Homestay at Lingthem
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| Early morning light |
11th - 16th April 2018
I have a permit to stay 4 nights in Dzongu,
a restricted area because it is the area of the Lepcha minority group. The homestay is high on a hill,
accessed by a steep zig zag road. With
an amazing view from both my windows.
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| Terraces and Lingthem from the nearby lookout |
One window looks across the valley at the
face of a mountain that about a year ago relocated a huge amount of itself into
the river and onto a village – destroying a number of houses and damming the
river to form a lake. Fortunately noone was
killed. I was reminded of walking with Sangay
in Bhutan in 2015 and crossing a landslip area when a rumble from above
elicited “run, Madam, run” I
didn’t need to be told twice and I probably did my fasted 100m ever.
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| View up the valley towards Kanchenjunga |
The other window looks down a valley with
many interlocking spurs and in the distance very high ranges, which revealed
themselves briefly late this afternoon.
I had gone for a shower – cold as the power is off – and emerged
refreshed (and feeling much cleaner – I was positive I had acquired a couple of
flea bites during the day) to these lovely snow covered mountains. A query about the name of these
elicited no real response so we settled on Himalayas!
My comment that it must be my reward for a
cold shower was enjoyed by my fellow Indian guests who stated if that were the
case, it would be cold showers for all in the morning so we could see
Kangchenjunga up the other valley.
I agreed, and suggested that the children be included – anything to
subdue an over indulged 3 year old who not only wants but is granted the centre
of attention!
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| Unidentified flower at the lookout |
The following morning dawned fine after
night rain and I rose before 6 in
the hope of seeing some serious mountains and walked along to a viewpoint 5-10
minutes up the road.
I was rewarded with a bit of a glimpse of
big, snow capped mountains in one direction but not the other and sat for a
while thinking that it would be an excellent spot to spend several hours over
the next few days.
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| Valley cloud |
Discussions with my host Samdrup initially
involved a walk to the lake and hot springs, but Dechen suggested that the
would even be difficult for Samdrup as it had been raining and the “shortcut”
would be slippery so he could take me in his car. Agreed. I sat
in the sun reading for a while until he was ready to leave at about 10am; the Indian guests had left a few
minutes before and I’d had a quick conversation with Dechen who’d been present
when I’d chatted with the 9 year old girl earlier. She doesn’t go to school, she is home schooled – but she
isn’t. She cannot read or write,
just has either mother or grandmother answer any questions that she may
have. I was rather horrified and
thought that had she been a boy I am sure that education would be a greater
priority.
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| Spotted in the garden at Lingthem. Shame it did not turn round and pose |
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| Fungi |
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| Unidentified flower at Lingthem |
We headed off with the Indian guests
following – it had taken them a while to get organized into their vehicle – and
as we approached the lake, he asked if I wanted to walk a bit. Yes please.
The lake was formed last year by the landslide and I was
interested to look at this more closely, and a trail ran closer to the lake
than the road did – again, a series of shortcuts across the road bends.
The landslide was a mixture of scree and
boulders and had created a dam around 5-6 metres high, by my estimation.
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| Datura - very common |
We drove on but came to some road works – and
a very muddy stretch with a vehicle stuck in the mud. Samdrup got out and helped to un-bog it and we hitched a
ride. We did not get far before
there was another challenging section and I had a little conversation with the
Indian couple in the car while the driver made several attempts at the muddy
hill with Samdrup outside the car giving directions. They asked if I had been to Lake Gurudongmar and told me
that they’d seen foreigners at the lake.
I expressed great surprise – the lake is completely off limits to
foreigners - and wondered about the British couple I had met. The Indians could give me no more
information.
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| the cooking fire |
Attempts to negotiate the muddy hill had
been abandoned and Samdrup asked what I wanted to do – he said the hot springs
were about 45 minutes walk away.
Either he underestimated the distance or he underestimated my walking
speed. Whichever way, by the time
we got there it was 2pm.
We’d had a diversion or two though. Samdrup had left his umbrella in his
car and he popped into the house of a clansman to borrow one. It started raining even harder so we
went into the shop and had tea and biscuits until the rain eased.
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| up close to the landslide |
The first part of the walk had taken us
along the side of the lake and the river and Samdrup pointed out the tip of a massive
power pole that had been almost completely submerged by sand and gravel that
had been deposited. Several houses
were also submerged by the new lake and the bridge had been destroyed. A bamboo footbridge had been
constructed and very recently a vehicular bridge added, but he thought this
would probably be washed away as the monsoons came. A more permanent footbridge was under construction.
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| the lake formed by the landslide |
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| Early morning light on the North Eastern ranges |
We continued, taking a couple of shortcuts
across bends and sheltering from time to time in open sided shelters
constructed for such purpose. It
was an interesting walk with Samdrup showing me assorted plants with herbal
properties and me sharing the scientific names of some (at least, the generic
names). I was rather amused when
he told me that as kids they would take out the stamen of the Datura and suck
out the nectar then use the flower as a trumpet. I shared that our common name for Datura is Angels Trumpet He’d been told by other guests that the plant is poisonous –
I also shared its other pharmacological properties.
Once at the hot springs, Samdrup took me to
show me the ladies’ bath, only to find a group of young men there who were
using soap in the bath – a serious no-no.
He scolded them and emptied the bath then had trouble with the
plug. He finally managed to
arrange it so that the bath was filling faster than it emptied and left me to
it, suggesting I close the door – I locked it!
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| The previous day's rain produced many waterfalls |
I had maybe 15cm of water in the bottom
when the plug made funny gurgling sounds and resettled – we seemed to have achieved
less than equilibrium with respect to filling so I sat with my back to the
inlet pipe enjoying the hot mineralized water and hoping that it might settle a
developing rash. It didn’t. I stayed in the hot water – really too
hot for comfort – for no more than the half hour that Samdrup had recommended as the maximum then
dressed and put back on my very damp raincoat. The properties of this Gortex jacket clearly don’t bear
taking off and putting back on a couple of times without hanging it properly in
between.
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| The outside light attracted many moths |
We walked down to the place where we had to
return the key and pay and I chatted with a small group of young men while
Samdrup attended to those minor chores.
One asked for a photo with me – I was a bit horrified, I had not taken a comb and was sure that I
looked a serious mess.
There were a couple of Royal Enfield bikes
parked in front of the building and when Samdrup had explained why we were on
foot, they asked if they could “reach me” back to the car. I thanked them profusely but declined –
just the thought of riding pillion along the rough road and through the muddy
stretches was enough to generate a level of fear, together with serious
uncertainty about how my travel insurance might treat any accident under such
circumstances.
We resumed out walk, avoiding the shortcuts
at my request – they would be much more difficult going down and I could walk
at reasonable speed on the gentle slope of the road, even though the surface
was very rough.
We stopped to return his umbrella and the
rains came down with a vengeance – almost monsoonal! We waited and had tea and bananas brought to us and finally
he asked if we should continue walking – he would borrow the umbrella for the
return also. I counter suggested
finding the driver of one of the large four wheel drive goods carriers parked
nearby and me paying them to take us to the car. In the half hour it took to not find a driver the rain eased
and I suggested we should continue walking. In due course we got back to the car and I washed some of
the mud off my walking poles and boots in a convenient puddle and divested
myself of my sodden raincoat. |
| Chorten at the Thyukun Munsolong Thi above Lingthem |
On the way back we stopped in the small
town of Passingden and Samdrup said we would have some snacks. My preference would have been to get
back to the homestay, out of my damp top and wet trousers and under some hot
water – the power was now back on.
Also to check out what was happening with the rash that was developing
around most of my middle, on my upper arms and groin. However, snacks it would
be and I was served tea, then we were served instant noodles garnished with
some spring onion. I spooned a
substantial portion of mine into Samdrup’s bowl and enjoyed the rest more than
I ought to have!
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| Prayer wall at Thyukun Munsolong Thi |
Samdrup clearly had more tasks and I waited
patiently, having relinquished my place in front of the cooking fire to the
young monk who was preparing dinner.
Other young monks came and went, one giving me a most astonished look! Hardly surprising.
Eventually we proceeded. I’d put my even more sodden raincoat
back on for the short walk to the car, but promptly removed it as it was
resaturating my partly dry trouser thighs.
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| Kate and Paul |
Another stop but this time I waited in the
car, and we were on the final leg of our journey. As we zig zagged up the hill the right hand bends were in
fog and the left hand bends clear – obviously the cloud was in that
valley. We passed the health
centre and I inquired about the facilities – yes they had a doctor. I kept that piece of information in
mind in case of need.
At the homestay I met the other guest and
yes, they were Paul and Kate, the British couple I had met previously and I
greeted them briefly before excusing myself to get out of my wet clothes and
under some hot water. It seemed
that the shower dispensed only cold, but the hot water tap could be used to
fill the bucket for a mandi bath, which I enjoyed greatly, though was concerned
about the extent of my rash, wondering about shingles.
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| Magnificent Magnolia |
Kate, who’d had shingles, expressed horror
when I voiced my suspicious but looked at my rash and suggested not. That was some relief. Samdrup said that he would call his
older brother, who is a shamen, to come and treat it the next day. That could be an interesting
experience,.
I dumped my wet and muddy trousers in a
bucket of water, along with the other items of clothing I was wearing, and went
to my room to excavate antihistamines then to the dining room for the millet
wine Samdrup had promised me after my hot bath.
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| Lingthem Rikzing Chophel Targelling Gumpa |
I chatted with Paul and Kate over the
millet wine. They were the couple
seen at Lake Gurudongmar – I expressed serious envy and they shared their
experience of getting there and here.
I shared my experience of getting here – Dechen had told them there had
been trouble at the police station!
The millet wine is interesting; Samdrup had showed me the plant that is
used to make a type of yeast to assist the fermentation of the millet. The millet is fermented but then is put
into a wooden “cup” about 4 cm diameter and 30 cm tall, with a long, thin
bamboo straw in it. Hot water is
poured on and the resulting fluid in consumed through the straw, the whole
being regularly topped up with hot water.
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| Lingthem Rikzing Chophel Targelling Gumpa |
Samdrup had told me on the way back that
the next day he would take his wife to Gangtok early in the morning and return
in the evening and I suggested that I and the British guests could walk to the
monastery and he said that I could be his proxy for the day – does that make me
an honorary temporary Lepcha? What
an honour.
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| Lingthem Homestay |
Before going to sleep, I rearranged my
bedding, with one of the big fluffy blankets folder under my bottom sheet to
give a little softness. The
mattress is reminiscent of one or two other extremely hard mattresses
experienced before on my travels and is of dubious benefit in providing
comfort.
I woke to the sound of heavy rain and
thunder in the night and when the day dawned I pulled back my curtains to check
the views. Nothing, so I snuggled
back down in my bed.
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| Paul and Kate model their new raincoats |
At around 5:50 I was aware of increased
light and leaned up on my elbow to look out the window at big mountains. Pulling on a windcheater over my
pajamas and grabbing my camera I joined the other guests on the verandah to
photograph these beauties. The big
lady, Kanchenjunga, in the other direction, is still hidden by cloud though.
Opposite, the steep face of the hill is a
maze of streams/waterfalls.
Through the morning the light on the valley
changed regularly, sometimes lighting patches of hill or cloud in a most
attractive manner, other times sending through curtains or beams of light.
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| One of the big peaks shows itself |
My rash has come back overnight – in a
variety of forms, and is treated with antihistamines. A few hours later it has all but disappeared – hopefully to
remain thus.
Breakfast is being prepared - thukpa, that delightful noodle soup,
made from handcut noodles and I wander in to eat as the Indian guests are
finishing up, but when I go back in to have a cup of tea with Paul and Kate, I
am given another serve, and after spooning some into Paul’s bowl, I happily
polish the remains off.
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| Kanchenjunga and her neighbour |
Our plan is to walk to the monastery and
the rain eases then ceases so we head off, up the “shortcut” and then following
the road. On the way Paul
receives a series of messages from Samdrup who has been delegated to buy them a
couple of raincoats in Gangtok. We
discussed sizes and I suggested larger than they’d normally buy – Asian sizes
are different!
The monastery is locked and an effort to
find the caretaker has no results.
So we started to head back down, but the rain started so we sought
shelter. I managed to knock my
backpack into some mud – annoying – then as we were waiting a bit longer I
spotted a leech – I think Paul was a little disconcerted. He did video it on his phone though.
We walked back down, following the road,
and got back just as it started to rain.
We retired to our rooms for a break before lunch and I propped myself on
my bed to keep an eye on the view of the mountains in the East. Then the storm came and there was
serious hail – so glad that we did not get caught out in that!
Lunch was very good, soup, fried momo, rice
and 2 vegetable dishes, and we had quite a long discussion about what and where
we are allowed to go on our permits after our permitted time here is
finished. I still have not worked out
my plans!
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| Kanchenjunga |
We had a lovely lazy afternoon and
enjoyable conversation around the fire – dinner was amazingly late – way too
late for me, but was good when it came.
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| Local mushrooms for sale |
The following day seemed to dawn quite
cloudy, and I raised myself on my elbow a few times to check the view out of
the window that views the north eastern Himalayas, and hopped out of bed to
look out the other window the looks up the valley towards the Kanchenjunga
range. That was looking as if it
had a little potential so I dressed and had my first coffee, but decided to
take my flask with a second coffee to the lookout – about a 5-10 minute walk
down, along and up.
On the way I passed a long brown snake,
sunning itself on a concrete step.
It was about a metre long and it quickly slid into the vegetation beside
the steps.
There can be few joys equal to drinking
one’s second pre-breakfast coffee on a Saturday morning in this stunningly
beautiful and peaceful valley looking at the world’s second highest mountain
and her equally beautiful companion.
Perhaps the whole range being clear of cloud?
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| Amaryllis |
I wandered back at the time that Dechen had
said breakfast would be ready, meeting Kate on the way – she had come looking
for the lookout – and getting back to find that Paul had gone for a run.
Dechen and Kate said I should have my
breakfast anyway. Dechen had been
to Gangtok the previous day for work and had brought bread as a treat for
us. Frankly, I’d rather have the
thukpa of the previous day than day old white bread with oily omelete but I was
not going to tell her that.
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| A gorgeous dendrobium noblis (?) - we saw lots of these! |
Samdrup, while in Gangtok, had also
procured a couple of raincoats for Kate and Paul – at their request as they had
packed all that was needed for cold weather but not for rain. The raincoats were handed over and duly
modeled – they are labeled “North Face” and “Gortex” and it will be interesting
to find out just how good they are.
The purchase price was 1600 rupees each. I had suggested XL for Kate, given my previous experience of
Asian sizes, and although a little roomy for her it was a fairly good fit.
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| Carrying food for livestock |
There were a couple of extra people around
– young men who had come the previous evening – “cousin brothers” to
Samdrup. That delightful term that
includes any male related to any degree within a certain age bracket in relation
to the individual. When I asked
one his actual relationship he said their grandfathers were cousins!
Conversation turned to plans for the day
and Paul expressed a wish to go down to the lake and walk the bamboo
bridge. I was happy to go along
with this, but Samdrup said we could not go alone – there would be trouble if
we were seen without a guide by the authorities. This apparently is a consequence of some tourists getting
lost a few years back.
I asked if someone could come with us as a
guide and one of the additional young men was identified – Kee Tshering. He is a lovely, pleasant young man, and
as the morning and conversation proceeded it turned out his regular job is that
of issuing permits – he was the person sitting behind the desk writing out my permit. We had considerable discussion about
all the events of that slightly anxiety-generating time spent in his office and
that of the lady senior inspectors!
He did say though, that he thought that he
could extend my permit for this delightful area – that would be nice, though I
do need to get to Mangan or somewhere with decent internet soon to do some
accommodation and flight bookings and payments.
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| new bridge over "lake" |
My camera GPS settings provided the
information the we were about 400m below the homestay – it had been a fairly
rapid descent via “shortcuts” – but not the shortest shortcut which was still
deemed way too steep and slippery.
The shortcuts we took were those that took off the zig-zag bends and
were mostly steps – some of stone, some of cement. Samdrup had provided the information earlier that the
construction of cement steps in the district was via funding from the central
government but not all the funding was directed as it ought to be!
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| Crossing the bamboo bridge |
As we walked Kee Tshering provided
information about the plants – those with culinary and medicinal properies, as
well as those which could provide moisture when one is in need; and pointed out
birds and orchids – one tree in particular had an incredible amount of orchids
in flower – just stunning.
Part of the walk retraced my journey a
couple of days earlier with Samdrup, past the rockfall that had dammed the
river to create the lake and cover up 4 zig-zag turns of the road.
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| Kee Tshering with local boy in traditional shirt |
We passed the big-boy-toy that was busy
relocating piles of rocks from one side of the road to the other and ensured
that we had eye contact with the operator before proceeding past it.
There had been jokes before we had left the homestay about lunch at the 5 star seafood restaurant, but we did visit the tiny shop/canteen just past the rockfall and have a cup of tea / softdrink. Paul and Kate had taken no money, assuming that there was absolutely nowhere that needed it, but I had my purse. Dechen had given me the left over muffins from breakfast to take with us, and these provided some sustenance to go with the tea.
There were, of course, a number of dogs looking at us expectantly and I
took a discareded paper muffin wrap, told Kate she was about to be horrified,
and gave it to one of the dogs, which happily consumed it. While eating cake and paper is probably
not good for them, they would have excavated it from wherever rubbish is
dumped.
Another dog nosed at me for more and I
shooed it away and gave another wrapper to a different dog – someone said
“discrimination” but I suggested just training! The recipient of this largess consequently followed us half
way back to the homestay and was rewarded with one more wrapper in due course.
We walked down to the extensive sand/gravel
area that formed as sediment settled out after the fall. This area is quite compact in places
and there is a track across it which vehicles use to access the vehicular
bridge that was constructed only a couple of months ago. How it survives the monsoon rains
remains to be seen.
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| Millet wine |
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| Lovely purple flower with grasshopper |
There were a couple of extended family
groups with 2 vehicles – I did not count the second family group but it must
have gone close to breaking all records for number of bodies in a “jeep”. The groups had some music playing and
were enjoying their picnic. A
couple of adults took the young children over the bridge and across the bamboo
bridge – a very small girl in a bright red dress walking very confidently on
this construction, which is probably quite strong but looks fragile, and a
young boy much less confident, navigating a substantial portion of it on all
fours.
We also crossed both bridges; I decided that once over the river, I
did not really need to go the rest of the way across the sand on the bridge and
exited via some convenient steps.
Kee Tshering’s excellent eyesight picked up
small grey birds on the stones – and other birds - and I managed a couple of
photographs, but it was quite difficult to hand hold the camera steady with the
lens fully zoomed.
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| The river above the newly formed lake |
About 2pm it was time to head back, and
after we had crossed the extremely muddy section we came to where a couple of
small cars were parked and I joked “taxi rank” at which Kee Tshering carefully
explained that it was not like that – which I did know, although without having
sufficient sustenance would have been happy to take a ride back up!
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| Dechen at Tingvong school - enrolment class PP-class 10:72 |
However, “Taxi!” became a standing joke for
the rest of the walk/climb back.
Every time a vehicle approached, from either direction. A couple of vehicles did pass in the
direction in which we were travelling but they were so packed to the gunnels
that there’d be no way another person could fit (although in India there is
always room for one more person in a vehicle!)
At one point we did pass a parked taxi
beside a house and Kee Tshering asked if we wanted a taxi back. Kate assertively said we all would
prefer to walk and a moment later I quietly said I would not have been quite so
certain!
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| School ground beautification: planting coniferous trees |
A little later Kee Tshering offered to call
Samdrup to come and fetch us… the
others said we were OK. I was
flagging. 6 weeks of vegetarian
diet, and the fact that I’ve had the rash which must have been a little
debilitating, along with lack of food was leaving me feeling more exhausted
than I should. It had only been 2
weeks since I did a 500m ascent from 3000m and this was substantially lower
altitude.
We eventually got back – and it had taken
less time than I had thought, a bit over 2 hours. My priority was to get out of sweaty clothes and under hot
water but Paul was attired in his towel, heading to the washroom a bit quicker
than me – but only to find the geyser was switched off. I went to find a cup of tea and
something to eat – the others wanted only tea and biscuits but I wanted
something more substantial and it turned out that Pintsok Detchen had already prepared
lunch, so at 4:30 – 5pm I settled down for lunch of soup and rice and
vegetables.
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| Student inspiration |
Samdrup asked how long I wanted to rest for
– he wanted to show us some traditional dances and there had been jokes about
Saturday night party night during the afternoon. I suggested an hour rest – and I would tell the others, but Kee
Tshering had already headed to tell them.
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| Peaks and valleys |
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| Stunning waterfall |
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| Unknown flower |
The little boy did not dance, his partner
had failed to show, but he came along for support.
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| Cardamon crop |
Samdrup also explained a little more about
the Lepcha traditional beliefs;
they believe that the Lepcha people were born of the mountain in a
remote valley in Kanchenjunga.
They worshipped mountains, trees, rocks, animals etc before Buddhism was
introduced and their beliefs and practices are still a mix of the two.
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| Cymbidium display at someone's home |
The fireplace is composed of neatly placed
stones, which I assumed were purely practical in nature – supporting a cooking
pot or kettle and with sufficient, but not too much, space between for an
effective cooking fire. The stones
actually represent mother, father and son; the kettle which sits all day on the
cooking fire is removed at night to give the stones a rest.
The dining room is of traditional construct
- thatch, and the small kitchen is of somewhat more modern design.
The fireplace has no chimney and the smoke
from the fire cures the bamboo ceiling and makes it strong.
A rack above the fire holds firewood drying
out ready for use. Below the rack
is strung whatever meat has been purchased to smoke it and keep it good; the fridge is a very new purchase.
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| Berries picked by the lama |
Samdrup asked about my plans for the
following day – my permit to stay expired the next day, and said he could
organise an extension of the permit.
He did this by looking to Kee Tshering, who nodded. All is done – I hope.
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| And there are higher peaks behind these! |
Later in the evening the children wanted to
look more closely at the fridge – having never seen inside one before. The girls at 12 and 13 and the boy at 9
were quite fascinated and I filled the ice cube tray for the morning and Paul
played about with them in respect of opening the door and the fridge light,
though I suspect they understood little of his fast, accented speech.
Feeling tired, I tried to excuse myself to
go to bed but Kee Tshering insisted that I should dance, so for a while we all
did, then I excused myself again - this time more effectively. Kate had also remarked that she thought
that they would not eat until we had gone to bed. She was right.
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| Peaks in the Kanchenjunga range: straight out of a fantasy movie |
Paul and Kate stayed on with the party for
longer and Kate relayed next morning that Kee Tshering feels a little badly
about how I was treated and is being a little protective of me, which is very
sweet.
Sunday morning was a fairly slow start –
very enjoyable. We watched
butterflies and dragonflies and Paul went searching for frogs in the rice
paddies. While his search for
frogs did not yield much return, he did find a leech, much to his horror. He had pulled it off his foot in the dark
of the toilet (the power was off yet again) before realizing what it was. His reaction was perfect for teasing –
getting a bit of my own back for all the jokes about satellite phones!
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| ranges to the north east |
Samdrup had pointed out a hummingbird on
the hibiscus, but it was gone before I could see it. I did spend some time photographing flowers though – there are
plenty of wonderful subjects; the Amaryllis are fabulous, as are many other
species.
Activites for the day were decided as a
trip across the river to the village of Tingvong and to the waterfall. A driver was called, a price quoted and
in due course he arrived – albeit not 100% healthy, so he called his cousin to
come and drive. This turned out to
be Norpa Lepcha who was the other young man staying – So Norpa was our driver
for the day. Detchen came with us
as she had never been to the places we were going – technically she was our
guide! It was lovely to have her
company.
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| Sunset over the Kanchenjunga range |
Dechen said that we would take rice pudding
for lunch. Still having a horror
of anything with that name, left over from childhood memories, I requested
plain rice – there was some left from the previous night, but she thought that
too boring, so made fried rice for me, which was very sweet of her.
We drove down the switchback road to the
lake, across the sand flats and the vehicle bridge then started to wind our way
up the hill, stopping regularly for viewpoints. I was fortunate to have battery in my camera – Paul and Kate
were running very low on battery in their phones.
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| more sunset over the Kanchenjunga range |
As we crossed the landslide area and the
mudflats and started up the other side there were regular signs advising of
numbers to call in the event of further landslide problems.
Orchid laden trees continued to be present
with great regularity and there were some fabulous orchids growing by houses –
many in pots.
The river below made a wonderful picture –
flowing though a narrow gorge then making a smooth curve with its deep
greenish-blue water.
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| and even more gratuitous sunset photos of Kanchenjunga |
We proceeded up to Tingvong, to the
secondary school at then end of the road and admired the creative use of
painted bamboo as fencing, seating, pots for plants and more.
We walked around the school, looking at the
flowers, buildings, noticeboards and the amazing view – although there was a
bit of mist obscuring the clarity of the hills and mountains.
There was a fairly standard notice about
what to do in the event of an emergency
/ earthquake.
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| Amaryllis |
Kate was horrified at the public posting of
notices showing who had passed and who had failed the previous year, but I
believe there here, like in Bhutan, it is a statement of fact – along with
describing people as “fat” and not to be taken as a mark of shame or
embarrassment.
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| A lazy Sunday morning |
I was more intrigued by the notice about
school enrolment – there is a class 4 of 1 student, along with a couple of
other classes with very few students.
Class 9 and 10 are larger, as the school draws from lower secondary
schools nearby. I asked Dechen
about the small classes and she advised that there was no combination of
classes, that each class would be taught separately. What an amazing opportunity for some quality education –
though I suspect that may not mostly be the case.
I was also amused by the school mission
statement, carefully stating the priority of “increasing” the quality of spoken
English amongst staff and students – but with 2 spelling mistakes and a misuse
of a verb as a noun.
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| Sunrise over the north eastern peaks |
The walls of some buildings were decorated
with appropriate homilies, such as “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says
“I’m possible”! and student writing, some more eloquent than others, was pasted
on noticeboards.
Some factual information on one wall
reflected the amazing biodiversity of Sikkim, including 4000+ species of
flowering plants, 600+ species of butterflies, 450 species of bamboo!
A retracing of our journey and a trip along
another road brought us to Linzya waterfalls (Rukshot Tuksot). This wonderful waterfall is completely
unspoiled by vendors in their blue tarpaulin shelters – as this area gets
relatively few tourists - and it
was great to enjoy its natural beauty – though photographing in one frame was
impossible – it was too high!!
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| Sunrise - Kanchenjunga range |
On the other side of the road was an area
of cardamon field – a crop that is grown extensively in this area – two types
of cardamon are harvested and taken to the bazzar at Mangan from where it is
distributed across the state and exported.
We returned to the car and enjoyed our
picnic, including a slice each of Sangthup’s birthday cake.
As we drove back, the bright green of the
new spring growth on the trees looked particularly attractive.
 |
| Sunrise |
A visit to the Goempa was suggested, and
there was explanation by the Lama – Sangthup’s brother – of the different sects
of Buddhism and the relative positions of the Dalai Lama and the Karmapa – and
the politics of the different claimants to that position and their welcome, or
otherwise in Sikkim. Recent news
has reported that the Sikkim government has allowed that the Karmapa currently
residening in Dharamsala, may visit Sikkim, but not the Rumtek monastery that
is a location of controversy between different sects about the identity of the
true Karmapa.
 |
| Sunrise |
On the way down from the monastery, the
lama picked local wild berries for us to try – and subsequently stayed to pick
a quantity of these. We were
invited in to drink tea – the same place as Sangthup had taken me for “snacks”
a couple of days earlier, and Kate and Paul had the opportunity to see the
alterntive fireplace structure that Sangthup had been describing the previous
evening – before realizing that I had observed it and handing over to me for a
more detailed description. We were
served a large quantity of beautifully ripe papaya with our tea, along with the
berries picked by the Lama. What
we did not finish of the berries was swiftly transferred to a suitable plastic
bag by Dechen for later consumption!
 |
| Early morning light and cloud |
As we resumed our drive back – busy looking
out the window at the views, I requested a photo stop – the light on the hills,
range after range disappearing into the distance was just so many shades of
grey it was really beautiful.
As we got back, my thoughts were of a warm
bath (mandi bath), but Paul had discovered more leech bites on his leg, and I
offered him first go in the washroom.
 |
| Early morning light |
There was some time making tea, but the
skies were clearing and I decided that tea in my thermos flask and a walk to
the lookout might be in order for sunset and I was not disappointed. The Kanchenjunga range in one direction
and the stunning mountains in the other direction all put on their best show
for my last evening at Lingthem.
I returned before it got truly dark, and
went to have a cold shower but discovered that despite the power having been
off all day, there was still hot water in the geyser, so ran myself a bucket of
comfortable water for my bath.
 |
| Morning light over the Kanchenjunga range |
Later, in the dining room I was offered a
millet wine, chhang – and enjoyed this greatly throught the evening, though I
think this might have been a stronger one than my previous experiences of this
unusual drink. Dinner was
extremely good, as usual – the food at the homestay has been wonderful.
I felt a little tired in the morning, and
while I opened my curtains when I first woke around 5 – who wouldn’t when huge
snowy peaks can be viewed just by raising oneself on one’s elbow – I felt too
tired to get up and anyway, the range was not clear.
 |
| Kanchenjunga |
However, half an hour later, looking out my
other window, there was sunrise reflected on the Kanchenjunga range, so I rose,
made coffee from the hot water in my thermos, and leaned out of my bedroom
window enjoying and photographing, before deciding that I needed to go to the
view point to better see more of the range.
 |
| Last year's massive landslide |
I had a vehicle booked – the driver of the
vehicle from the previous day, and I had offered to drop Kee and Norpa in
Mangan, if they did not want to leave early with Dechen, who was returning to
Gangtok for work. Norpa was
driving Dechen, and left around 6am, but Kee would travel with me – for which I
was grateful as I had no official paperwork to present at the checkpoint and I
was a day after the date on my paperwork – but he was the issuer of such
documents! He had joked
repeatedly, the previous evening, that we would depart at 8:35!
Our driver, Kezang, was harassing Sangthup
about the time and the progress of breakfast preparations shortly after 8 and
in due course breakfast was served to all and we departed, after the formal
ceremony of farewell, and the offering of khata – the white silk scarves for
good luck. It has been a
remarkable few days with some of the most generous and lovely people I had ever
met – in one of the most wonderful settings.
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