The motor-able road in the Himalayan region of west Sikkim ends at a small town Yaksom, which is situated at 1780m altitude and was the first capital of Sikkim. Yaksom means the meeting place of three Lamas, named after the three learned Lamas who consecrated the first Chogyal of the kingdom of Sikkim. This picturesque town in the middle of the ice caped mountains is a splendor to watch. The school in the back drop of the mountains with kids playing in the green meadow in front, a small police station, a post office, the forest office, wooden houses, a helipad, a football match between youngsters, few restaurants, shops with handicrafts on display, a trekking and mountaineering equipment rental shop, amicable people who look like a members of the same family, a Dubdi monastery - one of the oldest in Sikkim at an hours trek, the young and old monks in the monastery, the greenery and many small mountain streams around and on top of all, the kids enjoying their little games in the narrow lanes with an extra volt of smile.
Yaksom is a starting point for mountaineers and trekkers heading towards the Dzongri, Goechala or the Kanchenjunga base camp. We were headed towards Goechala which is 5050m high from sea level.
I should get to the topic of this post and procrastinate writing about Yaksom.
From Yaksom (1780m) to Tsoka (3050m) is a one full day trek, through lash green meadows, mountain streams, with uphill and downhill paths lined with conifers carpeted by leaves. Loosing the altitude gained during downhill was not among our happy moments of the day considering the target of the altitude we had. The rain which started even before we stopped for lunch continued till evening with little breaks in between forcing us to continue our trek irrespective of rain and leach. Luckily it was not a downpour and we could easily manage but it did affect our speed. All 6 of us were not able to keep the same pace and this resulted in covering the last stretch of our trek with torch light. After reaching Tsoka, our guide and porter managed to make us a quick dinner. After dinner, our plans for the next day was divided between two options, to spend a day in Tsoka for acclimatization and to continue next day till Dzongri. Finally we decided to rest and make decision in the morning.
Because of the rain previous day, the clouds had cleared and as soon as we woke up, the clear view of sunrise over Mt. Pandim together with paradise of mountainous region had hypnotized us. Without a second tough we all had decided to spend a day at Tsoka and explore the region.
Tsoka is a small settlement with few houses of Limbu people of eastern Nepal with a few houses, a monastery, a restaurant open during trekking season and a small shop where one can buy a last minute gloves or a extra pair to cope up with more colder days ahead. It is a last village on the route.
During preparation for the trek we had read about Tongba and our guide told us that its available in restaurant run by Lakpa Doma. Except our guide Rob who was from Yaksom, none of us (remaining 5) had acquired taste of alcohol. Like we have tried various other alcoholic beverage at different occasions we decided to taste Tongba which is prepared at home and consumed by whole family member to cope the cold.
Unlike other alcoholic beverage, the way Tongba was prepared and served in a unique way was an other exiting factor. Tongba is a millet based alcoholic beverage of the mountainous region of Nepal and the neighboring district of India. It is prepared by cooking and fermenting whole grain millet. The millet is then dried and stored under a roof for about six months. It is served in a container made of bamboo and traditionally called a Tongba. The fermented millet is put in a container and boiled water is poured in it to the brim. It is then left undisturbed for about five minutes. Once the five minutes has passed it is ready to drink. A a fine bamboo straw with a blind end, but perforated on the side to act as a filter, is inserted into the container to suck out the warm water and alcohol from the millet grains. More hot water is added as the Tongba becomes dry, and the process is repeated until the alcohol is exhausted.
After exploring the region around, giving time for one of our friend to pursue his pencil sketching, running behind Himalayan Magpie to get a decent close up shot of it we headed to taste Tongba. We ordered some Momo's, a kind of dumpling with cabbage and onion as filling for vegetable Momo (some what similar to kara kadubu made in Karnataka during ganesha chaturti). We asked the, all-in-all of the restaurant, Lakpa Doma for three Tongba among five of us. Our guide had already opted out for his favourite drink but was still with us to see our reactions after tasting the drink of his region. Lakpa Doma seemed reluctant to serve three for us she, in her language explained her concern to our guide. He summed up telling, she suggests you all to have one and try to finish it. We felt her concern was to avoid wasting the fermented millet grains over making extra bucks by selling more. We were impressed with the priority.
A bamboo container with fermented millet grains with a bamboo straw was served with a jar hot water mug. She poured hot water into the container and told us to start drinking after about 10 minutes. We patiently waited for 10 minutes, and I jumped in to be the first to taste.
A hot water which had reacted with the fermented millet grains when sucked through the bamboo straw was probably the best drink one can have at such cold and high altitude without a strong flavour of alcohol nor a bitter taste. It was like a energizing drink for those who try to muddle up in cold. The commercial energizing drinks like red bull may not stand close to it. The feeling was the same to all of us. The amazing thing was the servings, after finishing the liquid in the container, we were told to pour some more hot water to container and drink, we had four filling to the same container and still there was some flavor left by the time we thought we should head back.
We rested and started our trek the next day, in total nine days we were back in Yaksom reaching our destination Gochela via Phedang, Dzongri, Kockchrung, Tansingh, and Lamoli. We celebrated our successful expedition with a bath, heavy meal and good sleep.
The whole trek, the stretch with Rhododendron flowers - some stretches looked so colourful and felt as if it has been properly maintained, the view of Pandim, the whole range of Kangchenjunga, the Kabru and black kabru, Frey’s peak, Rothong, Samiti lake, the foot steps of snow lepords, an encounter with the wild yaks on the way.... still fresh in my memory.
