a mixed veg. As it was 2:30 PM we decided to visit Teesta Bridge/Dam one side was full of water and the other side was sand with little water. We decided to have some ice cream. We all ate mango ice-cream except Chandana aunty…then we went to the dry place. The sand was not quicksand but like that only.. my dad put his leg in it mistakenly and his leg went inside it and got wet, the same thing happened with Baban, Prasenjit kakai and Baban both opened their shoes and started walking on it. They were enjoying themselves a lot, then I also opened my shoes and started playing with them.. we collected some unique stones, I got two, one I gave to Chandana aunty and another to my mom.. finally Bappa kakai called us to go.. but we disagreed… After 30 more minutes we went up. There were many yummy yummy delicious fish fries.. It was very hot there, so I said that Shitong is the best place. Let's go there again, neither too cold nor too hot.. Finally we reached the NJP station. We will miss Shitong and Rishop.

9:00 PM

At 5 PM we reached the station. As it was 5 PM and our train was at 8 PM we had to wait somewhere, so our dads bought two big plastic sheets. We put our luggage beside us, suddenly Chandana aunty moved backward and got hit by a big luggage and fell down, then Bappa kakai pulled her back. At last we sat down on the plastic sheet. My mom bought a hand fan for Chandana aunty, Purba aunty and for herself. Around 7:30 PM, Baban’s aunt, uncle and his elder sister came. His elder sister gave me and Baban a box of chocomins.. Our biryani was already ordered. Bappa kakai told me how the delivery uncle will know where we are. Me and baban shared our ideas but it failed. Finally I suggested another idea and he said “very good it will work”.. it was 7:40 PM and our biriyani was still not delivered. My dad told us to go inside the station. He and Prasenjit kakai will wait, so we went towards our train.. It was around 8:55 PM and they didn’t come. After setting the luggage, Bappa kakai just went to find them. Both of them came back with biryani in hand.. At 9:30 PM everyone started eating biriyani. My plate was more clear than Baban's. Everyday Baban wins in eating and today I won. After eating only I fell asleep.

28th March

10:30 AM

Today we all woke up at 5:50 AM as our train was just going to reach Dum Dum station. None of us brushed that time. We only splashed water on our face. Our parents were busy taking luggages outside.. Finally at 6 AM our train reached Sealdah. We went down and started walking outside. Prasenjit kakai already booked an Ola cab. We reached outside the station where my dad ordered an Ola cab. The driver said that he was coming after a minute. When he was not coming, my dad called him many times but after that he had to cancel the trip. Same thing happened two times. Finally a cab got booked and that arrived. Prasenjit Kakai, Bappa Kakai, Chandana aunty and Baban went inside the ola. They said ‘bye’ and went. Finally our cab came. We reached home and our journey finished.

The End