10th April, 2008

At 6.30 am I was staring at the ceiling, thinking should I get up or just laze away my fat butt for some more time after all. It was like day 5 of our vacation in heaven, and for once we were in no hurry to get out on the road. The only worry that we did have was the absence of a geyser sure meant that we could be in some cold water after all. But Rob boy did have us covered on that one.

As we had feared the previous night, the strike had just begun in West Bengal & there were some rumors doing the round that it could even be an indefinite one. Well Kalimpong was cancelled for sure after hearing this news & I for sure was a lil glum over this (I did prefer Kalimpong for some inane reason over Darjeeling). So we were back to the discussing board with Baichung over the phone, & a new plan was charted to head over to Pelling & stay for the night over there. As for tomorrow, well we were just mumbling under our breath that the damn strike gets called off so that we could get done with at least Darjeeling & Mirik.

So we were back to Gupta’s for our breakfast & while Panda was playing with the local children & Vineet was hogging his bread & butter toast (it’s real rare that you get to see this sight), I was busy feeding a dog (whom I decided to call CHARLIE BOY). At 8 am after stuffing ourselves we decided to check out & bid adieu to Yuksam (this had by far been a REVELATION of sorts). As we got out of Yuksam & got onto some tar road, our butts were finally able to get some rest. Plus the genius within us had come out with another amazing trick since the last day.

As we were had been traveling from one place to another since the previous day we were not exactly able to get our towels dried. And in one of those moments of the bulb lighting up your head some one amongst us (sorry for my bloody memory) suggested hanging the towel on the window of the passenger seat as we drive on. End result was that we had ever dry towels (some engineers we sure turned out to be). Getting back to our tourist exploits the first pit stop for the day came in the form of the Kanchendzonga Falls.

Now don’t get me wrong on this, but at Sikkim with each water fall we kept running into, we just ended being more spell bound than the previous one. So here we were again running to get snapped at the falls (not me in particular cos I have always felt that I came out real bad in those bloody snaps). Well for once we were not bothered about the ongoing strike & were more reveling in the picturesque beauty of the Kanchendzonga Falls.

After having some tea, we resumed our road trip at 9.30 am & pretty soon our happiness about the whole tar road had evaporated & we were doing the swaying act inside the Scorpio. As for the ambience within the vehicle, Vineet was as usual in his ever eloquent & charismatic pose for the camera. On the contrary Panda & Ramesh were gossiping all the way to glory. As for me, while I was not penning down these crappy notes, I would chip in the gossip sessions once in a while.

Khecheopalri Lake or the wishing lake, which happened to be our next stop, was a holy lake when it came to the natives over there. According to myths (which I picked up from their tourist board right before entering the lake) it is believed that the lake is in the shape of the Goddess Tara’s footprint when she had descended from the heavens above. Unlike the other lakes & falls this one did have an atmosphere more in lines with a monastery (considering the fact that it was sacred too). And if you weren’t caught up with the spiritual atmosphere, then you would definitely be blown by the view it had to offer you, especially on the wooden board flanked with the traditional Buddhist rolling bells (or something like that) on either side leading all the way to the lake.

The only blemish in the entire beauty of the Khecheopalri Lake didn’t come from it but from an outside source. While we were done capturing the beauty of the lake on our cameras & decided to return back to our vehicle, there was this arse who decided to take a leak on the side of the path. This especially after there had been many public urinals right at the entrance. Some bastards just continue to remain the same way.

We were out of the lake premises at around 11.30 am after a round of tea & snacks (our regular high octane tea diet as usual). Our Scorpio came to a halt next at the Sewaro Rock Gardens in Rimbi. It wasn’t just that our vehicle took us all the way to the garden. We had to descent some steep distance (by now we were really getting accustomed to this routine for sure) & then we stepped into this beautiful garden built alongside the local river. Adorned with rocks, trust me when I say that this picture sure is something that is going to be imprinted for a real long time (not unless some hot Brazilian babe decides to walk in a small bikini – that would be some picture). But getting back to rock garden, Vineet & Panda decided to take some timeout playing in the water, while I decided to focus my attention on the activities of a fisherman (Oh yeah also on his catch too).

At 2 pm when we did manage to get back to the Scorpio (panting of course), Vineet was given a chance to get behind the steering wheel. After whizzing for a while, he returned the wheel back to Ramesh (seems like Ramesh got scared with Vineet’s driving – a nice joke). But yeah Ramesh sure did turn out to be one good source of entertainment through the ride. Later at 3.30 pm we checked into the Dafla Gang Hotel in Pelling.

Later at 7 pm we decided to walk through the roads of Pelling & we even got to have some nice rounds of cocktail (read that as I) at a trendy resto-bar by the name of Taatopaani. They even had a live band performing (most of them being the staff & Ramesh’s friends too). But since there was a power loss problem going on we quite couldn’t enjoy their performance (Panda however did get to have herself clicked with the guitar though).

At 9 pm we got back to the Dafla Gang & dined on some nice fish curry (prepared by the hotel proprietor Mr. Shankar Basak). We did call up Baichung to have a confirmation for the next day’s set of activities (Yeah there were talks of the strike being called off) & then head off to get some nice winks of sleep. After having another of those picturesque days, I was real sure that the Zzzz’s would be real smooth tonight.