To Pelling
Into The Mountains
By Avinash Savant
“It was a complete rough-rocky path, accompanying with Tea plantations on one side and valley facing Kanchanjunga on the other. It was very cold but fresh morning and the roads were challenging my riding skills at every steep, slope and turn”
Day 3, 24 December 2012
Next morning we got up early, packed everything and went up for breakfast. While having our breakfast the hotel manager came and started talking to us. He politely asked me whether I am from the Military Force (again a moment of pride to me and my Army Hair cut). I smiled and said “No sir, I am just an ordinary Indian traveler with Military hair cut done which I love the most”. Then he started asking us about from where we are and how we have planned this trip on Motorcycle, etc. He was surprised to see us both having a same mindset about travelling and adventure. He also said that most of the adventure travelers he saw, usually travel alone and prefer avoiding their spouse conveniently and he was happy that we both are taking part in this adventure. We agreed to his observation, since we too have seen many couples doing the same around us. We both feel that nothing is impossible until one’s mind is ready to accept the challenges. Many people conveniently say that it would be difficult for the Ladies to take part in such activities and demoralize their spouse. What they do forget is, our Military/Police forces do have Lady officers who protect our country against all odds. So we left that topic there on a happy note and bid the manager goodbye.
This was the day for us to enter Sikkim and reach Pelling. We had discussed the route with Gautam, the earlier day. He suggested us two routes. One was to go down till Ghoom station and from there taking a National Highway to Sikkim. Second route was a small off-road path used by villagers to travel across the states. The second one sounded interesting to us since it was a deserted route going through mountain villages. First we went down a little in Darjeeling and fed our Motorcycle so that she should not complain in the shaky-jerky route. We took this route and right from the beginning started loving it very much. It was a complete rough-rocky path, accompanying with Tea plantations on one side and valley facing Kanchanjunga on the other. It was very cold but fresh morning and the roads were challenging my riding skills at every steep, slope and turn. The route forced us to travel on 10 Kmph and we were happy to do so. It gave us all the time in the world to absorb the beauty around us while riding.
At around 12:30 or something we halted at a small valley facing village consisted of 7-8 houses. One of the house had a small shop attached to the house and a old lady sitting next to it. Surprisingly most people here know little bit of Hindi. We asked her if we could get anything to eat, upon which she called her daughter and asked her about it. Her daughter welcomed us and said we could get Maggie, omlets and Tea-Coffee. We were delighted and ordered 2 Maggies, 2 double omlets and 2 Teas instantly. By now the breakfast we had in morning was evaporated somewhere in our starving tummies. We grabbed on to Maggie and Omlet as soon as it arrived. This Sikkimi family was very sweet and started having conversation with us. The family consisted of old husband – wife and their 2 adopted children, a boy and a girl. They all chatted with us. Boy’s name was Astik and he told us all about his ventures in other parts of India like Delhi and Rajasthan and how he had to come back to his native place. Their Daughter who was much older than Astik, became friends with Maithili. Maithili gifted her and the old lady some ornaments that she had bought specially to make new Sikkimi friends. She specially asked me to take her photograph with Maithili. The family was very happy to have us there and they said, “Please come again to visit us whenever you get time to travel on this route”. We were touched by their gesture.
After bidding them goodbye, we were back on our way to Pelling. On the way we saw small villages settled on the mountain slopes and their curious little kids smiling at us. We kept some chocolates and biscuits in our tank bag and kept on making cute little friends around these villages, whenever we got time to halt and interact. This particular road was very beautiful and versatile in terms of scenery which kept on changing from time to time. From Tea plantations to rock patches, from dense green forest roads to valley facing dirt roads, it kept us surprising throughout. At around 2 PM we stopped at a nice waterfall just by the road. That was a much needed break to stretch ourselves. We washed our hands and faces with freezing cold water of this fall. We also drank water from this fall and I must say it was cleaner and better in taste than any of the packed mineral water. It was a refreshing experience. This is something that one can only experience by being there and doing it. Finally by 3:45 PM we reached on the outskirts of Pelling where one gets to visit Pemayangtse Monastery and Rabdentse Ruins (first capital of Sikkim till 1814 AD). We decided to visit Pemayangtse Monastery on our way before entering Pelling. The small twisting road to this Monastery has steep climb and we only discovered it while climbing it. We were fully loaded with our luggage and on a climb, when suddenly a tourist Jeep came from top and took a wider turn leaving us little to move ahead. This made me apply brakes on this climb and come to a complete halt. Due to brittle ground on this steep, our motorcycle along with us started sliding downwards. Even high acceleration could not stop it. So finally Maithili got down and then I took the Enfield up till the Monastery. Although this was not such a long road, due to steep and sudden turn it becomes difficult to balance bike with luggage and pillion. I waited for Maithili for few minutes after which we both went inside the monastery only to find that it was closed. It closes at 4:30 PM and we reached their by 4:45 PM. But we did not let our spirits go down and took a small walk inside the Monastery premises. From one of the corner, we could see Kanchanjunga peaks very close. We sat on Monastery door steps for some time and breathed a spiritual air in our lungs. Realizing the fact that it gets dark very early in these regions, we took off from there and entered Pelling town junction. From here one can go to upper and lower Pelling. Our hotel was in lower Pelling which gets us a little closer to Kanchunjunga Peaks (our optimist mind). The fact is one can see Kanchanjunga very close from any part of Pelling.
Suddenly we remembered about yesterday’s pending things. We had to do the Bike paper work and minor adjustments in bike settings at Gautam’s workshop. So we went to Gautam’s café and got our motorcycle settings done. Talked to his staff about our next day’s plan and asked them for rout directions. Since Gautam was not around, I decided to come to café again in the evening for paper work. We spent some good time at chow-rasta and watched people enjoying the live musical concert. Then we went to Gautam’s café again for paper work and there we had a long discussion about travelling, adventures etc. Gautam and his friend Sharad shared their journey experiences in North East and showed us their travel pictures and videos. We had a good time with both of them. They offered us some wine which added colors to our conversation. Finally by 9:45 PM we wrapped our never lasting conversation and said good bye, since we had to get up early the next day. Came back to hotel and went to sleep. What a beautiful first day it was.
We had booked a room in Hotel Rabdentse, which had a great rear view of Kanchanjunga. The moment we entered our room, we started making plans for the next morning. We wanted to capture Kanchanjunga changing it’s morning shades with first rays of Sun. We decided to get up at 4 AM and with this happy thought unloaded our clothes from seddle bags. By the time we reached Pelling, we were feeling hungry and so went down to dining room and stuffed ourselves with Maggie, Omlets and Tea/Coffee. The rooms were excellent here and had hot water too, much needed for the chilling winters. We took bath and got down to dining area to have our dinner. We had steaming-hot Rohu fish curry and rice and it was seriously delicious. This was the first time we had Rohu fish and that too authentic Bengali style. Thanks to the Bengali owner. It is always better to have dinner early so that one can get enough sleep for the early rise the next day. Sun rises here by 4:30 AM. With satisfied stomach and sleepy eyes we told the manager about our early morning plans. He suggested us to come down in the backyard garden to get good view of Kanchanjunga. This hotel was very much informative. It had various maps, routes and places of interest painted on every wall. We got ourselves educated while reaching our room. We crashed in our bed by 8:45 PM itself. It was really cold there and we had to wrap ourselves in 2 layers of blankets.
