Excuse Me While I Kiss The Sky...

The third and final chapter of Andrea and Enddy's Amazing Race begins on a quite chilly Friday morning. As I mentioned in the last blog, we had organized a "team" of people to help us reach the village of Sandakphu (on the border of India and Nepal) where we could see both Mt. Everest and Kanchenjunga in the same shot. We left at 7am and made the journey to Maneybhanjang by car. Upon arrival, we paid the entrance fee into Singalila National Park. From there, we began our climb up, up, up.....the first stop (about 1.5 miles in) was an old monastery that was worthy of a stop. The one image that will always stay with me about Darjeeling and the surrounding area is all the Tibetan prayer flags that fly high in the mountains. Just outside of the monastery, we stopped at a small "home" and had tea with some monks who were watching cricket on the television. No, I am not making this up.
After we finished tea, we went outside to meet our guide and the two drivers that would help us out for the next two days. The Singalila Ridge is impossibly steep and a Land Rover (Defender) is pretty much the only thing that can make the journey up. I am not sure I would trust the average 4-wheel drive on this range. Since Andrea and I had chosen to go all the way to Sandakphu in only two days, it was imperative that we spend a lot of our time driving as well. There was too much ground to cover in a short time. We piled into the Defender and away we went. Throughout the day, we alternated between driving and trekking. We stopped at many small villages along the way weaving in and out of Nepal and India. Sometimes we were in Nepal (for lunch and our overnight stay) and sometimes we were in India. Heck, sometimes, I was in India and Andrea was in Nepal and vice versa (clever, aren't we?) We had our passports handy as we had many check points along the way.
Throughout the day, we say many beautiful sites, prayer flags flying high, temples, monasteries, yaks, mountain goats, but mostly small village after small village in both India and Nepal. Ironically enough, the Himalayan range was all around us, but the cloud cover was so heavy that you couldn't see anything. Those Himalayas are quite elusive, I am telling you. As night was approaching we had to hurry to reach Sandakphu. No one wants to be driving up this pass after the sun goes down. It was scary enough during the day. There were hairpin turns that the Defender couldn't make in one shot. We would have to stop, back up, turn a little more, stop again, etc. One false move and over the side it was. There were some truly heart-pounding moments. So scary. Thanks SO much to our very skilled driver.
At around 6pm, we reached Sandakphu (about 11,900 feet in altitude). Sandakphu is considered to be the highest point in West Bengal, and also, according to our sources, the only place in the world to see Mt. Everest in Nepal, Kanchenjunga in Sikkim, and Chomalhari in Bhutan at the same time. Sandakphu is right on the border of India and Nepal so there is a large Indian border patrol camp there. Our "cabin" happened to be in Nepal and the family we spent the night with was also Nepali. There were some other tourists there, mostly German, who were staying in another bunk across the way. There is no heat in any of the cabins so we spent the rest of the evening in the very tiny Nepali kitchen watching "mom" and sometimes "dad" cook amazing treats for us on the coal burning "stove." Their son was home from college which really helped out with the language barrier. We also had to try Thongba, or Tibetian beer. Yeast and barley are fermented in these small wooden mug-like things for months at a time. When it is ready, millet and warm water (and some other stuff, I guess??) are added to make this sort of beer, which, in my opinion, doesn't really taste like beer, more like some sort of cider/wine....anyway, it is slurped up through a bamboo straw and took the chill off!
After dinner, we went to our freezing "bedroom" to crash. It was cold. Darn cold. I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I remember is Andrea screaming, "you can see them, you can see them!!" as she was running out the door (it was 5am btw). I jumped up out of bed and I ran out after her. Sure enough, for the first time in days, the mighty mountains showed themselves. I was STUNNED. Few moments in my life have moved me to tears, this was one of them. It was amazing. Weary trekkers spilled out of cabins wrapped in blankets. We all scrambled to climb to the top of the Sandakphu Ridge to watch the sun come up, Mt. Everest to our left, Kanchenjunga to our right. It was amazing. From one spot, we could see Nepal, India, Bhutan, and Sikkim. We were so lucky to have seen the mountain range that morning. Many people come and wait for days at a time and never catch a glimpse of the mountains at all. I am telling you, for being so massive, they hide well.
After the sun rose and we had our fill of gazing, we headed down from the hilltop and sipped yak-milk tea while "mom" made us homemade Tibetan skillet bread and porridge. After breakfast, we began our trek back down to Maneybhanjang, and ultimately Darjeeling. During the climb down, the sky was clear and the Himalayas loomed over us all day and just as we reached the bottom, the clouds started to roll in, and slowly they disappeared once more.