"Go
at least once a year,to a place you've never been before"
-Dalai Lama
This saying by Dalai Lama takes me to nowhere but to a sphere of
unexpressed musings that I undertook as a person who travels less for a
purpose but a chance that is not to be missed in terms of travelling. The idea
of travelling gives me hopes of renewal and a sense of healing which of course
is a matter with many, yet there still remains a lot that is to be discovered
by me alone. And here I start with a journey I undertook not across seas but
far enough to take me away from the then state of my mind. It was the year
2016,I was just done with my finals(class 12),and luckily or by a chance I got
this beautiful opportunity to go for a vacation.
So,this place I was to visit was a tourist destination called Kanyam in
Ilam district of Nepal specifically known for it's lush tea gardens and picnic
spots. It is known as the queen of the eastern Nepal due to it's mesmerizing
beauty and is one of the top destinations for travellers around the world.
I alongwith my mother and siblings started our journey on
26th July 2016 on a Night Super at around 3 P.M from the centre counter at
Orang(,Assam,India) that took us to Siliguri(West Bengal) ,where we reached by
5AM in the morning. From Siliguri we booked another vehicle personally that
took us to Panitanki within 40 minutes from the point we started. Panitanki to
Dhulabari,Nepal via Mechinagar took us another half an hour where finally we
aborted. As we had relatives at Dhulabari, Nepal, we spent the night there and
finally the next morning we were all ready with energy and enthusiasm for a
journey of 3 hours jouney to Kanyam,IIam(our destination).
As we started off from Dhulabari , the temperature
plummeted by several notches and a cool breeze blew and touched us. The
scorching heat of July in Assam probably was a far thought now with what we
were experiencing on our way. In my previous trips to Darjeeling and Shillong we
had encountered a similar experience. The
reason I found Ilam to be more enchanting was that it was unexplored and
untouched by many.We booked a lodge there, where we kept our belongings and
went out for a walk after the evening tea. We came across the local hospital, tea
gardens, shops, Central jail and the famous Stone hill that gave us the view of
the whole city that glittered like dew drops in the early hours of a day. Our
second day involved a trip to Kanyam(the
most interesting part)amongst the beauty of heavenly tea gardens, chilling
climate, pine trees, horse-riding and much more. The place not just had beauty
but was also rich with culture. In such an affordable expense the warmth it
offered has led to a sizeable tourist inflow in the region. The dinner in IIam
was another unique experience,we were served with dishes mostly varieties of
spinach ,vegetable soup and pulses instead of non-veg dishes, but t was sumptuous
as any other expensive platter. The population there is almost 2.5 lakhs most
of whom were working people. The one thing I noticed about the people of that
place was that people were mostly busy, which
explains why Nepal is one of the highest tax paying countries of the world.
We
returned back the third day since we had to visit one of most the famous temple
of Nepal 'Pathivara' .The journey to this place was one of the most exciting
journeys which would forever be stched in the beautiful memories of my mind.
By Bishakha Bharadwaj
Ist Sem, Communication and Journalism
Gauhati University
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