A Walk to Sangacholing Monastery, Pelling, Sikkim

Sangacholing Monastery Premises, Pelling, Sikkim

There are two monasteries (also known as Gompas) in Pelling, Sangacholing and Pemayangtse. As of now to reach Sangacholing, one has to walk. As Sesha and I love to walk, it was the first place we visited in Pelling.

While we were going up, two couples were coming down. At first glance, I thought one girl had leaves stuck in her hair. I said to her, "You have leaves in your hair." And while saying, I realized it was deliberate. She laughed and said she was trying the 'jungle girl' look. I had already started laughing and I really enjoyed looking at her ornaments. She was using ferns as a head gear, ear rings and necklace. As we walked a few paces ahead, there was another couple, the girl similarly attired and the guy was carrying her on his shoulders, what we call a 'piggy back ride.' The girl waved and shouted at us and I returned her greetings.

Reminds me of a time when my younger nephew was just a few years old. In our small town, we would watch a 6.30 to 9.30 evening movie show and he would get very tired and sleepy walking back home. I used to give him a piggy back ride and he would almost fall asleep while we walked half a kilometer to home. Now, he has grown to a height of six feet 2 inches and tries to bully me most of the time. And I feel amused that I have to almost look up when I talk to him. How fast the time flies!

Hotels, Restaurants and the Like

A Hotel Door (Pelling, Sikkim, India)

I was reading The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai on the trip to Sikkim. A paragraph where she is talking about Biju, an illegal immegrant in US working in a restaurant, caught my attention.

The sound of their fight had traveled up the flight of steps and struck a clunky note, and they might upset the balance, perfectly first-world on top, perfectly thrid world twenty-two steps below. Mix it up in a heap and then who would patronize his restaurant, hm? With its coquilles Saint-Jacques a la vapeur for $27.50 and the blanquette de veau for $ 23, ...

What were they thinking? Do restaurants in Paris have cellars full of Mexicans, desis, and Pakis?

No they do not, what are you thinking?

They have cellars full of Algerians, Senegalese, Moroccans ...

The major part of the book is also set up in a region close to Sikkim, Kalimpong (West Bengal) and has Mount Khang-Chen-Dzon Ga (Kanchanjunga) as the backdrop.

While I know very little about people mentioned in the book, I saw young kids working in hotels in Pelling and Gangtok (and this is quite common at smaller hotels across India). What haunts me most is that some of them had an absolutely miserable exprssions on their faces.

PS. I completed the book in Sikkim itself, and though it is well written it ends on such a miserable note for almost all the characters that it was a little too much for me to bear. I remember saying to Sesha vehmently after completing the book "I hate situations which do not offer any hope to the characters." I really do.

Shops in Pelling (West Sikkim)

A Small Shop Selling Tea and Eatables at Night

Shops in Pelling are small and colorful. They mostly sell local goods, I saw no branded outlets there (but there are a few in Gangtok). The highest numbers of shops are obviously travel related. Next comes the corner liquor shops of Pelling.

The corner liquor shops are quite disreputable in Gurgaon. If my male friends have to pick up beer from such a shop, they make sure I am not left alone in the car, particulalrly at night. They would of course not let me go and pick up a beer from such a shop (it is a different matter in pubs and malls, there the atmosphere is different and if one chooses to have a drink particularly in a group, no eyebrows are going to be raised).

Coming back to Pelling, my eyes almost fell out of the sockets when I saw a lady peacefully running a corner liquor shop. No wonder, I feel so much more safer in hills than in big cities. A lady running the corner liquor shop without getting any trouble is something quite umimaginable in Gurgaon.

The Jeep that Took Us to Pelling (West Sikkim)

The Shared Jeep From Siliguri to Pelling

From New Jalpaiguri railway station we were looking for a shared jeep to Pelling (West Sikkim). From the station the shared jeeps run only for Gangtok. We had to go to Siliguri (around 8km) from the station and this is the jeep that took us to Pelling finally. It was standing like this in a yard and people were working on it. The condition did not inspire too much confidence. But once they put it back together, it took us to our destination safely. Only, the driver thought he was on F1 circuit and not tortuous mountain roads.