After many days, we finally wake up to sunshine and clear skies in
Uttarey. Uttarey is a valley, so you cannot see Kanchenjunga from here even on
a clear day, just the local hills and mountains. But we can see clearly that
there is snow at the heights that we would have been. Whoa !! if we had
continued on the trek, we could have been stuck in snow. I can imagine journal
entries that read like “today we lost one of us to the cold, but we have to
move on so we take out our trowels and start digging ...and RIP….” J
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| Sunshine and clear skies over Uttarey.. but snow on the mountains |
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| Morning Tea, Courtesy Mona |
Venky is ready to leave and NB also takes off with him to
get dropped off in his village. Bummer that Venky had to leave back early. No
trip is the same without Venky… but work is work and a man’s got to do what a
man’s got to do. But before they left, I got NB to write down the lyrics of
‘Resham Firiri’ for us, so we can learn it properly. Nagesh is woken up just in
time for him to hand over his trekking shoes to NB, so he an hand them over to
the other NB as promised by Nagesh (when he noticed his torn shoes on the way
down from Barsey). Good ol’ Nagesh… true to his word.
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| NB, writing down the lyrics of 'Resham Firiri...' before he leaves |
Now Mona is restless and wants to go for a hike. So Mona,
Viji, Ron and I head out for a hike up the hill. Monozh had told me of a
Temple/Monastery up there in the hills and I wanted to check that out. So we
walk on our own and find it nestled up in the hills. We step in to find monks
doing their morning chanting and we just sit down there in the peace and quiet
and close our eyes. This is no sight-seeing visit to a Monastery… this is
seeing it at work. Nice. After a little while, we walk down, our minds at
peace. I even have a little chat with Ron about Religion, given that he has had
an exposure to 4 different religions in his life.
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| The hike up to the local Monastery |
Back at the cottage, Nagesh is reading Anuja’s palms and
starts to make some interesting predictions/recommendations. Anuja is clearly
hooked and Nagesh promises to continue at night. Piran’s local guide Dava is
now here. He is going to guide one of the cars today (the one that will leave
early with Nagesh, Kavita and Mrinal) . He grew up in the area and attended one
of the schools for local orphans and destitute children. He promises to take us
to see the school. Sikkim is a highly literate and very well governed state, of
course not enough employment here for all the people L
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| Nagesh's Palmistry 'Magic' begins... Mantriji becomes Panditji |
Now we are ready for a Yoga session under the views of the
hillside. Ron, Viji, Anuja and I setup ourselves on a small concrete platform, turn
inward and focus on Yoga for next 30 minutes. Some of them joints are still not
loose enough and it hurts, but I push on… then we settle down for breakfast.
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| Morning Yoga ends with Om chanting |
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| Working on my Journal before heading out |
Packed up and heading out to Pelling. We do stop for
pictures along the way. There is this waterfall on the way that we are able to
climb up to. Siddharth is all excited, and we are a little worried about that,
but we get great pictures.
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| The Waterfall |
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| And halfway up the waterfall, Siddharth is all excited |
We stop at this bakery for lunch (all profits go to
the same school for destitute children), eat local cabbage pizza and chocolate
croissants and hit Hotel Mt. Elgin (4 start hotel, part of the Oberoi chain). Finally,
someone (at the reception) asks us for a copy of our ILP. Whoops, but Piran has
left that at Pellin town with his luggage. We will show it tomorrow.
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| Lunch @ Lotus Bakery |
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| The lawns @ Hotel Elgin Mt. Pandim, Pelling |
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| Pelling, as seen from our hotel |
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| The lobby of Hotel Elgin Mt. Pandim |
This is at a great location on top of the hills; we have
views of Pelling town on the slopes. Its cloudy right now, but if the sky
clears up in the morning we should be able to get a view of some of the
Kanchenjunga mastiff. Fingers crossed. That would pretty much be our last
chance. The second car with Nagesh, Kavita and Mrinal also joins us here after
their visit to Kechiperi lake (we will do that tomorrow).
We drop our bags into the rooms and head out to visit the
famous Pemagatsye monastery in Pelling. Interestingly, beside our guide Dava,
we have two Buddhists in our group (Kavita and Anuja) who have been part of SGI
at some time in the past. Dava gives us a full tour of the Monastery telling us
as much as he can about the idols, the paintings and the art. The various
incarnations of Buddha. The scrolls, the masks and other items that are now a
small museum in the Monastery. How Mt. Kanchenjunga was asked to protect this
place and one of Buddha’s disciples who tried to cross over was prevented by
Kanchenjunga through snow and storms (yup, I know exactly how that must have
felt), though he prayed to Kanchenjunga and was allowed to cross over, while I
can’t say the same for us. In the upper room we saw the ‘Stairway to Heaven’…
an intricate artwork that apparently was based on someone’s vision (dream) and
was built by 2 people over 5 years. We see the monastic school in the same
place, and the little monks playing soccer using a shoe as a ball J (Soccer is huge in
this part of the country).
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| Pemagatsye Monastery |
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| Tibetan Buddhist Prayer flags on the path to the Monastery |
Finally, we head back to the hotel and order Chai and
Pakoras J Mouth
watering cheese pakoras and mixed veggie ones that are quickly vanquished.
Nagesh continues on his palm-reading… Minoti, Ron, Mukund, Viji all watch in
awe and wonder as Nagesh unravels there lives in front of them J (OK maybe I am
exaggerating a bit, but it was was quite extraordinary nevertheless). As it
threatens to get dark, Ron, Anu, Kavita, Nagesh and Mrinal all head out to do
some shopping, while the rest of us sit and chat in the lobby and the kids play
on their parents’ iPADs.
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| More Palm Reading by Pandit Nageshji |
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| Kavya on her Mom's IPAD (40th Birthday Gift from Dad) |
When shopping team returns, we all converge in Ron’s room
for drinks and order up some masala papad and masala peanuts. Immediately these
are big hits !! Specially for Kavya who is hanging around the vanishing
peanuts. After chatting for some time, we head down for buffet dinner. Palak Corn, Cauliflower, Paneer, Chicken and
rotis…ROTIs !! (rotis are a scarce commodity in Sikkim, where people mostly eat
rice… lots of rice) Everyone enjoys the food and we head back to Viji’s room to
spend time till midnight (so we can wish Minoti for her birthday). Nagesh reads
mine and Monika’s hands too. Now we are all read up… and fans of Nagesh the
palm reading, sunglass wearing, Russian looking Mantriji J
At midnight, we all wish Minoti and head out to sleep. Will
we get to see Kanchenjunga next morning ???
Dude.....thanks for the journaling. After all the hungama your wife created about noting exact times, still waiting for her journal and photos.
ReplyDeleteAlso.....I would love love to have the lyrics to the song she made up for the birthday celebration.