Yuksom

Yuksom was the first capital of sikkim, the state of india which was itself a kingdom of its own until 1975. Perhaps its that then what makes this area so different to the rest of the country. Its amazing how cultures can alter in only a few short miles from the heart of west bengal to darjeeling and into sikkim. The town itself is small and quaint with one main street of restaurants, tour operators and hotels. We took advantage of a sunny spell and took time out of our busy crap tv watching schedule to visit the nearby gompa and lake hobbling along at any slight incline after the previous days trek.

The gompa was much like any other we'd seen and quite non descript in detailed comparison; the place was empty, the surrounding land was cramped and there were building works going on. We left the gompa after a customary clockwise lap and headed for nobugang park, a very holy place where the three lamas met from across the lands and founded yuksom as the capital of sikkim, with the crowning of the first choygal. The park is set in thick forest with prayer flags lining and crossing every ancient stony path. It's like buddism, the architecture and nature are all entwined into one thing, the place really does have its own pulse and hum as you pass through it in the silence. There's a huge prayer wheel that i gave a first spin of the day to and made a wish. In the centre there's a gigantic stupa resembling all of the buddist elements and then there's the seats where the three lamas sat, right under a huge pine tree. We spent an hour in the park just sitting and quietly contemplating, a perfect place for it and a feeling of serenity i might not get to equal in some time. As we sat and a small and fairly ostentatious bird (which we learned later was a hoopoe) dropped down onto a verge right in front of us and just sat their still as we crept forwards to take pictures (niki has some far better close ups). We then took ourselves down to the lake which was again calm and serene apart from some indian tourists who were unable to talk without shouting. We kept quiet in respect aside from mumbling "disrespectful twats" under our breath as we passed them by. We watched luminescent dragonflies in bright pinks and cobalt blue do a merry dance over the water and tried in vain to unearth the frogs making the ninja croaks from behind some rocks.

We ate a few times in the hotel as the options in town were limited. The food was generally ok and one waiter gave us endless amusement with his inability to get any of our orders right, all the time sporting the grin of a cheshire cat and nodding profusely at everything we said. Classic encounter was as follows: Being wary of their availability i thought i'd ask if they had some local ferns in before ordering...

Me: "excuse me, the local ferns, do you have them today?"

Waiter: "ferns." he then points at the menu. "yes sir."

Me: "ok, so you're sure you have these today?" as i point at the same place on the menu.

Waiter: "yes sir."

Me: "ok, great i'll have the ferns please."

Waiter: "no sir, not possible. We don't have."