PELLING, SIKKIM

PELLING

The next day we took a shared jeep again for a 5 hour ride to Pelling in West Sikkim. The districts here are named very simply North, South, East and West. Again the same bumpy roads but this time we had seats in the front with the driver. The jeep centre was a really chaotic place, no jeep seemed to have a set parking place and vehicles were parked facing every direction so the incoming jeeps could not enter, there were no set tracks, horns were blowing and cars facing in every direction. A driver would need the patience of Job to face that every time he arrived. We left an hour and a half late and then went to a hospital to pick up a young lad who broke both of his arms when he fell out of a high tree where he was collecting fodder for the cows. He was very uncomfortable as the jeep swung around curves but he never complained. His brother, who looked about a year older, fed him at lunch and held his glass of juice to his lips most attentively. His family are poor and not literate and they most likely sleep on the floor, so it won’t be easy for him to get a good sleep and be able to get up and dress himself or use the bathroom.
Pelling is at an altitude of well over 6000 ft. It is said to have the most fabulous views of the Himalayas especially of Kanchendzonga which is the 3rd highest mountain in the world at 8,588 ft. It was misty on arrival so hope that the weather clears. It is sunny most days but mornings and nights are again cold and most of the guesthouses are fairly open to the elements. We checked in to a most reasonable guesthouse at about $5 per room, a fun backpacking place full of a variety of people from many nationalities. It felt good to be out sitting on a terrace swopping travel yarns and information. For Mindup it was his first experience staying in a place like this since usually he is in more up market hotels with his clients and he really enjoyed networking and getting to know younger travelers. The high cost of travel in Bhutan means that mainly well off people go on tours there and so the guides and drivers never meet young, easy going people. Here we quickly joined in with a group of nice people and we put the tables together at night and ate together. Here is Mindup

explaining some Buddhist principles to nice French guests Patrick and Christine.

The food here is varied and inexpensive and the owners and staff are great. Indian guests are very demanding and don’t hesitate to ring the bell in their room for small things like a spoon even at 2 am so the staff really have to scurry about and they are glad to serve meals on the terraces or the roof.
There is not much to do here except enjoy nature, walk, visit monasteries and read. There were some wonderful ceremonies at a nearby famous old monastery and we all went. The monks sit for hours performing wonderful chanting, horn blowing and music. The walls are painted with old, elaborate murals. One of the important monks here, named Yapu, started a school in the 1980s for over 100 children who are orphaned or poor. That is his picture on the left.

It is a very happy place and the children speak very good English. They are so polite and each older child befriends a younger one and they wander around hand in hand or arm in arm. I ate lunch there twice with a wonderful 85 year old man Gupta who was the first principle of the school. He is busy writing a book on Sikkim Past and Present. We had walks together, he can still manage the very steep steps to the monastery where he has a room. The photo on the left is of both of us, he wanted a copy of it and is delighted with it. He's a great man.
Some of the funds for the food for the school come from a little bakery that the monk set up and there are two, young French people there volunteering for a month to teach the older children how to bake pizza, pies and buns. They told me that the day’s earnings immediately go to buy veg and rice for the meals. The teachers are great too as they only receive 3,500 rupees a month ($80) while teachers in the government schools get 18000 to 24000. This is the girl's dorm and it is spotless.
Mindup returned to Bhutan and his work there and tomorrow I will take a jeep to another of the little towns here stopping to visit a lake and a few waterfalls along the way. The mist here has never cleared up so haven’t been able to take pictures from this heightL just maybe in the morning before leaving at 9 am.
I was very happy here staying at the Hotel Garuda, an easy going place with devout Buddhist owners. The restaurant there is plain but very good and they will deliver food to the rooms or terraces so one can breakfast in the sun. These are the lovely owners of Garuda, they had just given me the silk scarf as a good bye gift.

Their email- garuda_pelling@rediffmail.com Room rates are from 100 Rs for a dorm bed to 350 Rs for a room.