Pelling

Getting about in ze mountains in india isnt like jumping into your deluxe 4x4 and roaring off into the hills on perfectly tarmac'd roads. No, the roads are rarely actual roads, more like valleys of asteroid craters lined with piles of rubble and the jeeps are old, knackered, have twice as many pasengers that are legally allowed and run on completely bald tyres. Not only that but you are at the mercy of your fellow travelers plans as they only go when full or dont go at all. As with the rest of indian transport there is some method in the madness and we bounced our way to pelling from darjeeling via jorethang after gleaming some info from the locals. The views were incredible but the bouts of narcolepsy brought on by the indian travel sickness pills afforded prescious time to open our eyelids. Niki was pretty much out cold as i valiantly held onto the seat in front to prevent implanting my teeth in it.

Pelling isnt really a place, village or town. Its just a set of touristy hotels built on top of a hill. The situation is incredible though and the top of pelling has panoramic views of the khangchendzonga range and the lower himalayas to the south. There are a couple of really nice monastery walks out of pelling and we did them both. Pemayangtse monastery is about 1.5km out of town and is perfectly placed to overlook the lower valleys. We went inside and sat to the side as monks old and young worked their way through the holy texts, chanting and singing and playing drums and horns as the pace increased. It was pretty intense at times but the atmosphere was completely serene and that experience has to be the closest ive felt as to having any religious or spiritual experience. Upstairs there were some crazy wall paintings, from the utterly bizarre to the quite harrowing. I didnt take any pics as photography was forbidden.On the top floor theres an impressive model of buddas holy realm adorned with gods and mythical creatures and all sorts of ornate carvings and paintings. The whole model was built in 5 years by one festidious monk.

Further down the road were the ruins of the old sikkimese capital rabdentse. Not much of the buildings was left but the views atop the plateau were incredible. On the way back we stopped off for a refuel at the lotus bakery whose profits go to helping fund the education of the local children. Its a good job its represents an honourable cause as as the donuts and cake we tried to eat must have been baked with powdered lead rather than flour. Over the other side of pelling was a more challenging prayer flag-lined walk up to the sangra choeling monastery, the oldest in all sikkim having being built in 1642. It was quainter than pemayangste and had a more picturesque setting overlooking the valleys below.

In the evenings there was pretty much nothing to do so we watched some crappy telly and movies whilst wearing almost all our clothes in bed to keep warm. The food was becoming very boring, "veg" momos filled with little else other than onion, chow mein with enough msg to give an elephant a heart attack. The food in hotel was ok though, warming noodly broths with actual fresh veg. We went into one restaurant and we must have been the first customers there since indian independance. I thought the owner was going to fall over as he rubbed his eyes in astonishment at the customers sitting down at one of his tables. You know youre in a bad establishment when you darent touch the menu because of the stains and solidified grebb adorning its surface. Niki had a soup that looked like heated puddle water. I was anticipating a frog leaping out of it as she drank it holding her nose. My chowmein was palatable but i experienced noodles made with tomato ketchup and soy sauce for the first time. I guess thats a tick in a box of some sort.