happyfeet

When we first met, our conversation meandered towards trekking at least once, when Raj mentioned that he liked it and we should do it. Once married, our first vacation turned out to be a long walk in a dense forest in Coonoor. Among the hills, between the bisons, and the intermittent rain, we walked to the edge of the cliff, reaching a machan, waiting on it, in search of the pachyderm. Long walks marked this vacation, the beginning of a new chapter in our life. Fast forward a few months, and there we were, in another long walk, on another winding road, amidst dense greenery, the ruins of an ancient empire, with small chirps from exotic birds marking the dusk. The silhouette of Kanchendzonga, popping up ever so often when we could see beyond the dense tree line. Pelling (the town), a small afternoon tea at a quaint shop overlooking the mighty Kanchendzonga, we got into a conversation with a person who turned out to be a local trek guide and explained in detail a...