Hilley Versey (Barsey)

We choose to visit Varsey (Barsey) for a 4 day trip in January 2010 and after some googling we found that Mr. Adhir Pal has accomodational provision at Varsey and it is the only accommodation available at that location. We called Mr. Adhir Pal in his cell (9832005703 & ) and he planned the itinerary for our tour as:



Day 1 : Reach NJP. Travel to Okhrey and stay for that night. We intended to travel directly to Hilley, which is 11 kms from Okhrey. But Mr. Pal suggested the night stay at Okhrey was essential as both Hilley and Varsey is devoid of electricity. At Okhrey we would have the facility to recharge camera batteries and mobile batteries as electricity is not available in Hilley or Varsey.

Rate at Okhrey : Rs. 650 / head including fooding



Day 2 : Reach Hilley (11 kms) by car and then trek to Varsey (4 kms) through the Varsey Rhododendron Sanctuary and check-in to the Varsey lodge. Night stay at Varsey.



Day 3 : Spend the whole day at Varsey. Night stay at Varsey.



Day 4 : Leave for NJP after breakfast. Trek to Hilley and avail a cab to NJP from Hilley.





We were told to contact Mr. Jyoti (Mr. Pal's manager) at Okhrey who will arrange our tour as per the itinerary planned. We made the booking as per the plan and made the payment to Mr. Pal's SBI, Gangtok branch account via net banking.





The day before we began our journey from Kolkata we contacted Mr. Pal over phone. He told that that he had recently had a discussion with Jyoti (his manager, at Okhrey) and everything was fine and we would enjoy our stay at Varsey.



We started from Kolkata on 22nd Jan and reached Okhrey on 23rd Jan (late afternoon). We were all geared up for Varsey. Surprisingly we were told by Jyoti that it was not possible to stay at Varsey and sited the reason that the resort at Varsey was closed for last 20-25 days because the caretaker has gone away due to severe cold (the real story was something else !!!). We were told to stay at Okhrey for our entire tour and make a visit to Varsey and back in the same day. We were stunned and told him that we had a discussion with Mr. Pal the previous day and he did not intimate us anything regarding the scenario, rather he told that the stay at Varsey will be a lifetime experience. We contacted Mr. Pal and asked whether he was aware of the situation at Varsey. He told that the Varsey caretaker had closed the resort from yesterday only. Although according to Jyoti the resort was closed for the last 20-25 odd days and Mr. Pal was aware of the siatuation. We called Mr. Pal again and handed over the phone to Jyoti. They had a discussion in some local language which we could not make out. After the discussion, Jyoti unwillingly agreed to go to Hilley with us, the next morning, and try to arrange our stay at Varsey.



Next morning, Jyoti told us that the chance for our stay at Varsey was very little and kept on saying that we should cancel our thought of staying at Varsey. When asked for the reason he kept on giving some childish reasons. On insisting, he agreed to go and give it a try if he could manage the keys of the Varsey resort from the caretaker if he is available at Hilley.



On reaching Hilley, after half-an-hour drive, he talked with some local guys and told us that it will not be possible to stay at Varsey and we have to go back to Okhrey. Contacted Mr. Pal again. Jyoti had a discussion ( in some Hebrew language!!!) and disconnected the phone. We again rang Mr. Pal but he disconnected the line. Everything was so fishy and Jyoti appeared to be hiding something.



As a last resort, we talked to the local guys to find out the caretaker. The caretaker (khown as Bandhu locally) told us that he was not informed by Mr. Pal about our visit and there is no arrangement of food and water at Varsey. As Varsey is in midst of the jungle and the food supply needs to go from Hilley only. We requested him again and inquired about the situation. The first line he said was “Adhir Pal GADDAR hai !!!” and strongly denied our access to Varsey resort. He told that he was sorry for the behavior. According to him Mr. Pal's lease of the Varsey resort ended and now he is now the in-charge of the resort, and Mr. Pal used to send guests as an agent and get heavy commission. More importantly Mr. Pal had not paid anything to the caretaker (currently the lease holder) for the last 12 months or so and the outstanding amount sums up to round about 2 lac. According to him Mr. Pal takes the booking commission and digests the money. We inquired and all the locals had the same version and the word “Adhir Pal” followed with a slang. We travel to north-east frequently and never had encountered such hostile attitude from the local people. They all were cursing Mr. Pal (Jyoti was on the sport) and used harsh words to Jyoti also.



We decided to stay at Hilley. Mr. Allen Sherpa is the in-charge of the Varsey Rhododendron sanctuary and gives access to the sanctuary. He provided us a room (beside his own) to stay. Mr. Sherpa also told the same story of Mr. Pal.



We trekked to Varsey that day and as well as the next day morning to get the view of the mighty Kanchenjunga and kept of cursing Mr. Pal as we had to trek back to Hilley. At Varsey we realized what we missed by not being to able to stay there.





We left Hilley for Okhrey the next day. Bandhu (the present in-charge of Varsey resort) again apologized and told us that he had no other option. He told us to come again and gave his direct contact number (). One can directly contact him for the Varsey accommodation.



We had to stay that night at Okhrey (at Mr. Pal's resort, which is also in lease with him, so that we could recover the money paid in advance). We kept on repenting that the night stay (as well as the previous night) would have been at Varsey if Mr. Pal had kept his words.



Next morning we left for NJP with a heavy heart for not being able to spend time at Varsey, which was the call of the tour !!!