Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Bijanbari & Rammam -2


We set out for Rimbik in the trusted Mahindra jeep after having a nice breakfast at the I.B. The road was backbreaking. The jeepable road was curved on faces of steep slopes above deep gorges. We crossed the Rammam khola river by a very narrow hanging bridge. Few hours of bumpy ride took us to the Rammam hydel project I.B. It was just before lunch time. We secured our rooms and ordered our lunch. Waiting for lunch, we wandered nearby and took photographs of the river Rammam flowing through a deep gorge just below the bunglow. After almost an hour, lunch was served.
Continued our journey to Rimbick. Old memories kept on coming. Tried to compare the present Rimbick with the past. Visited Sherpa Hotel. It seemed more beautiful. Went to visit the home of Arup's co-worker.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Bijanbari & Rammam -1


Arup is now my closest friend at Darjeeling. He works as an assistsnt engineer at WBSEB, Darjeeling. He took me & Asis Biswas(Bank Babu) to a wonderful trip to Bijanbari, Rammam & Rimbick. We spent the two nights of the wonderful weekend at the Inspection Bunglows of Bijanbari & Rammam respectively. We started after saturday office on 14/10/2006. Three of us took a trip on a commander jeep service from Darjeeling to Bijanbari. In this journey we climbed down by a very nasty road along the hilly route on the hill facing the town of Darjeeling. We found that Bijanbari is at a much lower altitude than Darjeeling. Temperature is much warmer and comfortable. Arup's collegue and friend, Mr. Maity welcomed us there. He showed us the Incpection Bunglow(I.B.) which was our place of stay for the night. The I.B. was small but quite cosy and homely. Even at the late evening, Maity took us on a visit to the tiny Bijanbari hydel power plant. We went there in his official jeep. He also took us to the catchment area for the water which runs the power plant. It was a lovely place flanked by an orange orchard on one side and a steep hill on the other. The gushing water gleaming in the moonlight was a lovely sight.
Early next morning, we all went for a walk to have a glimpse of the surroundings. The I.B. appeared to be residing atop a ridge, flanked by mountain streams on both sides. The two streams meet to form a wider river after just a hundred feet or so. On the other bank of the left stream, a chilling plant of HIMUL milk and a trekkers' hut can be seen right from the bunglow ground. Firstly we searched the bazaar area and had hot tea and "nimki". We crossed the wider river by a hanging bridge and went to venture the other side. There was a big banyan tree on the other end of the bridge. Beyond the banyan tree, a stony path goes winding through tea plantation area. Lot of birds could be seen there.

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