The next day we planned to visit Jaldhaka, Jholong, Bindu, Samsing and Suntalay Khola in the first half of the day and Chapramari National Forest in the second half.
Jaldhaka, Jholong and Bindu are small hamlets up in the hills on way to Bhutan. In fact, after reaching Jaldhaka Hydel Project (under WBSEB), we even walked up to Bhutan's border villages. To us, it all looked the same -- same food, same clothes and they also speak Bangla and Hindi. Like us, they love Amitabh and Shah Rukh which kept me guessing -- is Bollywood our best ambassador?
To protect themselves from the chilling cold, folks in the mountains around here eat chocolate made from yak's milk. It's chewy and is meant to last long in your mouth.
On our journey down from the mountains, we took a detour to the tea plantations and a quiet nature's camp huddled in a small valley, named Suntalay khola. The resort was suitably named Nature Wilderness Camp.
Since it was winter, the tea plucking was over. Some of the tea gardens were being pruned for the next season. The locals told us about the
tea estate's sprawling bungalows and colonial lifestyle, complete with a
butler and wooden interiors (even in the bathroom -- which they refer to as
the restroom).
Text: Aniruddha Sen
Photograph: Aniruddha Sen
Also read: Where tigers rest in your lap
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