Majestic… Misty… and sometimes Mysterious – that’s what mountain is to me.

Majestic, because of its greatness.

Misty, because of smoky clouds hovering over it.

Mysterious, because you never know what’s in store in its every bend.

The thought of exploring mountain vales simply excites me. And in India, it is none other than the Himalayas, which is synonymous to mountain.

It has been quite a long time that I have last visited the hills. It was the Queen of Hills, Darjeeling where I had been once when I was in school. The memories of the hill town are still vivid. Now I am a working woman who got busy with her 9 to 6 job. And in the monotony of everyday’s routine my mind often seeks escape from the bleak surrounding of concrete jungle. My eyes are thirsty for a glimpse of the mountain with its snow capped peaks turned golden in the soft morning sun; green slopes brightened with blooming rhododendron and rippling streams running down the picturesque valley.

Well, I am lucky to have found friends who think the same way as I do. What we needed was to sit together and decide where to go and when, because ‘leave’ is a very important factor especially for professionals working in private sector. Our timings had to match. Finally, ‘Sikkim’ was the unanimous choice. We settled with a beautiful place called Namchi in Sikkim while it took quite a few days to finalize the time, which is end of September, this year.

The next few days went in searching for hotels and trains and booking tickets. Then we had a lot of discussion about packing … what to take and what not. The excitement of traveling to a new place is not new to me. But this time it is doubled as I have actively took part in booking hotels and trains which was my father’s department when we traveled together with family.

Now that we have finished with all of the initial arrangements the only thing that remains is the ‘wait’… wait for the day we are going to board the train for Sikkim…wait for the time we reach our destination, Namchi … wait for the moment we set foot on the hills, once again. Waiting never seemed so exhilarating, desirable and fun!