Apr 10 - Day 6 - From Village to Village we go...

Day 6 - Trek: Kalijhar to Chittrey (7 Hours, 2850 m) Early morning trek to Phoktay Dara, a viewpoint with superb views of Kanchenjunga and Mount Everest. Watch the sunrise and enjoy the panoramic views. After breakfast we continue moving to Chittrey. Today our route runs along the Nepal border providing good views of the Nepalese villages on the other side.


After several days, we had finally slept in, waking up slowly at 7:30AM. I think some of the women are hung-over, and once again it pouring outside. I wonder if we will get to do some fun activity in Uttarey today or if we will be stuck indoors.
Slowly we pack up, shower, have breakfast and start to head out. Tonight we stay at Uttarey village, which is where we would have ended the trek. We have some final goodbyes with the great staff at the Chaya Taal Guest house (they even have a tri-fold brochure of their guest house with marketing messages and contact info). Group photos are taken, they garland us with traditional scarves, Nagesh hands out the balls and coloring material he had gotten for the children of the support staff. Finally we load up and head out.





Turns out that our driver Inder is the gentlemen who has adopted David/Daisy. We are relieved to hear that the dog is in good hands now. Suddenly the car stops. “What happened?” Piran asks. “Aren’t we going to see the Water Falls Park?” Monozh asks? “What park? Oh sure, lets do it”… Good call. This is a nice scenic place in the middle of nowhere. Waterfalls, a Buddhist temple with a prayer wheel and a little hindu temple after a climb up a neat hill. This was completely unexpected. We hang around in no hurry to move on, take pictures and enjoy ourselves. Finally we head out to the Cheese Factory that Piran had told us was on the way to Uttarey.



Driving up there, I ask NB and Monozh to sing for us. NB is shy, but then I ask him to teach us a song and now he is all excited to teach us “Resham Firiri…”

The Cheese factory is setup as a cooperative by the dairy farmers in Sikkim, in association with some Swiss company to make Gouda Cheese. Amul also markets their Gouda cheese. We check out their processing factory, do some cheese tasting and soon everyone is buying Gouda cheese to take back home. Then we are off for another drive through the mountains to Uttarey, stopping along the way at the 2nd highest suspension bridge in Asia (and 3rd highest in the world).





The cottages at Uttarey take us completely by surprise. Cute little cottages nestled away in the hills. We have room to each couple with hot running water and toilets. If we had done the trek, this would have been a luxury to end with J A cute dining area to boot, where we all get together for lunch. “The bandh in Siliguri is not going to be a big deal, its just a little Adivasi Bandh” Piran announces to our big relief “Mukund and the kids will be able to make it tonight to join us in Uttarey”

After lunch we take a walk down to the village and the market area. We are walking along the hillside, but on these slopes they have cardamom and potato farms as well as animal farms. Cows, goats, chicken  and pigs. The market is pretty small. This village is even smaller than Hee village. Idyllic little place. We hang around the market area for a bit and then head back to the guest houses, to settle down for Tea.





“I need some milk for the tea” Mona asks the kitchen staff… “No problem” says one of the guys… and promptly runs down to the village and gets 3 cups of fresh milk from the local cow J I am thinking I want a glass of this in the morning, until someone reminds me that I might not be able to handle the bacteria…”maybe I can put in a couple of Iodine tablets” I think aloud J… not happening. By the way, its our first night where we have been able to catch a view of the stars, I can actually see the Great Bear up there…



Soon tea turns to stronger drinks, but Nagesh has disappeared, nowhere to be found “He is contemplating” Ron insists, while others are worried. When Nagesh does reappear, he reappears as Mantriji and a phenomenal act of sunglasses wearing, Russian cap donning, Karunanidhi looking Mantriji follows in which he turns the warming in ‘Global Warming’ on its head. In the midst of this Mukund arrives with the kids and joins the party. Clearly we are becoming the noisiest group in town as we are asked to shush our loud voices and we go grab ourselves some dinner. After dinner, most of us crash for the night, while Mona, Minoti, Venky and Mrinal stay up chatting.

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