The anxiety in me started from the time we left Bangalore and it kept on increasing till we landed at Bagdogra airport. We had a long trek ahead of us to Sandakphu, but before that we had planned to go to Pelling, Sikkim. Twice we tried booking taxi online and both the times it was cancelled due to non-availability. We landed at the airport thinking that we will have to hire one from the airport itself. We were lucky that with initial search we got a cab within our budget- Toyota etios liva - Just sufficient for 4 of us and we started our drive towards Pelling.
Pelling is a small town and existing just because of the closeup view of the great Kangchenjunga. I had never been a mountain person nor put my thought on going to a trip just to see these mountains. From the time we had planned this trip , the thought of seeing these peaks came again and again. My eagerness, interest and the willingness to see the mighty mountains increases as days passed by.
It turned to be a really torturous journey to reach Pelling. We had hoped to reach before evening , but as we drove along we just hoped that we reach there before sunset. By the time we reached the hotel at pelling, we were already late and it was getting dark after sunset. The entire area was cloudy. Still with slight hope we pulled out or cameras and triopod hoping that we might get a clear shot just incase.Sadly that never happened.
I took a few compositions of clouds and also took a shot in the direction of where the peak is assumed to be. Never thought it would be a really worth a shot but after processing i felt the photo turned out to be nice. There was small patches where i could see some snow capped mountains....
Disappointed though and at the same time the hope of clear view of sunrise did not let us down. We packed the cameras and tripod for the day and did not expect anything dramatic for the night.
The evening started getting cold and we orderd soup. Waiting for the soup and chatting at the balcony of the dining area, we glanced and hoped for good stars at night. We started seeing the moon which let us down for a brief period as the stars would start to vanish.
It was about dinner time when our enegry levels changed drastically....We spotted something white color in the direction of the mountains....
" Is it cloud...No its the mountain....No is it ???? " This kept on going for few minutes till we finally realized and got really exicited to see the peak glowing in the moon light.
The Moon lit kangchenjunga - That was the treat for us and a great present by the Buddha himeself for the disappointing day till then.
It was around dinner time and soon cameras and tripod also came out.
After the dinner i had a very good photo shoot of the peak.
We initially searched which was the summit but it was resonally clear. The Ridge line of Kangchenjunga was supposed to be famous which leads to the summit.
Later we found out that the actual summit is just behind the peak which is seen from Pelling, if we notice we can see a small point just to the left of the peak.
With this out hopes of an early morning sunrise view increased and we were excited to wakeup by 4:30AM.
The Moon lit peak was still shining.
Lord Buddha did bless us with clear views.Tripods and camera out, I did not have to search much for the real composition. I just wanted to see the peak glowing gold during sunrise and my eyes were fixed on just that spot. We came back to the discusson few times on which exactly is the summit and all the time we ended in pointing the ridge line leading to the peak.....
The view was just a amazing, it just transforms us into a different level of consciousness and forgeting everything else for that moment.
My Video on this visit below.
With this, it was time for us to leave pelling thinking about the ride back and the long trek ahead for next one week.
Pelling is a small town and existing just because of the closeup view of the great Kangchenjunga. I had never been a mountain person nor put my thought on going to a trip just to see these mountains. From the time we had planned this trip , the thought of seeing these peaks came again and again. My eagerness, interest and the willingness to see the mighty mountains increases as days passed by.
It turned to be a really torturous journey to reach Pelling. We had hoped to reach before evening , but as we drove along we just hoped that we reach there before sunset. By the time we reached the hotel at pelling, we were already late and it was getting dark after sunset. The entire area was cloudy. Still with slight hope we pulled out or cameras and triopod hoping that we might get a clear shot just incase.Sadly that never happened.
I took a few compositions of clouds and also took a shot in the direction of where the peak is assumed to be. Never thought it would be a really worth a shot but after processing i felt the photo turned out to be nice. There was small patches where i could see some snow capped mountains....
 |
| Closer look will reveal the mountains behind the clouds |
 |
| Composition of clouds after sunset |
The evening started getting cold and we orderd soup. Waiting for the soup and chatting at the balcony of the dining area, we glanced and hoped for good stars at night. We started seeing the moon which let us down for a brief period as the stars would start to vanish.
It was about dinner time when our enegry levels changed drastically....We spotted something white color in the direction of the mountains....
" Is it cloud...No its the mountain....No is it ???? " This kept on going for few minutes till we finally realized and got really exicited to see the peak glowing in the moon light.
The Moon lit kangchenjunga - That was the treat for us and a great present by the Buddha himeself for the disappointing day till then.
It was around dinner time and soon cameras and tripod also came out.
After the dinner i had a very good photo shoot of the peak.
We initially searched which was the summit but it was resonally clear. The Ridge line of Kangchenjunga was supposed to be famous which leads to the summit.
 |
| Moon lit Kangchenjunga |
 |
| The Mountain Glows while the towns started to sleep |
With this out hopes of an early morning sunrise view increased and we were excited to wakeup by 4:30AM.
The Moon lit peak was still shining.
Lord Buddha did bless us with clear views.Tripods and camera out, I did not have to search much for the real composition. I just wanted to see the peak glowing gold during sunrise and my eyes were fixed on just that spot. We came back to the discusson few times on which exactly is the summit and all the time we ended in pointing the ridge line leading to the peak.....
 |
| The Glow before the sunrise |
 | |
| First light on the summit. |
The actual summut is just to the left of the peak as seen in the pucture
 |
| The Buddha transformed from moon lit white to golden |
My Video on this visit below.
With this, it was time for us to leave pelling thinking about the ride back and the long trek ahead for next one week.
1 comment:
Hii Praveen, Beautiful place to see KANCHENJUNGA mountain i happened to see on behalf of you. I am very thankful to you. Veeramony
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