You feel so proud seeing our soldiers at that
altitude - maintaining the place for us ‘tourists’ to come and make a nuisance
of ourselves - asking stupid questions, clicking snaps and doing things which
make no sense. I felt like saluting the Indian soldiers out there and when they
weren’t looking, I did!
Oh, we had a military
escort who drove with 3-4 tourist jeeps including ours.. we felt quite
important….
Tsomgo Lake - which is on the way to Nathu La pass
- had pet yaks all over - the lake is a letdown.. beautiful but small.. many
small shops… we stopped at this small shop which rents out snow
shoes …. Really
hungry after Nathu La - asked for a quick rustling up of momos… then some
chowmein and then some more momos and then some more chowmein and then more
chowmein and then some fried rice and then some more… needless to say we
skipped lunch that day.
You can see the relieved look on the girl's
face as we left. At Gangtok we stayed at Mintokling Guest house ..a really nice
place.. full of flowers - spent the evening walking on MG road. The main market
and the life of the town.. as hep as Bombay … We had a rather unforgettable
night at the Glenarys pub on our way back from North Sikkim - where our kids
joined us and gave us disapproving looks as a rather mellow-looking set of
parents (us) swayed and clapped to CCR, Eagles and Jethro Tull being played
live by a local band.
Dipendra Rawat from
Darjeeling was there that evening and we heard him take control of the mike and
guitar and belt out some cool stuff … apparently he is a great singer and
performs, apart from running his travel firm in Darjeeling. My kids sober and
we indulged ourselves.
If you’re looking for
an internet café on MG road (threes lots of them on Tibet Road closeby) - go to
Somanys. Met this lady at a souvenir shop - found a lovely new expensive
hardcover book - written by Mita Zutshi and one more person- The Sacred Summit
- Kanchenjunga. The lady was her sister - she said a paperback would be outside
sometime soon. I also picked up a new magazine called “Exotic Places” or
something like that - which again was sponsored by Sikkimise Dept of
Information & Public Relations. Apparently publishing in Gangtok is not as
small as you might think - some rather evolved folks write and publish and seem
to be doing a great job of it.
We also stayed at Hidden Forest Stay - started by this gentleman who loves flowers - orchids and …. What are they called… his daughters run the place. Their pup Othello was playful who found it funny to see the kids running away scared when he barked. Unbelievable place. Then we moved onto North Sikkim.
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