So much seems to happen in one day, I forget things and one thing I forgot to mention is that I saw a landslide! Or at least a secondary slip! They don’t happen much in the dry season. It was big, quick and left clouds of dust, a whole strip of earth, rocks, trees and vegetation slid down the hillside. I just managed to capture one picture through the window of the car! I glad I wasn’t anywhere nearby, that’s a terrifying thought.
Going back to the hotel in Pelling with the splendid veiw. I managed to wake at dawn and watch the sun rise on Mount Kanchenjunga from my bed! It’s just as well because the room was freezing. However it was mesmerising and a privilege.
After breakfast the staff wanted to make a video of me speaking Nepali! Apparently I speak “respectfully and well”, although I suspect that could be translated as “old fashioned and formal”. It was quite a challenge to remember any Nepali at all when the camera was pointing at me.
Kansar and I set off for Khecheopalri Lake. This is sacred place to Hindhu and Buddhist. It’s apparently supposed to a have wish fulfilling ability. I didn’t know this at the time so I hope I wasn’t wishing frivolously ( you know the type of thing…. in my case, I wish for a cup of tea with cold milk or a cheese salad sandwich with pickle please).
This lake was formed out of a glacier, that guouged out the bowl it sits in. I wandered up to the completely silent waters edge. There was not a soul around and it was very peaceful. I decided I would walk up to the Rinpoche cave. Rinpoche or ‘Precious One’ usually means a priest not Gollums ring! The lake views were lovely, it is nestled in a sort of cup of wooded hills.
Unfortunately the cave was occupied by a monk( I presume) and so I quietly wandered back to the water that was now being visited by a host of noisy children! Peace shattered we went on our way.
Stopping at various waterfalls we made our way out of Sikkim into West Bengal and to Darjeeling. The drive took us through so dark pine forests, bamboo and dense jungle, interspersed with tea plantations. This was all really quite beautiful.
Darjeeling! Oh what a disappointment that town is! I don’t quite know what I thought it would be like but I thought it would be colonial and beautiful. It really wasn’t! It was dirty and dusty, modern buildings with very little thought to any heritage or history. There is the famous rail track but, that seemed to be about all and it follows the route of a main road and while it might get the odd nice view it didn’t tempt me one bit.
Part of my tour included a very early start (3am) to Tiger Hill (2500m) to watch the sun rise. I was rather bemused by this as hundreds of people turned up, mostly Asian. It was freezing and the coffee sellers were doing a roaring trade. I had one and it came in a little earthenware cup ( duck egg cup size), at first I thought it was cardboard because it felt light and strange. After your drink your supposed just throw away, it’s better than plastic it will break down. It seemed such a shame so I kept mine much to Kansar’s astonishment, I would have had his too if he hadn’t already chucked it.
I think I’d been rather spoilt at Pelling (of up-grade fame) because nothing could top that veiw of the mountains. Although it’s lovely to see a sunrise and the whole Kanchenjunga range, the Sun took her time and I would rather have had the extra time in bed and kept my feet warm. Anyway I waited until she rose and the crowd let out a big cheer then I rushed back to the warmth of the car. It was completely gridlocked for about an hour as all the vans, cans and motorbikes descended along the lane from the hill top! Madness!
I had a day in Darjeeling and visited the Zoo which houses a couple of museums. So for the astronomical sum of about £1.80 I was able to visit The Himalayan Mountaineering Institute and the Natural History Museum and the Zoo.
The mountaineering museum was very interesting and really promoted pioneering asia women climbers as well as the history of climbing. One person that wasn’t mentioned probably because she wasn’t Asian, Wanda Rutkiewicz the first woman to Climb K2, a Polish climber who disappeared on Kanchenjunga in 1992. Climbing mountains is not for me, I can’t even tolerate a cold hotel!
What I did find interesting, although the whole range of the Himalayas has some extraordinary high peaks dotted along it, the foothill topography viewed in map shows it becoming more and more densely crumpled as you go East (Sikkim and Bhutan). This may account for the different climate here.
The Natural History Museum was not my thing, full of very old stuffed animals and the Zoo also not really my thing but, all the animals are natives of the region and they all looked in good condition. They had a Black Pantha, a proper Bagheera and Red Panda!
The main interest here was the trees, they were all named and with the botanical names, I could work out that there were relatives of the Ash and Holly growing here along with many others I could identify. As Paris would say “Mum step away from the plants! This not what you came here to see!” Hahahaha!
After this we went to see Tenzing and Gombu rocks. Tenzing rock is named after Tenzing Norgay, who was famous for the first confirmed climb to the top of Mount Everest with Edmund Hillary in the year 1953. To give this some perspective Tenzing started as a porter in 1935 and took part in more expeditions than any other climber.
Gombu Rock has got its name after Nawang Gombu, Tezing’s Nephew who was the first person to climb Everest twice . He climbed Everest first in the year 1963 and then in the year 1965. Both men lived in Darjeeling in their latter years.
The rocks are now a climbing school by the look of it and I would love to have had a go if I had my kit with me.
The Travelling Bee 